A Modest Proposal: President Obama, While in Cuba, Check in on Julio Antonio Mella
March 17, 2016
A Modest Proposal: President Obama, While in Cuba, Check in on Julio Antonio Mella
by W. T. Whitney
Mr. President, please think about this: pay your respects to Julio Antonio Mella. Your doing so would be a courtesy to President Raul Castro, your host. Julio Antonio was a founder of the Cuban Communist Party and at the time was a mere student. In Cuba, he is a hero. And his birthday, March 25, coincides with your visit, almost.
I am assuming you and your advisors want to know all you can about the political orientation of leaders in places you visit. Julio Antonio contributed greatly to the outlook of Cuba’s leaders now, so let me explain.
Mella’s political activity in the 1920s became a reference point for rebellion in Cuba well into the 1930s. He is the symbolic link between revolutionaries led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí in the 19th century and those who’ve guided Cuba since January 1, 1959. Mella adapted the teachings of José Martí to the 20th century and beyond. He emphasized the revolutionary potential of working people and those who’ve been left out.
Mella thus shows us that the course of revolution in Cuba has been long. Many of our compatriots mistakenly think that the Cuban revolution only began about the time your host was a young man.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/17/a-modest-proposal-president-obama-while-in-cuba-check-in-on-julio-antonio-mella/
[center] 
Julio Antonio Mella
Dictator Gerardo Machado
Presidente de Cuba Gerardo Machado y Morales en union del
Sr Frank B. Kellogg, Secretario de Estado de los Estados Unidos en 1925.
Machado, walking with US President Calvin Coolidge,
& the missus, last United States President to visit Cuba.
