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CJP #94: Danny Valdes · Coconut Justice

• Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey, what's good? Danny Valdez is a first-generation Cuban American writer and organizer born and raised in Miami and now lives in New York, where he is the founder and executive director of Cuban Americans for Cuba, a national organization spreading the truth about what's happening in Cuba in efforts to change the relationship between the US and Cuba. This is my conversation with Danny Valdez. Before we get into it, remember to go to coconutjustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. As promised, you guys, Danny Valdez is here. What's up, buddy? Danny Valdes: Hello. Hey, thank you so much for having me, Carlos. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's good to have you. so Danny Valdes: Love me some coconut coconut justice. I love the name, it's great. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Thanks. Yeah, it's a gamer tag. I used to be an I used to be a Danny Valdes: cool. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): yeah, I used to be a 3D modeler for a video game company. Danny Valdes: Wow. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, and that was my my tag. yeah, so and then it just stuck like everybody laughed, and I was like, all right, cool, that's a good one. Danny Valdes: And it endures. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. That's awesome. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So you guys, Danny is the lead over at Cuban Americans for Cuba. what made you start an organization like Cuban Americans for Cuba? Danny Valdes: Well, I grew up in Miami. I was born in Miami. I have Cuban parents, I have Cuban grandparents. and you know, so I I I do have all of the baggage that comes around Cuba when you grow up in that sort of environment or situation. but even you know, as a young kid, I I I was always I always kind of knew that the story was too simple. The story I was being told just felt a little bit like it it wasn't the entire story of how Cuba became what it is. and you know, as I got older and I started learning more about it, you know, I I I sort of learned that the the thing that the sort of Miami consensus about Cuba leaves out systematically one could say is you at the the role that the United States has played in shaping Cuba's economy, in shaping Cuba's politics, in direct military invasion and interference, and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: for much longer, a s a sort of more covert economic operation to sort of squeeze Cuba in whatever way they can find, which we're now kind of seeing the logical Conclusion of. And once I started talking about these things, still living in Miami, I was immediately kind of shunned and and cast aside. And I became Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. You're not so you're not supposed to question the the narrative. Danny Valdes: per I became I became person non-grata, basically. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: and it made my relationship with my family very difficult. It made like it had so many social repercussions for for me. And Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For just questioning why, questioning the relationship. Right. Danny Valdes: yeah, not even not even saying viva fidel or anything like that, you know, just saying like, hey, why don't we talk about the embargo? the embargo Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: is just communist propaganda. You can't believe anything that that that comes out of that. Okay, why it's literally law? Like there's a there's US law here that was passed in the nineties that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: lays out everything about how this works. No, no, it Cuba can trade with the rest of the you know, there's There's always a moving of the goalposts. There's always Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Danny Valdes: there's you know, s and so yes, yeah, sure. Absolutely. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And let's clarify that real quick because because I'm gonna be interrupting you because there's a lot of questions and a lot of things that I know that folks that aren't Danny Valdes: Right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): tapped into Cuba that way. Danny Valdes: The FAQs is what I call them. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Like that dumb lady that said, I will vote for Donald Trump and then she got deported. Stupid. Danny Valdes: Yep. Yeah. You get what you vote for, man. I d I I don't know what else to say about that, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You get exactly what you vote for, boy. Anyway, we're talking about the embargo. We're talking about Danny Valdes: Yeah, so and so then like, you know, once I've sort of learned both to expand my own view of the situation in Cuba and I learned how that much narrower view is socially and sort of politically reinforced in South Florida, you know, you start to understand why the most prominent voices that claim to represent Cuban Americans in the United States all come from this extreme. interventionist, annexationist, you could call them, segment of the Cuban American population. and they are very well organized and they are very well funded. And I've I've I've been saying really next to APAC, they are probably the most powerful lobby when it when it comes to foreign policy. Because if you look at their their size compared to what they have achieved, which is basically dictating the policy of the most powerful military and economy in the world toward a small island nation ninety miles to to its south, they're punching way above their weight, in my opinion. and I think part of the reason why is because there has been no real political organization of Cuban Americans who do not support their interpretation or what or what they think the you know, the Miami Mafia consensus, around around Cuba. because there is such a high social cost. There is such a high sometimes I n I know people who've lost their jobs, who have lost housing, who have lost all kinds of stuff because they dared to deviate, even, you know, minorly, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: minorly. Just acknowledging that the blockade of Cuba is real and has an effect on Cuba's economy. You know, like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's what I was gonna that's what I was gonna say earlier. folks say, well, Cuba can trade with the rest of the world, but what you're not saying is there are repercussions for people that trade with Cuba, beh you can say basically behind the United States back. Danny Valdes: Yeah, absolutely. I mean Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So yeah, sure, it's free. They can trade, but they can't really trade. Danny Valdes: Well, and not only that, if they do trade, which is what happens all the time, is they pay a lot more for what they're buying and it takes a lot longer to get because it has to come from India or China or Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. Yeah. huh. Danny Valdes: or, you know, w when literally ninety miles north, you know, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We're right there. Danny Valdes: we're right there. and a lot of the things that they end up and the the other thing that that that happens is There one of the rules is that if you dock a ship in Cuba, like a cargo ship, it cannot dock in a United States port for a hundred and eighty days. That is one of the the the a US regulation. It's just it's it is part of the broader suite of restrictions on trade with trade with Cuba. Well there Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Do they have a good do they have a good reason why? Or is this because is there a good lie? Like, we want to make sure COVID doesn't get here? Danny Valdes: there's State sponsor of terror, blah, blah, blah, all of these, all of these excuses that they put. And so what that causes, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Cuba's a state sponsor of terror. Danny Valdes: yeah. So what that what that causes is one, many companies will just straight up say, We're not shipping to Cuba. It's not worth the risk. I'm not gonna give up six months of access to the US market to ship Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): to the United States, yeah. Danny Valdes: to a a tiny island. Or they have they s they ship, let's say, to the Dominican Republic, and from the Dominican Republic it goes to to Cuba. Now Cuba has to pay the freight costs to get the item from where it's port of origin to a secondary port, pay to offload that cargo in the secondary port, pay to pay again to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Put on a different shirt. Danny Valdes: put it on one of their ships and then bring it into Cuba. So it just adds to the cost of importing pretty much anything into Cuba. And that that is the sort of effect that happens When the global economic hegemon has a sanctions regime on on your country. Of course it has extranational effects. Of course Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: it does. There's it's it is undeniable. And in fact, when you watch the proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly when they vote unanimously year after year to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, one of the the main reasons you hear over and over again is. This is a unilateral trade imposition on France, on the y on the United Kingdom, on Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: on all of these countries. It's a unilateral trade restriction imposed by the United States and it breaks the UN Charter. It's a it's it's against international law. So yes, we vote to condemn it. Not because we love Cuba and its government or anything like that, but because it is an extranational imposition on on our ability as a sovereign nation to trade. with with Cuba. So, you know, to anyone that says it does not have extranational effects, I mean, just look at the UN and look at all every single speech that comes out from a US ally at the UN. believe me, if they wanted to, they would they would not vote because you know they believe in the Cuban Revolution. That's not why they're they're voting to oppose this policy from the from the UN. They're voting on it because it's it's a it's a trade imposition on on them. so yes, these sanctions have ripple effects. They have s there's a whole other phenomenon called secondary sanctions, where countries or entities that are not part of the United States or or Cuba end up getting sanctioned anyway because most international transactions are processed through the United States. And so the United States Treasury Department has a very easy time just reviewing all kinds of transactions and flagging them and issuing sanctions. I mean it there's there it is a s a regime of sanctions at work to both squeeze Cuba domestically and squeeze it internationally. And really it's not so much a squeeze as it is it the the to keep foreign capital out of Cuba, right? That is the number one goal of these sanctions is they know that you know any company that does business with Cuba is bringing money that then Cuba could use to invest in its infrastructure, money that Cuba could then use to build more hospitals, build more schools, retrofit their electric system, which as we all know has been failing time and time again. Yet because of the oil bot play, but also because these are Soviet-era thermoelectric plants. that they cannot import new parts for. Right. And that's why Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: these things keep I mean, it it just has this cascading effect and to just flatten it to, well, Cuba can trade with any other country. I don't see what their problem is. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: I I mean it's if it's not a willful misreading of of of the situation, which it frankly mostly is most of the time. I think just people don't I g going back to this issue of people prioritizing Cuba and really thinking about Cuba as a as you know, as a target of of the American Imperial Project. you know, it it has this this effect, I think, of sometimes having people flatten the situation in Cuba to they can just trade with China. So what it must be Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: because the the government is incompetent and doesn't want to help its own people. yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): How does Marco Rubio fit into all this? Danny Valdes: Well, my sincere read on what is going on right now is if if Rubio had his way, we would have had a military intervention in Cuba up until this point. And it is Trump that is actually keeping him in a box on this issue, and forcing him to keep coming back to, you know, irreversible glide path or whatever his the latest Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: the latest phrasing that they've come up with is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha. Danny Valdes: I I do I ha I have a soft part for irreversible glide path. I think that's that's who that's a that's a mouthful. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: and so, you know, I think Trump is inclined to make a deal. Trump at the end of the day is looking to enrich himself and his friends. That that is his that's his mechanism. And Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): These are facts. Simple facts. Danny Valdes: and I think he sees Cuba as as a business opportunity to have a Trump hotel in Valarero and have a Trump hotel in Havana and and you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: kind of re turn Cuba back into what it was pre-1959, which is basically like a vassal state for American capital. and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: like a a a a vacation for like a vacation zone for the elite and the mafia. Right? That is Trump. That is what that is what tr that era of American Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Let's it yeah. One hundred percent. Danny Valdes: politics is exactly what Trump is and represents. And Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's exactly how he acts, it's exactly how he wants to be treated. He so let's Danny Valdes: Exactly. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): go back, let's go back to the nineteen fifties so we can start Danny Valdes: Yes. Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): painting the picture so people understand. It's nineteen Danny Valdes: Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): fifties. There's a lot of it Cuba, from what I understand, I wasn't there. From what I understand, Cuba was like Las Vegas. Danny Valdes: Correct. Well, ha t Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And you had a lot of these Danny Valdes: to be clear, Havana specifically, like downtown Havana was Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Havana. Yeah. Danny Valdes: the Las Vegas of the Caribbean, at at at that point. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it was being run by mobsters. Danny Valdes: Yeah, I mean the National Hotel in in Cuba was a famous sort of gathering spot for all sorts of seedy criminal elements and the elites that that you know support them also. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. 'Cause Danny Valdes: It was a playground f it was a playground Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): they need to get a tan, you know. Danny Valdes: it was basically a pr a playground for American capitalists, you know? And Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: the the reason why I bring up Havana specifically is because most of Cuba was destitute, poor, and illiterate. Right? Like that that was actually Cuba at at that time. It was a it was a government, I mean a dictatorship at the time, Fluencio Batista, who was installed Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: via Q, supported by the United States, was a puppet of US corporate interests, and was willing to sell out his own people. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. All the same stories that you hear, all the same stories that you hear when they they did this in Venezuela, when they did this in in Afghanistan or wherever else. It's the same playbook. Danny Valdes: Absolutely. Absolutely. