Compelling photo of Obama with Lincoln portrait in Havana
There are many ties between Cuba and the US, some go waay back.
Obama was taken around Old Havana by the city historian so for
sure he got an earful. A perfect touch was to show him this portrait.
Why did Lincoln worry about Cuba?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/abe-lincoln-and-filibuster-fever/?_r=0
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- which flew from a building in downtown New York.
I need to learn more about him. He is appreciated in Cuba on some level.
And it wasn’t just a dream. In late 1848, in the wake of Polk’s failed effort to purchase Cuba, many Southerner leaders turned toward a charismatic political exile from Cuba named Narciso López to realize that vision. López had fled Cuba in the summer of 1848 in the wake of a failed uprising against the colonial government. On American soil, López soon committed himself to organizing a new conspiracy. He sought political and financial backers, and soldiers for a filibuster army. And he offered the command of his envisioned army to several prominent Southerners, including John Quitman, governor of Mississippi; Jefferson Davis, then a senator representing Mississippi; and Robert E. Lee, then an Army captain and widely admired for his service in the Mexican War. All declined.
A political cartoon depicting Gen. Narciso Lopez fleeing from his failed invasion of Cuba and carrying a large sum of money stolen from the customs house in Cardenas.Library of Congress A political cartoon depicting Gen. Narciso Lopez fleeing from his failed invasion of Cuba and carrying a large sum of money stolen from the customs house in Cardenas.
In the end, López, bankrolled by northern and southern business interests, commanded the filibuster himself. Between 1848 and 1851—based successively in New York and New Orleans—he organized four expeditionary armies. Two were thwarted by American military and legal actions. The other two reached Cuba and engaged the island’s Spanish garrison.
The first landing ended in defeat, with López fleeing back to the United States. Then, in August 1851, he set off on his final attempt, with about 400 men in tow. It too ended in a rout: but this time, López was captured and publicly garroted in Havana. Another 51 filibusters faced a firing squad, including William L. Crittenden, a nephew of John J. Crittenden, then-attorney general under Millard Fillmore. The rest were all killed in action or captured, imprisoned and eventually released.
The López conspiracy, the first open military challenge to Spain’s long dominion over the island, was singed into Cuba’s public memory. Indeed, in 1902 the filibuster’s flag, with its “lone star” banner, was adopted as the official flag of the newly founded Cuban republic—and remains Cuba’s official flag today.
