Cuba Quotes

First, undoubtedly, there are some people who are coming from Cuba who immediately, or from any other country, benefit. But, what is the difference between that and someone who is coming from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, etc.? That is, we are simply going to say that someone who comes from another country to the United States - the first five years they're here - they don't qualify for federal benefits. They may benefit from local benefits, state benefits. Those decisions belong to other jurisdictions.

It's true that in Cuba there are double standards, there's opportunism, and there is a lack of freedom in some ways.

I've always said that I'm open to changes in the relations between Cuba and the U.S., but that Cuba must make changes also.

Cuba was in some ways a de facto state of the United States before 1959, given its proximity and given its neocolonial status.

I was born in Cuba but was made in the USA.

Cuba will find its own way, regardless of what the U.S. wants. This has always been the case, not just since 1959.

Being in Cuba has allowed me to live in a society that is not at war with itself. There is a sense of community. It's a given in Cuba that, if you fall down, the person next to you is going to help you get up.

Dictatorship nations are outlaws. Any free nation had the right to invade Nazi Germany and, today, has the right to invade Soviet Russia, Cuba, or any other slave pen. Whether a free nation chooses to do so or not is a matter of its own self-interest, not of respect for the nonexistent 'rights' of gang rulers. It is not a free nation's duty to liberate other nations at the price of self-sacrifice, but a free nation has the right to do it, when and if it so chooses.

Can you imagine that Cuba and Europe's youth, who had forgotten about traditional music, who only thought of rock music, are now looking back towards their grandparents? That is a phenomenon.

If you are a married man resident in Cuba, you cannot get a passport to go to the next town without your wife's permission in writing.

Cuba needs a dose of perestroika.

I would love to go back and help rebuild that country and help - you know, kind of like what's going on with Iraq right now. You know, they've got a new government in place. They're trying to rebuild the country. I would love for that to happen in Cuba also

I don't think that the reality of Cuba is perfect, but it doesn't cleave to the negativity, either, with which some people see it.

What most impressed me about Cuba was the optimism.

I think I'm going to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida.

The people in Cuba, they know what I stand for, and there's a lot of people in Cuba that stand for the same. But they can't say it.

I think there [on Cuba] is going to be an extraordinary reception.Cubans are - they want to hold onto their culture, their heritage, but they also want to embrace this opportunity, perhaps, for new economic freedoms.

When it comes to musicians, I'm like the daddy of musicians here in Cuba.

What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another.

Due to a big bust in Cuba, my father's business suffered badly, so I was free to choose my own career. I became a professional dancer, and I went on the road and started making real money.

Well, you know, I left Cuba as a kid when I was 6 years old back in 1971.

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.

My grandfather was a very elegant individual. My father also. He was a lawyer and farmer in Cuba. In Miami, he had to go to work wherever he could. But whenever it was time to go out, you saw how they cared for how they looked.

Cuba wants to get rid of a dictator, and baseball needs a dictator.

The future of Cuba is one earned by a country that has resisted for over 50 years against the most powerful empire on Earth. The resilience of its people made this triumph materialize.

In Cuba, His Holiness [Pope Francis] won't find a government that protects its people and their God-given rights. Instead, he will find a regime that oppresses people and hinders progress, both socially and politically.

I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.

North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

You Americans keep saying that Cuba is ninety miles from the United States. I say that the United States is ninety miles from Cuba and for us, that is worse.

Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me.

Cuba has the cleanest and most-educated prostitutes in the world.

I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.

In Cuba and specifically in Havana there's a sort of energy that turns every situation into something unexpected.

One cat just leads to another." [Letter from Finca Vigia, Cuba, to his first wife, Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (1943).]

The U.S. is the great enemy of mankind! Against those hyenas there is no option but extermination! If the nuclear missiles had remained (in Cuba) we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City!

I loved sitting on my veranda sipping quality scotch, puffing a Cuban cigar and watching Cuba on the horizon, or the oceanic vista. Did this late in the evenings many times.

In Cuba we use our champions to promote the sport.

I wouldn't like to see Cuba change in other ways. And the trouble is when Fidel [Castro] does go - I am sure he will at some stage. He will probably be replaced by some sort of Western capitalism, ultimately.

What really swings is the music of the United States, Cuba, the Caribbean and vicinity, and, of course, Brazil. The rest is all waltzes.

Cuba is such a beautiful country, and everywhere you go, there's music and people dancing - especially in Havana.

The government is one thing and the country of Cuba and my people are something different completely, .. It's like the United States government and your country. You don't have to agree with the policies to be proud of your country.

As you get older - for example, in our band we have members of our orchestra, like Carlos Enriquez and Ali Jackson and Walter Blanning. I taught them when they were in high school, and now they teach me.I'll regularly call Ali and say, "Man, can you break this rhythm down for me?" Or Carlos was actually our music director in Cuba, and he's been instrumental in a lot of my education, and I started to develop a saying with them, because they tease me all the time - you get older, you have that familiar relationship - I say, "You have to follow your young leadership, too."

Patriots don't go to Russia. They don't seek asylum in Cuba. They don't seek asylum in Venezuela. They fight their cause here. Edward Snowden is a coward. He is a traitor. And he has betrayed his country. And if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so.

Fidel Castro was not interested in personal enrichment. His supporters say he deployed his enormous authority on behalf of health, education and welfare programs that brought Cuba attention around the world.

I'm not saying Cubans don't deserve asylum, but if it is a national security issue, there are people who are coming from Cuba on hijacked airplanes. Why isn't that a national security issue?

Democracy's my idea. I do not agree with communists, my acts prove. Free press in Cuba - free ideas, freedom religion belief.

I miss friends and family. If it weren't for visits from old friends and other African Americans I meet who come to Cuba, I'd probably be in some kind of time warp.

There is the case of Henry Kissinger who was a known scholar who later became the National Security Advisor to President Nixon and later on Secretary of State. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in establishing relations between the U.S. and China. At the same time that he was doing that he was also encouraging all sorts of covert actions against Cuba including political assassinations. This contradiction is one that is hard to understand.

The Kennedy Administration's public pronouncements on the matter suggested that the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Castro's Cuba would represent an unacceptable strategic threat to the United States. . . . This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base - by the presence of these large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass-destruction - constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas. . . .

I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.