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If you want to see the playbook, read Confessions of an economic hitman and it lays it all out. Danny Valdes: Yeah, that's that's a good one. That's a good one. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: You know, and and the United the Cuba belonged to the United States in everything but but name. And you know, there's even legal precedent. There's there is there's something called the Plat Amendment, which came about at the end of the Spanish American War, which basically said, Okay, Cuba can remain independent. But the United States can interfere in Cuba's politics at any point in time. and that was that was the the law of the land. That was the law of the land up until Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: that point. And so when you see the rise of Fidel Castro and his revolutionary movement, I think it's important for people to understand that Fidel the Cuban Revolution was not a communist revolution. It was not a socialist revolution, it was a nationalist Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Correct. Correct. Danny Valdes: revolution. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: Re revolution. It was a revolution in the mold of Joseph Martí more than in the mold of Lenin. You know, it was a movement and a revolution to reclaim Cuba's sovereignty, okay? And to reclaim Cuba's economy, because the other the other side of the social aspects of what were going on in Cuba was the economy was owned by American capital, right? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: Like 80% of Cuba's mines. were were owned by foreign capitalists. Cuba's t telecoms company was completely owned and operated by an American company. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: most of Cuba's productive industry, the profits that were being turned in those industries off the back of the backs of working class Cubans and poor Cubans, those profits Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Isn't it crazy how that sounds super familiar, time and time again? Danny Valdes: W those prophets were not going back into Cuba. Those prophets were leaving Cuba and were going to the United States. and that was causing chronic No, exactly right, exactly Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And not to help, not to build schools, not to do anything like that. Danny Valdes: right. I mean, what we're living through in the US is kind of that plunder come home, right? They ran out of places to do this in all over the world, and so they they built an entire way of how to do it to us internally. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: But this has been the practice of of of extractive American capitalism for a long time. We have just had the privilege of living inside it. And so we were the last resource that had not yet been dredged, right? Or Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yep. Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: or that had completely resisted and re rejecting rejected that that attempt like Cuba did. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: And so when when when Fidel kind of sweeps Into power, what you see at the outset, like the agrarian reforms that happened in Cuba in 1962. you know, the the very famous they took my plantation, Miami sort of like, my dad ran had a farm. Hmm, okay, what does that mean? this is the beginning of that. But it was not an attempt to establish again, socialism or communism in Cuba, it was an attempt to deal with the property the property Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's to take back Yeah. Danny Valdes: relations in Cuba which were completely skewed toward the elite and toward an owning Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then Danny Valdes: an owning class that that just, you know, wanted to keep as much of that wealth in their own pockets as humanly possible, you know? And the only way to do it was for the government to go in and say, we're forcefully taking this land and we're we're redistributing it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We gotta get we gotta get these American crooks out of here. And it we yeah. Danny Valdes: Outta here. Exactly. And to be clear, there was broad support for this in Cuba at the time because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: people understood what how the economy was owned, and people understood how they were not getting the full benefit of this. Now, there was an economic Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Back then it looked like Danny Valdes: elite at in Cuba at at the time. There that that was sort of parasitic of the relationship between the US In in Cuba. They were the people who executed the contracts, who were in the management classes of some of these businesses that were owned in the United States. Many, you know, academics at the time. Those are the people who left Cuba in the early in the beginnings of the revolution. The Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): The people that had money to leave. Danny Valdes: people with money and a huge class grievance. Okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: Those two things. They left Cuba, they came to Miami. Okay. And that fuel, that tinder is what has fueled the, you know, e quote unquote Cuban exile, which is what they love to call themselves, which is not that's not what an exile is, by the way, but whatever. you chose. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You chose. Danny Valdes: but that is that Tinder is the fuel that I think You know, then you pile on top of that the you know, I acknowledge it, the very real trauma of having to leave your country, of the the extreme political upheaval that happened in Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: Cuba and having to live through that and the uncertainty and the anxiety, and then feeling like you were being targeted, and then feeling like, man, I had access to all this food and bread, and now I have to wait in a line to get food and bread. you know, I I understand, like that is genuinely traumatic. And then you have to uproot your entire life. You have to come to a place. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Change isn't easy. Danny Valdes: You have to come to a place where you're you're widely discriminated against. You have to come to a place where nobody knows the language. And you have to rebuild your entire life, often with your kids until behind you. Look, I get it. I I didn't do it. My grandmother did it. And I I I gotta respect that, you know. But does that trauma justify then the collective punishment? Of everybody who stayed, the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: collective punishment of everybody who's still in Cuba trying to make it work, trying to take this project that was established for Cuban sovereignty and Cuban independence and try to develop it in a way that that makes sense, in a way that that they get to keep their sovereignty despite being in the backyard of The most powerful military and economic might the planet has ever known. And what they did is attach themselves to that and use the power of the United States as a fulcrum against Cuba. And so there's a way of understanding the conflict in Cuba as kind of like a prolonged civil war, where the wealthy class. You know, you had the blacks and the whites. You had this happens after revolutions. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For real. Danny Valdes: There's always a reaction, right? There's always a a long t and sometimes, you know, it can be military, which which was the case up and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: you know i in Cuba. We did see like the Bay of Pigs invasion, we did see bombings in Cuban hotels. We did yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Cuana for f flight four fifty five, which was a Cuban airliner that was Blown up by other Cubans coming out of Miami, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: CIA trained like Bay of Pigs veterans who went Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's crazy. Danny Valdes: orchestrated the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976. Okay. And and do you know what ended up happening? The Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Tell me. Danny Valdes: but the people who orchestrated the bombing and planned it, one of them, Orlando Bosch, ended up receiving an official pardon. From George H.W. Bush. That's how that that story ends. Okay. So that, my friends, those are the conditions in which Cuba is trying to construct a project for its own sovereignty. Okay. Now, we have to do I agree with do I think the situ do I think the political situation in Cuba is ideal? No. Okay. But I understand the conditions. Okay, and I I'm trying, and I when I'm looking at the political situation in Cuba, I see it from a lens of damn, they have had a wartime government for 67 years. Okay. That is that is how they have seen the situation that they're in. And you know what? Are they overzealous and maybe sometimes, you know, arrest the wrong people and and do the wrong things? Yes, but eight times out of ten, they're right. Eight times out of ten, the paranoia is justified. Eight times out of ten, the overreach ends up actually finding out there was some CIA asset involved in something, or somebody who's being funded by one of these Miami right-wing groups. So, you know, like if we want a liberal democracy in Cuba, we have to create the conditions for that to be possible. And by Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. One hundred percent. Danny Valdes: by imposing scarcity, by imposing isolation. By imposing all of these things on purpose as a as a matter of policy onto an island, of course, this is the result. What Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: what else do you expect for a country that feels like it has to defend its sovereignty every single day? Okay? Do you think that's a place where government is going to willingly walk away from from having power? Do you think that's a place where People are gonna have as much freedom of expression as as as we would like. Do you think that's a place where you know we we'd have more freedom of the press there than we would like? No, it's a place that is gonna have to govern from a place of defensiveness. And this is that's the type of government that they we have in in Cuba right now, right or wrong. You know, support them or not support them. We have to understand, especially as Cuban Americans, we have to understand. That by denying US complicity in this, we make the situation worse in every possible way. We make the situation worse because we cannot disentangle Cuba's politics from the US's aggressive posture toward Cuba since the very, very beginning of this revolutionary process that that they have tried to engage with. What why do you think they were pushed so much toward the USSR? Well, could it be Because their neighbor to the north Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let's talk about that, yeah. Danny Valdes: ninety mi ninety miles away, the the the world's superpower rejected them and and and in fact treated them as an object of aggression. Well, what other option did they have? They had to go to the other world superpower, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. That's and that's what I tried that's what I tried to explain to people. Fidel actually had an understanding with the United States. He said, Look, I want to have a relationship with you. Danny Valdes: Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And the United States said, All right, cool. To give you like a little bit of a jump start, we're gonna buy a bunch of sugar from you. And then Fidel said, All right, cool. I'll be right back. He went, he did his thing, came back, and he's like, All right, I took over. can I get that check? And the United States was like, No, you have to, yeah. Danny Valdes: not like that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): United States was like, No, we want you to look like they want Cuba to be like Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is Danny Valdes: Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): mistreated, you guys. Puerto Rico, there's a struggle in Puerto Rico happening right now. Half of the people want to be a terra a state and half of the people wanna Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): stay independent because of this stuff that we're seeing. Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. There's a famous there's a Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And Cuba, Fidel and all his people were like, you know, no, we don't want to be treated like that. We wanna be independent. Danny Valdes: Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We are Cuba. Danny Valdes: Exactly. Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So then that it that's like a oversimplification, the sugar deal. But that's Danny Valdes: No, but I mean that is exactly I mean this is and this is a pattern that we see with the relationship between the United States and Cuba. Hot and cold, hot and cold, progress, and then whatever all that progress just gets completely ripped out from I mean it's it has been a a a relationship based on you know aggression from the United States. I that is the primary I'm sorry, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): From the yeah. Danny Valdes: like that is the primary defining characteristic of it. There's no other Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: way. for as a rational person for you to look at that relationship and and then put try to put the blame on Cuba for for for what for how that relationship has sort of transpired over the years. What I mean one of Fidel's first actions was to come to the United States, to come to the United Nations and say like, you know, we want to be a player for peace. We we want to broker a relationship with the United States that that doesn't have to be based on on aggression. We did what we had to do. We nationalized shit. Yes. We offered compensation and you guys turned it down. Okay, fine. Like we we're done negotiating Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: on on on the with about it's it's you know like there is a at the end of the day, the reason why these right wingers are successful in their framing is because they exclude the United States's role. And they they in fact the op they play the United States' role as a as a trying to save Cuba, as trying to resc rescue Cuba from the situation that it find that it finds itself in. When in fact Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. We wanna be benevolent. We wanna at the end of the day they they just want their strip clubs and their and their casinos. Danny Valdes: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And you have to come on. It's most obvious especially now. I mean, it was i it's interesting because up until, you know, Trump's we ha always had to get past the human rights and democracy kind of concern trolling that we would hear. I mean, okay, I it's a little bit f facetious to call it all concern trolling, 'cause there are there are people who genuinely have concerns and and about human rights in Cuba, blah blah blah. But for the most part, for the people like you're saying who at the end of the day just want a strip bar and and and and a casino, that was always just a justification, right? But now they Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And casinos. Yeah. Danny Valdes: don't even pretend that it's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: about human rights or democracy anymore. They just say it's our hemisphere, you know? And Cuba's ours. And we're it's in our backyard. And how dare they try to you know, break away from American hegemony and and so because they did that, you know, we're gonna put the squeeze on them in in whatever way Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): we have to punish it. Danny Valdes: in whatever way that that we can. And to go back to your your like first qu first question about why we needed to why this organization came about, you know, this understanding is not a unique understanding in the Cuban American community. There are two and a half Cuban Americans, I'm two and a half million Cubans of that were born in Cuba or of that are of Cuban descent living in the United States. F like forty-five percent of them live in South Florida. The rest live in other places. So the idea Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: that we are this monolithic voice that that prays for s more sanctions and more interventions and p please Papi Trump rescue Cuba from from From the grips of of the terrible communists. It's just not true. It is just not true. But it requires that those other voices to get organized. And it requires those other voices to to to speak with one voice, right? That is that is what we're trying to do with Cuban Americans for Cuba. We're very inspired by groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized Jews against first the apartheid in Gaza and then the genocide. in Gaza, they it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: confronted the third railiest third rail topic in American politics. And they, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For real. For real. Danny Valdes: because they were Jews, saying not in our name, I feel like that was a huge important part of the moral argument for for and how the American public was able to completely transform its its view on Israel. in in the matter of I mean Israel didn't do itself any favors, obviously, but I think the fact that American Jews were at the forefront of that movement, we're we're taking over capital the capital rotunda, we're blocking streets, we're saying loudly, Jews say not in our name, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: we want to build the parallel of that for Cuban Americans who say we don't want these genocidal policies carried out. We don't in our name. We don't want our weapons identi our identities weaponized against our own people. And we want a United States that that treats Cuba with the with the dignity and and and respect that it treats Vietnam with, that it treats China with, that it treats Saudi Arabia with, that it treats Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Exactly. Yeah. Danny Valdes: all of these places that, you know, fit all the same critiques that they have about Cuba, but but Cuba made the mistake of being ninety miles away. That really is, I think, Cuba's main sin is trying to do things differently too close to to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Or try trying to tr trying to survive in a way that doesn't align with what Danny Valdes: Correct. