Communism in Theory

In the early years of the Cuban Revolution, my grandfather's brother, Gomez, was an intellectual communist-In Spanish is called "Communista de Librito" and it meant that he had read "The Communism Manifesto and believed in it. When you read Carl Marx's ideas, they sound great on paper, but time after time, once put into practice his ideas, have been proven impractical and disastrous.

As Gomez saw his neighbors, arrested and the massive firing squads put into full swing, he changed his mind really fast. One day my grandfather was arrested and accused of burning the sugar cane fields. He was lucky that the authorities let him go after three days, but then they went after his land.

The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: "Abolish all private property”. Under the land reform laws (Ley de Reforma Agraria) put in place by Castro's government, each citizen, that owned land, was only allowed to keep a certain amount. My grandfather got lucky, that he had split the land with his sons years before, and so he was allowed to keep part of the farm. Most of the time though, Castro's men would just make it up as they went. Let me point out that Fidel Castro himself, confiscated his own mother's land.

The humble country house (Bohio) where my mother and her siblings were born still stands today and it even survived the hurricanes of the past season. I spend some of the happiest days of my childhood, in that little house in the country.

Communism only brought death and pain to my country of birth. In Russia, Lenin and his Bolsheviks, killed thousands, including the Saar, his wife and their young children. The very word, makes me clinch, but communism keeps spreading. In time it's unmasked and exposed for the abomination it really is, taking with it to many victims.