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): what America, what United States wanted them to be. So now they're painted Danny Valdes: Exactly. Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): in this th they're saying, no, we can't we can't deal with Cuba, we can't get along with Cuba because they're communists, but yet we have Trump sniffing Putin and Xi Jipping farts all day long. Danny Valdes: It's crazy. And you know, I always give the example of Vietnam, because Vietnam is, you know, a small country like Cuba, single party communist country like Cuba, killed American soldiers by the thousands, and yet we managed to have a normal, diplomatic and trade relationship with them. So Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Isn't it crazy? Danny Valdes: why can't we have that with Cuba? Why Must Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: it be contingent on them changing their economic system or changing their political system? That's an insane way to have a relationship with a country. It's not a relationship. It's it's just not, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. Right. Danny Valdes: so that to me is is is it's baffling. And I I think part of it is the distance that i it's too close, it's in our backyard, it's in the place that that we own. And the other is a very powerful Cuban American lobby fueled by unprocessed trauma and class grievance. that has turned over the years, has festered into this bubble, this echo chamber, and now has the MAGA sort of grifter thing attached Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm. Danny Valdes: to it as well. You know, so it has become this monster. It really has become this odious monster. That has led to Cubans going to the rallying in front of the White House, begging for intervention, begging for the bombing of their own people, begging for the starvation and immiseration of their own in some cases, their own family members for the love of God. Their own Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's the part. That's the part that just Danny Valdes: family. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): breaks my heart. Yeah. The only people struggling in Cuba are the normal Cubans. Danny Valdes: One hundred percent. One hundred percent. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): My family members, your family members. Like whenever Danny Valdes: Yeah, and it's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): whenever I have a family member that goes that's gonna go visit, they're like, Hey, if you got any shoes, if you got any clothes, whatever, whatever. Danny Valdes: Yes, yes, totally. One hundred percent. And you know, people don't but part of it is I think there is a when these sanctions come out and they there's there's there's certain way in which these these sanctions are targeted, okay? And the way that the sanctions work or have worked is the United States' goal Is to create an Elon Musk in Cuba. Okay? Their goal is to empower the private sector so that people in in the private sector in Cuba can accrue enough capital and then accrue enough political power to challenge the system there. Okay. That's that's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Okay. Danny Valdes: what they want. And so the structure of these sanctions, especially in this period of the oil blockade, for example, the private sector. has been allowed to import oil into Cuba as as without restriction throughout this entire thing. Okay. However, the sanctions are it's uniquely designed to target the Cuban public sector, the the Cuban state, basically. And because of, you know, the its communism, the Cuban state does a lot and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: provides a lot for its people. It runs the hospitals, it runs It runs everything having to do with public health. It runs all of the infrastructure. It runs most of the economy. It runs the banks. It runs the electric grid. It runs public transportation. It runs of schools. It runs I mean the government in Cuba, whatever, you can disagree or whatever with communism h that's not what we're d we're discussing. It's the sheer fact of the matter. That when you starve the Cuban state, you are starving the Cuban people. There's no distinction because the state owns the restaurants. The state's the state imports the f imports the food. The state runs the pharmacies. The state does all of this stuff. And so when you prevent the state from importing medicine, guess what you're doing? You're creating empty shelves in state run pharmacies in Cuba. Okay. Now of course there are private sector Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's why people have to get in lines because everything is rationed and stuff. Danny Valdes: There are private sector now pharmacies, okay? Which, if you walk into them, you would your eye your your jaw drops because it's like walking into a CVS here in the United States. Okay. The private Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Huh. But Danny Valdes: sector has been allowed to, and but no Cuban can afford to shop there. Okay. Regular Cubans cannot afford to to go in these private shops and basically depend on them. As as their source for getting these kinds of basic goods. Okay. Because one of the things, you know, say what you want. The the state-run pharmacies are highly subsidized. The state-run groceries are highly subsidized. The state-run anything that you get at a state market or a state store or any service that you receive from the state. Is going to be subsidized, is going to be more affordable, is going to be more accessible to more Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: people. So when those state services collapse, because these sanctions have specifically targeted the mechanisms in which the state can one sustain itself through funding, and two, actually have the capacity to deliver these services in a way that, you know, we could say. Is can provide a dignified sort of standard of living for most Cubans. There was a time in Cuba where that was true. In the 70s, in the 80s, was kind of the golden period of of this model. Of course, huge propping up by the USSR to actually make that happen. But there was a time where you did not see empty shelves in in Cuba. Okay. It was just not an expectation that. you would that that people had. After the collapse of the USSR, you know, things were things became very different. That's when this sort of I understanding of modern Cuba that we see with empty shelves and da-da-da, that that's when the that sort of trajectory for Cuba began. because they lost their main economic backer and the sanctions regime against Cuba really started to ramp up in the nineties because The Cuban lobby figured out, we gotta stop bombing airplanes and we gotta start talking to Congress and get laws Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: passed. And that's what they did. In the nineties, they passed the Helms Burton Act, which creates all kinds of secondary sanctions. basically that was the act the the that took a bunch of the sort of Treasury Department and State Department and Executive Order policy. And codified it into US law. So now it takes an act of Congress to repeal a lot of this stuff, not just another executive order to say, you know. So it it it creates a huge hurdle actually for undoing a lot of these economic measures because now we have to get Congress involved. Now we have to get a new bill. Now we have to lobby Congress. Now we have to do all the things that it takes to pass. le legislation in Congress when this is really in terms of how it's enforced, this is entirely a matter of the executive branch. The Treasury Department is an executive branch. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: The State Department belongs to the executive branch. The Department of War, as they call it now, belongs to the executive branch. So, you know, the fact that Congress also has to get involved, that was done by the Cuban American lobby to make it To enshrine these things to make it more difficult to undo them in the future. and that's why that's why they're still here, for the most part. so you know, there is I I I think the only the answer to these questions are not in Miami, they are in Washington. I think the Cuban hardliners were right in their when they went into that pivot, right? They understood that the power here lies in Washington. And so we have to go there too. We have to say to these people, hey, these Cubans that you know are are are super minority inside of the Cuban American community. Nobody, very Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. The ones with the big mouth. Danny Valdes: few people want their own country bombed. Very few Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: people want to starve their abuelita who's living, you know, in El Campo somewhere. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Tell them. Danny Valdes: Come on. Like that is that is just not the baseline position of Cuban Americans. And even if it was, basing your foreign policy off of the whims of every right-wing diaspora that comes into your country is an insane way to do foreign policy. We cannot Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's it's crazy. Danny Valdes: we cannot operate the the foreign policy of the most powerful country in the world based on the whims of every diaspora that that that comes in here. I'm sorry, that's just not how it should work. It's just not. so anyway, like there's We wanna get politically organized. And that's what that's what Cuban Americans for Cuba ultimately is, is it's a way for for for Cuban Americans of conscious Cuban Americans who are ready for a new era of US Cuba relations, to actually have relations, to actually have engagement. we believe even we have folks who are who want political change in in in in Cuba and folks, you know The whole spectrum and everybody understands that as long as these policies are in place, Cuba really is stuck in time. Okay? They're stuck economically and they're stuck politically. And you know, engagement, we believe engagement is the way forward with Cuba. Engagement will lead to political change. It just will. It just will. It is a natural consequence of engagement will be. More room for political debate, more room for politics in Cuba, more room for people in Cuba are not concerned about politics. They're concerned about what they're gonna eat tomorrow. They're Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. The f eating. Yeah. Danny Valdes: they're concerned about how they're gonna get to work when there's no public transportation. They're concerned about their kids, you know, like yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let me let me tell this story. Yeah. Let me tell this story. I have a cousin that grew up in in Cuba and he's in South Florida now. And when we're hanging out, he's always telling me stories about how growing up and stuff like that. And he told me that there was this rich lady in the neighborhood, and you knew that she was a rich lady because she had hot water. Danny Valdes: Mm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Now the hot water was a pipe, and she had a wire that would tap on the pipe and heat up the pipe. So then that way the water would come out. Those are rich people in Cuba. And I Danny Valdes: Yeah, exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): want I want American people to understand the struggle that's happening out there. It's real and they're detaching you from human suffrage Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): because they're trying to force Cuba to make decisions that is going to benefit the right wing's bottom line. It doesn't get any trickier than that. Danny Valdes: Nope. It really is that that straightforward and that simple. you know, like It's fine to me personally. Of course, we get this question all the time. the Cuban government also has bad things about it. The Cuban government sh should Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, so do we. Danny Valdes: have should have prepared better for this crisis. The Cuban government chose to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. We should have two. Danny Valdes: chose to invest in hotels instead of investing in energy infrastructure. The Cuban fine. We can have we can have as many disagreements with the Cuban I I don't you know, whatever. We are Cuban American. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let's talk about the American government system. Danny Valdes: We pay taxes here. We vote here. Do you know how much political influence I have in Cuba? Zero. Okay? At Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: least here I have 0.1. Okay? So I would rather, I would rather Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Look at you with all that power. Danny Valdes: I would rather spend my time and energy trying to get the United States to back off of Cuba so that it can create the conditions for Cuba to arrive wherever it's going to arrive on its own terms. On its Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Danny Valdes: own terms. Cubans have made revolution for hundreds of years. If they Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: want revolution, they will do it again. I have no doubt about that. Okay. It's not our job, even if you're Cuban American, it's not your job to to to you know, tell Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Tell them what the fuck to do. Danny Valdes: them what to do with their political system or whether they should be happy with it or not, or whether they should be in the streets every day or not, you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. It's like the same way it's like the same way people in Florida think that people out here in California shouldn't tell them what to do. It's the same exact thing. Danny Valdes: Exactly. It's the same principle. It's the same principle. Live and let live. You know what I mean? Live and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's it. That's it. Danny Valdes: let live. D A this idea that Cuba is a unique and existential threat, or whatever the phrasing is, the what's the phrase that they use to justify all this stuff. They said it unique and unusual threat to the United States is just it's laughable on its face, man. Like this this island Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let's go down that path. Danny Valdes: that la as you're saying, where you're considered rich if you have hot water is a is a threat to the United States. Yeah, from a Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Come through from an electrocuted pipe. Danny Valdes: yeah, any moment you you you can just it will be your last hot shower. you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So let's go let's go down that path because yeah, the Cuban Missile Crisis, right? That's the one that everyone goes, you see, you see. All right, cool. Well, again, let's go back to Danny Valdes: They would have been better off if they had the nukes in my opinion, but that's okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): yeah. Danny Valdes: They wouldn't be in this situation, I'll tell you that much. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. But it's like again, going back to people trying to escape responsibility. The United Fidel went to the United States. Fe as a matter of fact, didn't Fidel like try out for the major league baseball and all this stuff? Didn't he do all that stuff? You know what I'm Danny Valdes: He did, yes. He did. He did. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): saying? Like, not for anything, but he was kind of he kind of liked it over here, from what I understand. Danny Valdes: I think, well, and I think I think moreover, and more shrewdly, Fidel understood that making an enemy of the United States was a bad idea for his revolutionary project, right? Like I think just from a from a material from from a material point of view, from Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, because because the same the it's the same distance from here to there to there to here. Yeah. Danny Valdes: like looking at, shit, I just grabbed all this power. How do I now translate this into a successful state project? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Danny Valdes: I think your first instinct is, well, I should try to. For a reproachment with the United States and try to say like, hey, let's let's reset things here and let's have a productive relationship with each other. fuck you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. And then United States said, I'm gonna need you to be my bitch. Danny Valdes: Yeah, exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then Fidel's like, I didn't just put my life on the line to be your bitch. And then you have to remember back then you had the you had the USSR and the US. So you go to the US and you say Danny Valdes: Yeah. And and and remember, people people don't people don't connect this, okay? The revolution was in nineteen fifty-nine. In nineteen sixty-two, there was a full-on military invasion of Cuba on part of the United States called the Bay of Pigs. Okay? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: How many years is that? Less than two. Less than two. So within two years, the CIA had trained. A thousand five hundred Cuban expats, okay, and put them on a boat and said, Go ahead and invade Cuba with our support. With our support. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And we got your back. And we got your back. Yeah. Danny Valdes: Okay. So, you know, I again put that put that in context. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let's finish that l let's finish that story though. Let's finish that story. Danny Valdes: Yeah, put that in context when you're talking about Cuba's political decision making, Cuba's context. Is you have to factor that in. How can you not? How can you not? When you factor that into how Cuba's political process developed itself, you know? You have to Yeah, go ahead. Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. But let's finish let's finish the story of Bay of Pigs because let's say you're one of one thousand five hundred brandly minted soldiers, right? And you show up Danny Valdes: Yeah, mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and America's like, yeah, we got your back. You show up to Cuba and you're like, Yeah, you turn around and no one's there. Danny Valdes: There's no nobody's coming. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): He Danny Valdes: You know, that's a grudge that that is still held in Miami to this day that J F K did not send did not send the planes. that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: is that is one of the things you hear. That was like one of the beginnings of the ruptures between the Cuba Cuban Americans in South Florida especially and like the Democratic Party. because J F K didn't send the planes, you know. That's what started their sort of descent into supporting Republicans all the time and everything. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): There. So it's yet another example of how this government betrayed more people. Right? Danny Valdes: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So then you're like, all right, cool. Well, that just happened. And you're Fidel. You're sitting there, you're like, damn, these these kids are coming to get me. And then Russia Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): was like, Well, you know, we can help you. Danny Valdes: Well we we can buy your sugar for way more than it's worth. We will s in we will Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. All we need is this little favor. Do us a favor and hold these nukes. Danny Valdes: That's a very funny way of putting it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We'll we'll help we'll help build the infrastructure. Just hold these news first real quick. Danny Valdes: Yeah. We got a Belton Road for you, but it's Belton Nuke. How about that? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So of course, like if your people are struggling and they don't have anything and your big big neighbor, your big rich neighbor, they're like they're being jerks to you. Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And you need to you need to start paying bills. Some people start OnlyFans, some people let nukes come in. Yeah. Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, like it it was it was also a a th this is also when for the Cuban Revolution is declared as a communist or or the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution was declared at an official ceremony in nineteen sixty two. Okay. So the that that's when you see this this broader Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And up to this point, if America would have been cool, we could they could have been they could have been this whole story could have been completely different. Danny Valdes: I mean we don't know, right? Like we that's a and that that is actually my point, is that like maybe things would have been just who knows, right? But we never gave it a chance. We never Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. Right. Danny Valdes: opened the box. And you know what? The only time we did, which is when Obama decided in this last two years that he was going to try and thaw thaw things out with with Cuba. What did we see? We saw Cuba. Explode in terms of its economic activity. We Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: saw Cubans hopeful for the future of Cuba for the first time in 10 years. Okay. We saw the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba. Cuba had an embassy in the United States again. The the US Embassy was opened in Cuba again. We saw in 2019 Cuba adopt a new constitution. That enshrined all kinds of what we would call liberal rights, including private property as a as a constitutional right, including habeas corpus as a constitutional right in Cuba for the first time since the revolution. Like that was a product of engagement. All of that was a product Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Danny Valdes: of engagement. And then Trump came in and pulled the rug out from all of that progress, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Y los jodió todos. Danny Valdes: from all of that Ilo Hyoto, yeah, he really did. at the behest At the behest of these Miami Cubans. Okay. That was why it was done at their behest. They viewed this reproachment period as, you know, whitewashing the Cuban government, as you know, all of this BS that they claimed was Obama was doing. you know, I I think Obama understood the reality that 60 years of a sanctions. regime that primarily keeps Cuba poor as its as its main function was not only not helpful, but was an active security threat for the United States. Because what Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: does that cause? It causes mass migration. Okay? And where are these people going? They're coming to the closest place near them. I also think that's why one of the reasons why Trump has held off on a more direct military engagement with Cuba in this moment is because they know it will cause you know, twenty percent of Cuba's population to try and get into the United States overnight. and they Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: don't want to deal with a crisis like that, on top of everything else that that that they've that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): they think they're gonna ruin the vote. Danny Valdes: Maybe, maybe, maybe. so anyway, you know like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But it's a perfect picture. It's a perfect picture of like if you just take this story and you apply it to literally any country in South America, literally Danny Valdes: It yeah. Yep. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): any country in Central America. When we tell you that it's it's the behavior of the US government trying to squeeze and trying to form all these countries into what they want it to be. Danny Valdes: That's right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Then when shit breaks and everyone comes over here, everyone's like, No, get out of my country. Danny Valdes: No. No, and and especially now. We're Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's like, stop fucking up the other countries. Danny Valdes: and here's the thing also about about when it comes to Cubans specifically. in nineteen sixty eight there was another law passed called the Cuban Adjustment Act. What this law does is it makes it so that if you are Cuban and you arrive in the United States and you man and you are here for one year and one day, you get your green card automatically. Automatically okay. When I was growing up in Miami, I had I had a girlfriend who was Mexican. Okay, her family had been fighting for paperwork for 27 years. Okay, spending tens of thousands of dollars on league in legal fees, on lawyers, on starting the process over because of some bullshit. if you were Cuban, you got your green card. A year and a day later. Okay? The reason? They wanted to cause brain drain in Cuba, right? They op they made coming to the United States much easier so that academics, so that people with expertise, so that doctors, so that you know, engineers who by the way, Cuba had trained and invested all of this money into and resources into training so that. They d then take that investment and they bring it out of Cuba and apply it in the United States or in some Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: other place. instead. It's sort of the intentional kind of draining of of a country's sort of like intellectual work stock, let's just say, right? That is the intention of the Cuban. It's not out of the kindness of their hearts, which is how they what they will tell you, that they wanted to rescue people from communism, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. so But what that has caused over the years and has reinforced is that Cubans are sort of a a privileged class of Latino or or of immigrant, right? where no matter what they do to other immigrants, they'll never do that to us because we have this special status. We had the we had the red carpet rolled out for us. and so therefore, and plus we helped. Trump get into office in the first place. Like we we were the Cubans were one of, you know, the his major sources of support in the Latin American community. So of course we're gonna be exempt from all of these mass deportations. We're gonna be exempt Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You think that's why a lot of Cubans think they're white? Danny Valdes: Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, we can get into the racial dynamics of what Cubans look like in Miami and what they look like in Cuba. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Danny Valdes: very you can tell who left and what and who stayed. And what Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: for and for what reasons. When you look I'm serious. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha ha. Danny Valdes: If you go to Cuba, everyone who I take to Cuba is shocked by how black Cuba is. They're shocked by how black Cuba is. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: 'Cause it's their their experience of Cubans are Miami Cubans who tend to look more like me, who are of your Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: more of European descent and who were from the upper classes at the time. Right? Like that's that is that goes back to what I was saying earlier. This this tinder of class grievance also is represented in racial grievance and in racial politics. anyway, that's a whole other can of worms that we can open if you want, but Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. So everyone, everyone who's outside the Cuban circle, like there is racism within the Cuban community. Danny Valdes: brother, don't even get me started on that on on that line. man. I mean I think race is always sort of part of grievance politics because you you kind Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: of do have to otherise people as sort Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: of an inherent need of that that politics of like grievance, which is what the right wing kind of f few and it's super low hanging fruit. Exactly. That's a good way of putting it. Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's low hanging fruit, it's easy. It's so easy. Yeah. Danny Valdes: and it and it causes this other fun phenomenon where like this wave of Cuban immigrants hates the new wave of Cuban immigrants, and that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: wave will also hate the one that came after them. And you know, everybody wants to kick out the ladder from under them as soon as they as soon as they get in. so anyway, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. What a shitty way to live. Danny Valdes: dude, it is I can't I can't imagine it to be honest. It is so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hateful. Yeah. Danny Valdes: Counterintuitive to me to live to live that way and to just get totally captured by this point of view that makes you hate your own people. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: and and your in your and makes you hate the place where you came from and and makes you dedicate your entire life to its destruction. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For example, like what's the mentality behind like what happened yesterday when Trump said we can let Iran bomb Los Angeles and San Diego Danny Valdes: yeah. Right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and people cheered? Danny Valdes: Yeah. I just don't to me it's a it's it's so it's mass sociotopy, you know? It it's like a it's like a mass it's it's like an anti politics or s I don't know. There's there's a way of like where Trump has captured this this sort of attitude that by the way is all over Latin America right now too. I mean we s we saw it in Brazil a couple of days ago, but Latin where the where the Trump administration has failed in the Middle East, they have been extremely successful in Latin America. I mean, there is a Fujimori in power in in Peru right now, again, which was like, what the hell? What what is happening? Right. but like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Do you think that's because the countries down there are more unstable? Cause like Iran, Iran is like they've Danny Valdes: Yes, and I think I think Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): been they've been they've been getting ready for this. They've been putting bullets in the Danny Valdes: It turns out having a single party state leads to you kind of having a bit more stability to navigate these very intense moments of crisis, like in Iran and in Cuba. Huh. I wonder if that's why these places remain single party states under duress for decades and decades and decades and decades. Maybe I don't know. Maybe there's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Danny Valdes: a connection there. It's too complicated to think about. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But and then and Danny Valdes: Forget it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): then and then you have knuckleheads like Marco Rubio. He says, yeah, we're trying to spread democracy. And I'm like, what democracy are you spreading? We if you if if you're not in the United States and you turn on United States news, you're gonna see shootings, you're gonna see poverty, you're gonna see like the reality of the situation. Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So if this is what democracy looks like, why are we trying to push it? Why don't we fix what we're doing? Why Danny Valdes: Our own shit. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): don't we invest in infrastructure, invest in schools, invest in making Americans great people? And then democracy Danny Valdes: I mean that i that is supposed to be the underlying premise of their whole movement, right? Is to say, hey Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. And the democracy is gonna be easy to spread because look at how good we have it. It's like literally the land of milk and honey. But no, we walk around beating people up and we're like, You're gonna take this democracy. Danny Valdes: Everybody's gonna want it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think I think more more and more people are coming to the understanding that the things that we have, the material comforts or whatever that we have in this country came at the expense of other people. Came at the expense of extracting resources from other places, bringing them back here. Free and k Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Free labor, mandatory labor. Danny Valdes: off the backs of of of slaves, off the backs of I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: mean And off the backs of wage slaves also, to be honest with you. You know what I mean? Like it it so there's there's there's certainly Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. 'Cause today there's no there's no difference. You they they don't get to whip us. Danny Valdes: like there's a there's a I there is like we were saying earlier that like a a reckoning with that happening right now, especially in the in the Democratic Party, where I think Israel has caused this very foundational shake up in people's worldview. like and people are starting to connect the dots between us, you know, not having healthcare in the United States and us Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And Israel having it. Danny Valdes: sending tens of billions of dollars to Israel every year or or spending money, you know, maintaining an illegal blockade on Cuba, even. Like, you know, there's that's all money that could be reinvested here. And that's all money that could not be going to asphyxiate other people all over the world. it's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. And and that's the thing about the current US policy toward Cuba is that really nobody wins here. Like nobody. Like the Cubans in Cuba certainly don't win. The Cuban government and its efforts to whatever sustain itself doesn't win. The Cuban government in its efforts to genuinely deliver services and keep its people Going doesn't win. You the people in the United States who are losing out on medical cooperation between the US and Cuba, who are losing out on trade between the United States and Cuba, who are losing out on Cuban culture, who are losing out on Cuba's amazing beaches and and cultural experiences. they're they're certainly losing. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Literally everyone that goes to Cuba that I know, they say, my God, your people are wonderful. I'm like, I know. You Danny Valdes: Yeah. I know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): guys need to stop listening to the bullshit that's on the news. My people are wonderful. Danny Valdes: Exactly. A hundred percent. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): There's two things. You show up, there's two things. Did you eat? You want some coffee? Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah. No, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mina? Am I lying? Danny Valdes: I mean I I always tell the story of the first time I was I went to Cuba, I had written down the not the address, but kind of the intersection of where my grandmother's house was. And this is the house that my grandmother was it's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. What town? Danny Valdes: it this is in in in Havana and the house was in Sant Suarez, which is a neighborhood kind of north northeast Havana. this is the house that my grandmother herself grew up in and that she was also raising my mom in at the time that that they left. and you know, of course I had no idea how to get there or h whether it was walkable or I had no clue. And I would just went up to a taxi driver and I asked him to take me. And he looked at me because not very many people asked to be taken to this random Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): He took you to the end of the block. Danny Valdes: To this Adam random part of Havana and he asked me what's going on and I told him, Soicuano, Mia Huela Vivi ahí antes, and I you know, I really tried to to and he became extremely sympathetic to this whole thing and he went on this mission with me to the point where we found the house and I was outside, I was taking pictures. He's like, Aren't you gonna knock on the door? Aren't you gonna I'm like, No, no, I don't wanna He got out of the cab. He went up to the first he asked some kid on the street, yeah, Fulanito Gangri Yacky and the the little I thought then he called out to the window, he knocked on the door, the lady came out, the guy explained the situation. I was invited into the house for for Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): hell yeah. Danny Valdes: for for coffee. I I you know, I had a whole extended conversation with the lady and it was wonderful, you know, and and that was a very sort of like endemic experience to what Cuba is and how Cuba operates. And It's a ver it's a country f that's very warm, both in terms of its Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: temperature and and its people. you you you will and and and for me, obviously like I had very intense deja vu feelings when I was there because every person I met reminded me of somebody I knew growing up in Miami, or of my Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm. Danny Valdes: aunt or uncle or my primos or and the architecture's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's something Danny Valdes: similar and the the it was like I had entered a a a mirror world of some kind where Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: everyone spoke this in the same accent as me. Everyone but it was a place I had never been. You know, it's really weird. It's all of a sudden you're like, What what the fuck is this? What's what's happening here? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Hey, let me tell you. Let me tell you my dilemma. I live in Northern California. I live in Sonoma. And it's nothing but it's very clear. It's either you're white or you're Mexican. We barely have any black. We might have one or two black people and me. Danny Valdes: Mm, mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And I try to talk to the Mexican folks out here and they won't like there's a couple that will talk to me in Spanish, but they don't because it's like a different dialect. And they're just like, Yeah, no, Danny Valdes: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I'm gonna and I have to remind them, my Spanish is better than your English Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. I mean Cuban Spanish is its own I mean, so is Mexican Spanish to be clear. I think all er ev Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Danny Valdes: it's it's sort of like if you're watching a like a like a British I always tell like Americans who don't understand this, it's like it's like if you turned on like a British TV show, you know, and it's like, yeah, they're speaking English, but there are degrees like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But it's different. Yeah. Danny Valdes: an English like and then even in that show, like between a Scottish person speaking Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: and like a posh English person speaking and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: you know all of these different things. And then and then you throw a person like from Louisiana in there. And then you throw a person from, you know, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For real. Danny Valdes: it's the same thing where they might be speaking Spanish, but they have completely different words for for for things. They're lilt Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. For different things, yeah. Danny Valdes: and their their pace of speech is very different. And sometimes, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: yeah, there are parts of conversations I I don't understand. just it's just how that is. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Have you seen have you seen it it's it's just now starting to come out. there's a comedian, A Amy Polar. She was on Saturday Night Live and she had the the little Cuban Dominican kid. I forget his name, Mo Marcelo Hernandez, right? You should follow up with the where he'd tell the difference. I haven't seen that one yet. But the one Danny Valdes: Marcelo, Marcelo, what's his face? Yeah, yes, yes. I saw I saw one where he he was being Marco Rubio also recently. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): that I'm talking about, he talks about the difference. between Cuban Spanish and Dominican Spanish. And then I'm Danny Valdes: I have seen that. I have seen that clip. Cubans talk with Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): like, that's for true. Yeah. Danny Valdes: It's it's true. And then the Cuban Spa the the Dominican Spanish is very kind of up here in this register. Well, Cuban Spanish is very very yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Very and very fast. Boy, let me tell you, when I talk to my uncle who's Dominican, that guy gets it moving, dude. It's like that. It's like that. And my mouth, Danny Valdes: It's it's very fast. It's very, very fast. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): my mouth doesn't move that fast, whether I'm speaking English, German, it doesn't matter. My mouth doesn't Danny Valdes: No, I know. I mean c I can't I always say I always say the same thing. I'm like, I'm just physically I don't know if it's because I grew up in the United States, but my mouth just my muscles just don't move that fast. I can't even have the thoughts that fast, I feel like, sometimes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It just doesn't go, yeah. Even when I'm talking yeah, even when I'm talking Cuban, my Cuban don't come out like that. Se me sale feito, pero you know, we're there, we're there. Danny Valdes: Same, same. Exactly. but yeah, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: I mean you know, that is also I think a feature of of of our unique position in the world. We are Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: we we are the first of our kind it to a certain extent, right? Like no Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: no other time in history has this kind of diversity really existed or been possible. and and that's going to lead to all kinds of interesting phenomena like Yosawa kids. You know, like like it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: where I mean like my my Spanish is pretty good because I I interact with Cubans a lot and I've had more opportunity to practice it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And you live in Miami. Are you still in Miami? Danny Valdes: No, no, I I I live in New York now. I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Danny Valdes: live in New York, yeah. But yeah, there's plenty of Spanish to be spoken here in New York, but it's more like the Spanish that we were just talking about. So It's more like the Dominican Spanish like this, papa da da da da da and I'm just I'm like, yeah, say it, slow down, pop you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. One hundred percent. Yeah, one hundred percent. There's a in the in the Puerto Rican community, there's a there's a in the Purdue Puerto Rican community I've been seeing a lot of people been calling out other Puerto Ricans say, Yeah, you're Puerto Rican, but you don't speak Spanish. Danny Valdes: Yeah. And and like, for example, my my youngest brother, like, understands Spanish 100%. He he Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: can follow any kind of you know, but le cuesta a lot of trouble to speak. and and I I think that's true of a lot of like first generation and beyond Latinos who, you know, are born here, who learn English early in their life. and who have less and less occasion to to use Spanish unless you're at home. And even then, like my parents we mostly communicate in in English. so I have I just and then I I married a white girl. So my the opportunities for me to practice my Spanish are few and far between, unfortunately. but yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. No, you could do it like you can do it like Ricky and Lucy. Whenever she does something, you can snap at her in Spanish. It makes one hundred percent sense. Danny Valdes: I do I do sometimes do that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's awesome. Danny Valdes: But you know, after we've been married fourteen years, so the the Spanish that she does know comes from episodes of l like like that, repeating themselves over and over again. Yeah, exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Of the of the Latinos escaping I lived in Miami for what three years. I think it was what ninety two to ninety five. Danny Valdes: Were you were you born in California? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No, Chicago. Yep. Danny Valdes: Chicago, okay, cool. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I was born in Chicago and then I went to the military. And when I came back, my dad was like, yo, you know, if you want to come check it out down here. And I said, All right, cool. I went and I applied to Florida International University. I got in there. I did a couple, I did a couple Danny Valdes: It's beautiful. I mean Northern California. We had the same we have the same alma mater. Yeah, I went there too. you didn't graduate? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. I never graduated. I was there for a couple I did a couple semesters and I was like, I gotta go home. I went I moved back Danny Valdes: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): to Chicago. Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I went to FIU as well. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. I love it down there though, 'cause like like the the like I said, the the Cuban culture when when you get immersed in your people, Danny Valdes: It's beautiful. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): it's my God. my god. Let me Danny Valdes: It's beautiful. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): tell you, let me tell you how full my heart was. Danny Valdes: Mm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I was sitting at a restaurant and the waitress came and she said, Hey Poppy, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever and And she was getting a little flirtatious and shit. Boy, she had me, she had me on cloud nine. I was walking Danny Valdes: Ha Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): tall that day, kid. Danny Valdes: You don't understand how many problems this has caused for me in my relationships. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No, and that's the other thing. Like I'm all huggy huggy and shit like that. Danny Valdes: I am s I'm such a huggy huggy. Everybody I get accused of like being flirtatious a lot. When I'm not Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I know. Danny Valdes: consciously doing it at all. I'm just I'm Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I'm just I'm just friendly, I promise. Danny Valdes: just yeah. My wife has had to learn this over the years. it it's just who I am. I'm not Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Like, yeah. No, for me, for me now is my girl, my girl tells me, Hey, we're leaving in 45 minutes. Start saying goodbye. Cause she knows I will, that's just that's just how I was brought up. Like you go Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and you say, especially the elders, the kids, whatever, but the elders, you go to every one of the elders and you say, Hey, thank you for having me over. Dah da. Can't wait to see you again. Hug kiss, hug, kiss, he da, no vamos. But yeah, the stuff about like we get mis we get misunderstood. Danny Valdes: Yeah. absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And and you know, that's that's that's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And that's part of it. Danny Valdes: that's part of the immigrant the immigrant immigrant experience. Unless you're like in a place like Miami where everybody's that way. And then you're like that and that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: I think is where that feeling that you had in Miami, that's what I had in Cuba, you know, when I went there for the first time and just feeling like a place was home even though you had never Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: been there. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. Danny Valdes: was a very powerful experience. And and and that's one of the things also that I think our organization wants to wants to do, which is to give other Cuban Americans that experience alongside other Cuban Americans who are also having it. Because that was you know, when I did it I was kind of like on my own and by myself, but we took part in the Nostra Medical Convoy that happened this year, in March. It was like an aid convoy to Cuba. and we did it as Cuban Americans for Cuba. There were about fifteen of us. and a lot of people had it was their first time going to Cuba. and you know, I don't know how much you know, but going to Cuba is is still a very taboo subject. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: It's one of the I think one of the ways that the sort of myths about Cuba and the i misinformation about Cuba can gets perpetuated is because they they actively discourage people from going to Cuba and seeing it for themselves and drawing their own opinions. and so one of the things that we really want to focus on starting next year especially is is going to Cuba pretty often and bringing Cuban Americans to Cuba pretty often and and and giving them that time to reconnect with their their homeland, you know, to reconnect with their roots, to maybe do what I did and and and find out about your family. Maybe you find family that you have there. You know, there's and also like we can, you know, go to arts festivals and really soak in your your Cuban-ness, right? Which is this is where it comes from. Like all the things we love about Cuban culture in Miami. It all comes from here. and and w no matter how much they try to erase that, no matter how much they they try to to discourage you or or actively persecute you for seeking out more more knowledge about your own roots, about your own identity, you know, like there's there's nothing that can quell that curiosity. There's nothing that can make you feel like a complete person, like going back to the place where it all began. and like I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: said, the overwhelming feeling of like, man, this feels like home, even though I've never been here, is is a very powerful thing. And I I think it it it's what set me on sort of my my path to doing Cuba work and and and starting this organization even is I know this is a sh a feeling that is and could be shared by so many other Cuban Americans who just want what's best for their family that just want what's best for for their homeland. You know it to them it's not about communism versus capitalism or any of those things. It's it's just about is it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's my it's my family is struggling. Danny Valdes: it it's my abuelita, you know, it's my it's my primos, it's it's my mom and dad, it's my The friends I went to school with, the friends I went to high school with, the friends I went to college with, you know, it's my other life. that I had there. And it's still important to me. And I I I I can't support things that that you know cause suffering on for those people for for political ends. One way or the other, right? Whether we're talking about it. being on the island or whether we're talking about a coming from the United States. and, you know, I I g like I've said, you know, we vote here, we pay taxes here, we're theoretically represented in government here. and so this is where we we we we do the work. The rest is up to Cuba. The rest is up to Cubans to decide how they want to develop their country. And their political processes. it's not our right, even as exiles, to go to go back and and demand that one demand that this country take action against another country, and two, to demand that this other country, which earned its sovereignty through blood, okay, now has to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: willingly capitulate and and basically annex itself to be part of the same exact power that it shed blood to break away from. I don't think any country would accept those terms. Not not just Cuba, especially not the United States. Like imagine if in order to trade with us, China set up this imposition. Hey, if you want Chinese goods, you gotta change your president. You want Chinese goods, You gotta change your economic system. Imagine what the that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: what what that experience would would feel like for the United States. and that, you know, that it's just a non starter. It would be a non starter on any global stage, on it would be a non starter on any negotiation table. And it's a non starter for Cubans too. And and I it really irks me when the media reports it as Cuba like rejecting a deal or Cuba's you know when w so does that mean the expectation is that Cuba should just say yes to whatever scraps are thrown at them and and and give up their sovereignty and give up their their after everything after all of it not only pulling it off Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): After after pulling off a revolution? After pulling off a revolution, you want me to go back to what it was before the revolution? Danny Valdes: not only pulling it off but sustaining it. For sixty seven years in the face of Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: what they've had to had to confront, you know. you know, o of course it's a non starter. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And I want to share, I wanna share a little bit of I wanna share a little bit of data to to to clarify a lot of misconceptions too, because they don't talk about this. But whenever there's a conflict or a war or whatever, whatever, Cuba sends doctors. Cuba sends bunches and bunches of doctors. To help fix the situation. Nobody talks about that. Danny Valdes: Well and then like when they when you do hear about it, the critique is that like it's just a way for the Cuban state to make money, that it's like yes, it's true that the the Cuban state well it's more that yes, it's true that the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So they believe in so they believe in capitalism. Okay, cool. Danny Valdes: Cuban state like l let's say a doctor on a Cuban medical mission earns two thousand dollars in in a month. The Cuban state will take, I think, 40 to 45% of that and and would bring it back. But how much has the Cuban state spent developing this person as a doctor? This person went to school for free. Okay? This person went to their entire life. Their entire life. Exactly right. Exactly right. How many state resources Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): From kindergarten to to the PhD. Yeah. Yeah. A poor country like Cuba can educate their people for free from kindergarten to becoming a doctor. Danny Valdes: And then they choose to export that to other countries as their as their Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then they choose to export that. Danny Valdes: as their GDP. If only every country in the world were to dedicate themselves Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You know what I'm saying? Danny Valdes: to exporting doctors to places that are that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey, let's Danny Valdes: are historically on like even if Cuba were to take a hundred percent of of their wages and they were just like state employees that went out there and and and did that, if only, okay. we had a an economy that functioned off of that sort of exchange as opposed to the way that that it happens right now. How much better of a world would would would we be living in, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then folks are folks that might be let's put let's put a little more meat on that bone. You know who else does that? You remember Yao Ming, big huge seven foot something basketball player? Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): They exported him. They exported him. He made all kinds of money in the NBA. China took a lot of that money because they Danny Valdes: Yeah, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): trained him. Danny Valdes: It you know, that's that's just the way Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): The same way, the same way, the same way corporate America takes you and trains you and forces you into be whatever it is, right? They take their money. You get your Danny Valdes: Yeah. That's right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): little you get your little paycheck. There you go. But they're making three, four times off the that amount off of you. So you can pay right. So you can Danny Valdes: It's an investment for them. It's an investment. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): pay the electricity bills that keeps the fucking company going. Danny Valdes: Exactly. Yeah. And and that is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's just a different way to say it. Danny Valdes: exactly. Exactly. And it's a different I think what what is unique about it is that like it's actually exporting a social good. Right? Is it's exporting and that that when I said earlier, like, you know, a a good Cuba is a good model of foreign policy, is that that has been their approach, right? Our approach is we're not going to retreat from engaging with the world. We're not going to isolate ourselves. We will be a player in in the world stage. We will make political alliances. We will ally ourselves with certain political forces. But also we are going to export social good as as much as as as we can. Sometimes that meant sending the Cuban military into Angola to help in that fight. Sometimes that means sending the Cuban military into apartheid South Africa to aid in that fight. N Nelson Mandela died a huge admirer of Fidel Castro because Fidel sent Cuban soldiers to end apartheid in South Africa. Okay? So or whether that means having, yes, a program where your doctors voluntarily choose to go overseas for an an X amount of of of of of time, make much more money than they would in Cuba to bring back home. And yes, the state takes a chunk because the state facilitated every part of their life that made that possible. So the state Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): The state A. The state here takes a chunk, but they don't give you anything back. It doesn't give you anything. If anything, if anything, the road sucks, healthcare sucks. A, but you know who has you know who has Danny Valdes: It doesn't give you shit. Yeah. The here we pay our taxes and the fucking roads suck. You don't get health care. The schools the schools are shitty. Like what do we get as a return on investment? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): all those wonderful things? Our greatest ally. Our greatest ally. They get everything. They Danny Valdes: Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): have education. They have health care. They get abortions. They get all the good things. They have good roads. They have a they have all the missiles. They have all the things. All the things. Danny Valdes: I I do think that I like a lot of a lot of the misunderstanding around Cuba in in in the US also just comes from that like Americans are just not used to like a a government operating in a way that where it is trying to maximize the amount of social good that that it is trying to like do and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that makes sense. Danny Valdes: And the idea of like, yeah, we pay into a system that then we see returns from, we see benefits from as citizens. That is such like a most Americans just feel like taxation is robbery, right? Because at the end of the day, like, yeah, you get taxed, but you don't really ever see, yeah, in your day-to-day Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And my t my day to day sucks. Danny Valdes: doesn't really meaningfully improve, right? whereas, you know, I think I think there's And and this goes back to also like the question of democracy in Cuba and whether it exists, or all all of those questions, which, you know, are thorny and are complicated. But at the same time, like, you know, we just I I think Americans have a very biased way of understanding the world. And it comes from this mentality of like. You know, the government is just another set of institutions that is seeking to nickel and dime me at every single opportunity. Because that's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: mostly how Americans experience government. because but in Cuba it's different. They just have a different understanding of what the state is and what the government is. Because, like I said, the pharmacies, the restaurants, I mean this is less true today because the private sector has been given a lot more leeway in in in recent years and especially we can talk about this if you want the set of 176 reforms that Cuba set into motion this year that comp basically completely reshape the Cuban economy and walks the Cuban state back away from direct ownership of many components of the Cuban economy. but Up until very recently, the state was the economy. That's just the way it was. The state ran the hotels. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Because they had to be. Danny Valdes: The state ran the restaurants. The state ran, you know, it was just how the world was for Cubans. It's how they understood the world. And so when again, when you have sanctions that are that do target the Cuban state and the Cuban state's capacity to import and export, the Cuban state's capacity to generate foreign capital investment. And the Cuban state's capacity to you know develop an industrial base inside of Cuba, you are actually affecting everyday Cubans because the everyday Cubans depend on the state for those sorts, that kind of development, you know. And what we've seen is the growth of the private sector in in in in Cuba in some ways, you know, has kept the economy afloat. But in a lot of ways, has exacerbated the inequalities in Cuba because what it has created now is a two-tiered economy where if you have, especially if you have connections outside of Cuba, if you have family outside of Cuba that can send you dollars, you can that dollar goes a long way in Cuba. It goes much further than a Cuban peso. and so people with access to dollars are. Can ac can go to those private supermarkets, right? They can buy nice new cars. They can. There is like a whole separate economy that is happening now where the private sector has been empowered. And everyone else who is left hanging on state services, who was depending on, you know, maybe the line for food was long, but shit, I had guaranteed calories every single day that now I don't have. maybe the line for the pharmacy was long, but shit, I was depending on that medication that is now no longer available. those are the people who who bear the brunt of everything that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: is going on in Cuba. and that is an extremely important thing to remember. Like there is there is no way of escaping the fact that people are dying in Cuba right now. That do not need to die. Okay. That of fully Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: preventable causes. We're talking kids, babies, the infant mortality rate in Cuba has tripled in the last 10 years. Okay. Cuba for many, many decades, I always joked, it had first-world problems. Okay. Whereas many comp comparable economies had problems of like tropical disease being like a huge Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: killer of people. Cuba, Cuba's problems were obesity, heart, heart problems, mental health, the many of the same problems that the first world faces because they had largely moved out, where they were, because of their robust investment in public health, they were able to fight back a lot of these tropical t diseases, which were kind of unheard of in Cuba for a long time. All of that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: has returned. Right, all of those Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Jesus. Danny Valdes: third world problems are now Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: way more common in Cuba. And that means we're talking electricity, we're talking Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: clean water, we're talking basic sanitation, we're talking health care, we're talking public transportation, right? These were all things that were part of everyday life in Cuba, that now Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: are are just not. They're They're they're wholly absent. and it's it's on purpose. That that is the thing. It's not Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: a failure of the Cuban economy. Okay. Not not the only, not the only thing that happened there. Okay. It is a policy goal of the United States of America. Stated, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): This is this is the goal. This is the goal. Yeah. This brutality is the goal. Yep. Danny Valdes: stated on paper. It's not conjecture, it's not a conspiracy, it's not propaganda. This is the stated goal of the US government. Policy toward Cuba and it has been since 1962. That is the goal. Okay. It has failed miserably, in my opinion, because the actual stated goal is to get Cubans to desperate enough to overthrow the Cuban government. That's that's what they want. So it has not been successful in that front, but it has been extremely successful, especially in the last year, and just creating mass misery in Cuba. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So let's let's pull on that string a little bit because there's a lot of similarities with what was happening when Fidel was first taking over and everything that's happening today in the United States. Danny Valdes: Mm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Back then you couldn't trust your neighbors because you didn't know who was going to snitch on you. And if Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): anyone snitched on you, the army was gonna come and take care of business. Kinda same thing here. You got ice running around, snatching people up, doing all kinds of shit. And the words that he's using are very similar to the takeover and all these things. And everyone's afraid. Everyone's afraid. Because they know that they're going to use force. The the powers that be are going to use force to stamp all that shit down. So the people in Cuba, there's not gonna be this uprising that everyone is thinking is gonna happen because they have the military in the streets making sure that you're not gonna uprise. Danny Valdes: Yeah, I mean I I would say I would say that, you know, there there certainly is not as much Cubans have certainly less what I guess what we would call like political freedom than Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: than would than we do here. I think that's fair enough. Okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: Now they enjoy maybe other freedoms in Cuba, like freedom to your time, freedom Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm, mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: to leisure freedom for leisure. Freedom for for you know to have most Cubans own their own own their houses outright. mo Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's crazy. Danny Valdes: most Cubans don't pay rent. Most Cubans have free health care. So, you know, when we talk about this idea of like what it means to be free, is going to C V S and having fifty choices of toothpaste. For the epitome of what we can achieve with our freedom here in the United States. Because yeah, in Cuba, you might only have one choice of toothpaste. Or sometimes there's no toothpaste and you gotta brush your teeth with something else. But they they do certainly have other maybe economic freedoms or other ways of interpreting what freedom means that is wholly different from a kind of I think material freedom that we find ourselves with here in the United States, that is certainly Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, right. Danny Valdes: very comfortable and and and you know creates a certain kind of standard of living that, by the way, of course, is not accessible to everyone, but is there and does exist. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Danny Valdes: Whereas, you know, I think in in in in in Cuba, again, I I I say this to blue in the face. If we want more freedom of expression. In Cuba, if we want more, you know, American style democracy in Cuba with multiple parties and all that stuff. we have to change US policy toward Cuba. Until Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Exactly. Danny Valdes: we do that, Cuba is stuck. They are stuck politically, they are stuck economically, there's very the scope of what they are able to do is so limited because people don't understand Cuba. cannot Cuba does not have access to the foreign credit market. Just one example of how these sanctions manifest. So that means Cuba, whatever it buys and imports, has to pay with cash. Okay? For everything that this Cuban state tries to import. Again, to distribute. Two Cubans. That is the Cuban state's rule. I know we can talk about other accusations, but fundamentally that's their job, right? They cannot buy these things with credit. Okay? So that's one huge limitation. Another, Cuba cannot really bank with any international banking institution because they're all afraid that the United States will go after them. So we're talking Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: banks in Africa, banks in Switzerland, banks in Russia, banks in France. That will not open an account if it is a Cuban national. Okay? Because they don't want to get sanctioned. So that's a huge restriction in terms of how much foreign capital is coming into the country. How much a French business would be willing to engage with Cuba if all of their transactions are going to be under this intense scrutiny and review. You know? So again, like the scope of what Cuba can do. Is so hugely limited by all of these pressures that they face. That I am convinced that the minute that embargo goes away, we're going to see a completely transformed country completely on its own. There are social, economic, and political forces in Cuba that are actively being held back, not by the government, but by US policy, limiting what is possible. limiting people's political imagination, limiting people's economic imagination. It it is just brutal in in so many ways. In so many ways that you know it is it is unconscionable that anyone would support it. Much less Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: a Cuban. And much less that it's all right now being led by a Cuban in Marco Rubio. That to me is the I don't know. The the only word I can find for that is just evil, right? Like there's there's really it's beyond unconscionable. It's it it's beyond immoral. It's it it is just evil. it's the only word I I keep I keep coming back to when it comes to this sort of thing. So, you know, like if we want an idea a more ideal political gu situation in in Cuba, we have to do our part as Americans first. We have to get US policy to Cuba toward change. And again, I go back to the example of Obama here. Okay. Obama did not change a single statute or law. Okay. Obama, all he did was tinker at the edges of how his administration was choosing to interpret certain stipulations in these laws and in these State Department rules. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: That alone, that little tiny tinkering. Ask any Cuban about 2016, and they will tell you the amount of hope that there was in Cuba. They will tell you people Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): The audacity of the Danny Valdes: rising out of poverty at like a rocket. Okay? The amount Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: of small businesses that were starting up in in Cuba, the amount of vibrancy that there was with American cruise ships coming in into Havana all the time. It felt alive in a way that it had not felt in in a long time. And Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: and you know, what is the response to that? We have to put the gabosh on it, you know. and I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Shut the door right back up. Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: think it was also a huge failure on Biden's part to not pivot back to this politics toward Cuba and basically maintaining Trump one's isolationist sort of posture toward toward toward Cuba up until You know, I think like seven days before Biden left office, he said, maybe we should take remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list. That would be a good start. And then within an hour of within Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Why why are they on that list? Danny Valdes: Very interesting question. Why are they on that list? I they nobody's ever really come up with a good explanation for it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: the official explanation is that Cuba harbored members of FARC, which it was a Colombian leftist sort of like revolutionary insurgency group. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Danny Valdes: However, those people were they were in Cuba, but they were there because Cuba hosted the peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government. So conveniently they left that part out of the narrative. But the reason the reason why Cuba is on this list Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Boy Danny Valdes: is because they use it as an economic justification for sanctions. That Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: is actually that designation is one of the full one of the linchpins into how the US the what started as a US embargo became a global phenomenon. Because now you're doing business with a state that is designated by the US State Department as a as a sponsor of terror? Where you know who else is on that list? I think it's four other countries. It's like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. Those are the four countries that are that are on that on that list. Get pintakuai. Get pintakuai. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And remember Cuba Cuba's having rolling brownouts. Danny Valdes: Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. So, you know. But it does give them legal legitimacy to impose all these extra sanctions on Cuba to also go after foreign companies that like companies outside of the United States that that do business with with Cuba. There's there's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let me Danny Valdes: a famous example of of this. Let me just give you this one example of Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Go for it. Danny Valdes: during COVID, at the height of COVID, Cuba's oxygen Factory where they were making oxygen, which of course during COVID was pretty important for people in hospitals and stuff, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: had a very serious mechanical failure. And like with everything else, because it's a outdated f facility, Cuba could not really import the parts that it needed to keep it well maintained until things fall apart. They reached Cuba, reached out to a Swiss company. To say, hey, we really need oxygen. We need to buy oxygen and mass. We don't even want to buy the spare parts at this point because it's so urgent that we just need the oxygen. And they were working out, they worked out a deal with this Swiss company. The oxygen was on a boat, getting ready to leave. And at the last minute, the deal fell through because of Washington got wind of it, and they basically sabotaged. a deal. So how many people do you probably died as a consequence of of of that? This is at the height of a global pandemic. Not even that was enough of a human you know, they couldn't find the humanity even in a circumstance like that, in a global pandemic, to allow Cuba to purchase oxygen. You know, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's crazy. Danny Valdes: it is, it is, it just goes beyond beyond the pale. and it it's so clearly done to punish and it's so clearly done from this politics of retribution and revenge, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: that it just boggles the mind. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Back to this goofy list. Danny Valdes: Yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): do you remember what happened in nine eleven? Danny Valdes: Yes, of course. That was a that was a formative political experience for me. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. do you remember Danny Valdes: As a good millennial. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): do you remember do you remember the majority of the people involved where they were from? Danny Valdes: Saudi Arabia. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Are they on this list? Okay. I was just I was just making sure. I was 'cause you know, yeah, I Danny Valdes: No, there are friends. There are allies. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): was just making sure 'cause like if Cuba's on that list and they haven't done shit in like sixty years Danny Valdes: You would think you would think you would think. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I wonder I wonder what that's all about. Danny Valdes: It is no no no go go ahead, go ahead. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I have another crazy go ahead. I was gonna I was gonna ask you hopefully this will be a fun question. What the hell are we gonna do with Ted Cruz? Danny Valdes: God. I often forget about him in in the milieu of Cubans. I always forget. I always forget that he's Cuban. I always forget about him. That sucks. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Me too. I see him and I was like, yeah, he's Cuban. That sucks. Danny Valdes: We really are not sending our best up there, are are we? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No. Danny Valdes: I mean, what what are we gonna do about any of these people? It's it is they've built their careers off of hating Cuba and spreading hate and misinformation about Cuba and its people. Despite like Marco Rubio as far as I understand, has never even been to Cuba. I don't think Tech Cruz has ever been to Cuba. Their families left before the revolution even. so for them it's sh it it's just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. We'll say, we'll say they escaped. They were part of that they were part of that first shift that left the Anglo Cubans. Danny Valdes: Yeah. No, but Margarubio left before Fidel even took power. His family left in like nineteen forty something. So it was even like they left under the previous guy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Also they were gone, gone. Danny Valdes: They were gone gone. They left after under the previous dictator, Batista, because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: that's how bad he was. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: and Ted Cruz as well. There's a famous clip of Ted Cruz saying, yeah, my family My family f fled torture in Cuba. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: Now it was the Batista regime that tortured them, but still they they Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: were fleeing torture. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And by torture he means we couldn't have toast. They didn't let us have orange juice. Danny Valdes: Ha ha ha Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): what a struggle. Danny Valdes: They tried to say I could only have fifty acres of land instead of five hundred. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): In your in your vision of the future, if if things could play out the way that you would like to see them play out, what does that future look like? Danny Valdes: For me, it is a future where number one, relations between the US and Cuba are completely normalized, which means we treat the US like we treat Vietnam. I mean we treat Cuba like we treat Vietnam, like we treat China like we treat Russia, France, Germany, any other nation in the world. that's one. Number two, there's an open trade ru relationship between the United States and Cuba. especially the South in the United States, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, would Alabama would benefit hugely, I think, from being able to to sell crops, to being a able to sell agricultural products, fuel and oil, which is produced a lot in that in that area and which Cuba obviously needs. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): you pig farmers, you'd be making a killing cause these lechones being f these lechones Danny Valdes: You'd be making a killing. They really would be. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): are bangin', son. Danny Valdes: Yeah, yeah. But I think moreover, and and most importantly, that you know, in in the future that I would want, this is something that Cuba has embarked in from that it originates from Cuba's sovereign decision to engage in the process, right? And what I what I don't me personally, what I don't want is like a Starbucks on every corner of Havana, right? I feel like that would be an overcorrection. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For real. For real. Don't thank you. No thank you. We got Cuban Danny Valdes: perhaps so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): coffee. We don't need that. Danny Valdes: exactly but that is that is fundamentally i think what like trump world wants right trump world sees Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure, one hundred percent. Danny Valdes: havana as an untouched virgin land right which it is i call it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. They're doing to they're doing they want to do to Cuba what they are currently doing to the Gaza Strip, to Gaza. Redevelop Danny Valdes: Yeah. Redevelop it basically into Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): it. Danny Valdes: into, you know, a Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And the same thing that they're doing to the west side of Chicago. There's a bunch of people with money. They skate Danny Valdes: Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): in. They want to do it their way. Everybody gets a goddamn Starbucks and a McDonald's and a subway. And we push. Danny Valdes: Yeah. So, you know, like my personal v vision for what Cuba could be, I think Cuba there's a lot of untapped potential in Cuba. I think they could they already do have a a very strong biotech sector, which not many people know about on but when it for example, Cuba developed its own COVID vaccine. And that they had five candidates that they developed. Again, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: necessity is the mother of invention, right? If you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: remember, those mRNA vaccines at the time needed to be kept refrigerated. And in Cuba, that's not a guarantee because the power might go out. They don't really they can't really rely on having stable conditions that would keep that mRNA, those thousands and thousands of mRNA vaccines from going bad in an instant. And so they decided to create their own COVID vaccine that is kind of done the the old school way of like, you know, with an inactive viral component inside of the inside of the the vaccine instead of mRNA. they did that. They have a medication that it it prevents what's the word I'm looking for? Amputations from diabetes by Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): wow. Danny Valdes: like it's pre it prevents like 60 to 65 percent of all cases of for for amputations for Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Wow. Yeah. Danny Valdes: that the diabetes it's called Hebripot B. they they're working on cancer Alzheimer's medication Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Alzheimer's, that's the one I was gonna say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're getting close. Danny Valdes: They're in the middle they're in the middle of a of a study right now that is showing extremely promising results. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: Alzheimer's is a huge killer here in the US. It's one of our one of I think anybody Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. It's a big one. Danny Valdes: who has you know aging parents is it that's a concern for for them. So there's just so much that that really er like I said before, everybody loses with this. Everybody loses. The only Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Everybody. Danny Valdes: people that win. Are the a very small minority of Cubans in Miami who see themselves as you know heroes of the exile, and will literally stop at nothing. They don't care how many Cubans die, they don't care how many bombs have to go off, they don't care as long as they get their revenge, as long as they get their retribution, that is what drives their politics fundamentally. What and that is the opposite. Of what drives the politics of a group like ours and Cuban Americans for Cuba. We want to see Cuba succeed. We want to see Cuba do well. We want a relationship of mutual. You should come with us. Come with us next time we go. come with us. We would love to have you. We'd love to have you. you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I wanna go. I wanna be able to go whenever the hell I want. yeah, no, that's a done deal. That's already done. That that's already done. Yeah, that's already done. Danny Valdes: know, I always say it should be a relationship defined by mutual prosperity. That should Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: be the guiding line for both cook for for for both countries. Right now it's it's it's based on the United States assuring that Cuba is as as least prosperous as possible. That is that is their goal. And you know that to me as is just it's morally wrong, it's politically wrong, and it it's just not how we should be acting as The most powerful country on on on on a global stage. I don't want to live in a world where any powerful country can wake up and decide one day this country's not going to get to import basic goods anymore. This country, just because you know they disagreed with us or they have a different political system than than us, you know, X country is basically we're gonna starve a country out until they we get what we want. That can happen to any country in the Caribbean right now. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: Really, if the United States decided it, any country in the Caribbean could have a the exact same thing happen to them. Is that the world that we want to live in? I don't think so. So even as just from a you know, even if you hate the Cuban government, just from a you know, zoom out a tiny little bit. That's what I I ask that's what I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, from a humanitarian point of view. Danny Valdes: asked my my fellow Cubans to do. to who feel really strongly about the Cuban government, just zoom out a little bit, okay? And take stock about one, what is going to actually cause political change in Cuba? Because sanctions have been tried for 67 years. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: We've we've tried this road. So isn't it the definition of insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result? What c Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: how else can we describe what we have tried to do in Cuba for sixty seven years? You know, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: why not try engagement? Why not try something that has worked in the past, that we made barely made any progress on and saw results? Imagine what we could unlock there, you know? It's just so sad. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And the way that we're doing it, the way that we're doing it now is making the problem worse. Because Danny Valdes: Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): if you talk to, if you talk to Cubans that are still connected to Cuba, that call Cuba every week, whatever, whatever, they will tell you Cubans don't run the show there. It's the Chinese and the Russians. So we are complicating it by ignoring Danny Valdes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But again. Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): them. Danny Valdes: You're creating a worse geopolitical problem for yourself because you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): One hundred percent. Danny Valdes: you sorry, I'm getting a phone call. You you're creating a like a geopolitical situation, or you're forcing Cuba into a a geopolitical situation because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: they have to go to these other places for their o for in their own interests, for them pursuing their own. sovereign interest and for them Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Survival. Danny Valdes: surviving. Of cour like where all do you think they're just gonna sit back and say, well, the United States doesn't want us to do this, so I guess we're fucked. You know, like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: I that's not an option. That's not an option. especially Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No. Danny Valdes: in a revolutionary kind of like system and that that was fought and won with with and defended over the years with with blood. You know, like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Danny Valdes: It's just not gonna happen. And it's it it should not be accepted as as a rational position on part of the United States that Cuba is rejecting because they're too hard-headed. Or what we're seeing today is not a negotiation, it is a hostage situation. That is what we're seeing. Okay. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yes, yes. Danny Valdes: And for you to expect for Cuba to capitulate or To be the one that has to be the take on the onus of moving dialogue forward. Why? They're the hostage. Would you expect that out of a hostage of out of any hostage situation? No. In a hostage situation, you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. We hold all the cards. Danny Valdes: try to talk the hostage taker down, right? You Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: try to get the hostage taker to change their position, their point of view. You're 100%. Come on. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): This is victim blaming at its worst. Come on, Cuba. Come on, Cuba. Why why are you why are you struggling, Cuba? Danny Valdes: So yeah, just play nice, Cuba. Why aren't you grateful that we're giving you a chance at the negotiating table? Why aren't you accepting our our, you know, please, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hostile takeover. Danny Valdes: please let our corporations rape your economy and please let also Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: our rich people come in and benefit from all of that? Why aren't you grateful for the opportunity for that? I wonder why. I wonder why. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Danny Valdez. I am so glad I got to meet you, man. Danny Valdes: Same here, brother. Same here. Anytime. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Take the next couple minutes and let folks know where they can find out more about your organization and all that good stuff. And then we can wrap up. Danny Valdes: Fantastic. Yeah, the organization is Cuban Americans for Cuba. Our website is, you can, if you're in the mood, you can type out Cuban Americans4Cuba dot org. Or if you want to go a the shorter route, the CA number fourc.org. C-A-4C, Cuban Americans4Cuba.org. you can find out more about us there. If you're Cuban and you're listening to this and you want to get more involved, we have an open letter. on our website that we encourage Cuban Americans all over the country to sign. We have 700 signatures on it so far. if you add your name to that, you'll get added to our list and you'll find out when we have onboarding events and ways to plug in and get involved. we are also kind of raising money right now so that we can expand our operations and really take on the the task at the scale that we we think that it needs to be taken on. we've done so much with basically no budget up until this point. and so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sounds like Cubans. Danny Valdes: we have had to wrestle that very much in our in our own ways, very much like we've had to put Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Danny Valdes: you know a Soviet engine into our into our nineteen fifty-seven Chevrolet Belair a few times. but with a little bit more money, you know, we can really make I think a a much bigger difference in reaching Cuban Americans all over the country who really are desperate for these for a chance to get off this consensus train. every time we make a post online, we get so many comments that are that are like, my God, I didn't know I was I thought I was alone in thinking this. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: Or I didn't know I was allowed to think this. Or, you know, like it really is right now very much about building a permission structure for Cuban Americans to to be able to deviate from this hardline consensus and feel like they're still Cuban. Because that's what Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: they try to take away from you. When you deviate from this consensus, they try to take away your identity. They try to take away Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Danny Valdes: your your roots and they try to isolate you from that. and to me the only response has to be asserting it even harder. And going to Cuba yourself and becoming, you know, an an ally and a supporter of of Cuba's prosperity instead of an enemy of it. That that has to be the only response to what we see come out so often from this loud minority in our community. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Preach, brother. you have Danny Valdes: And thank you so much for for giving us the giving us the time of day. I I I appreciate it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): no, no, no. Thank you. You're doing the hard work. I just sit here and try to make people laugh from time to time. Danny Valdes: Ha ha ha. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): yeah, you got my you got my Cuba cup full today. Boy, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go talk Danny Valdes: I'm glad to hear it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): to every Mexican in in Cuban Spanish. Danny Valdes: You tell him, God damn it, this is who I am, and you can't stop me. All right. We will Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Thanks again, man. And I'm sure we're gonna we're gonna talk in the future. Danny Valdes: encounter. We will encounter each other, one hundred percent. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah yeah. Danny Valdes: if you want, I I can add you to our WhatsApp chat if if you if you wanna if you wanna be involved in that. That it's a good place to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Please do. Please do. Danny Valdes: start and you can choose your level of engagement from from there. So okay, sounds good. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Perfect. Perfect. All right, everybody. And with that, Danny Valdes: Okay, it manually. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): we're out.