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AfroCubaWeb
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Dr. Alberto N Jones
He
writes regularly on issues concerning Cuba, and we present his letters and
columns here: Alberto Jones Column,
Column I covering the period
1998 - 1999, Column II, 2000,
Column III, 2001 (Part I), Column IV,
2001 (Part II), Column V, 2002, Column
VI, 2003, Column VII, 2004, Column
VIII, 2005, Column IX 2006, Column
X 2007, Column XI in 2008, Column
XII in 2009, Column XIII in 2010,
Column XIV in 2011,
Column XV in 2012,
Column XVI in 2013,
Column XVII in 2014,
Column XVIII in 2015 and 2016,
Column XIX from 2017 to 2019,
Column XX from 2020 to 2021, and
Column XXI for 2022. See also
Alberto Jones on Race & Identity
and Alberto Jones on the Cuban Economy. |
Sólo se vive una vez, pero si lo haces bien, una vez es suficiente. -- Mae
West
Alberto N. Jones (Banes, Cuba, 1938). Fue criado en el seno de una familia
humilde de emigrantes jamaicanos, que lo educó en los sólidos valores y
principios que regirían su vida. Sufrió marginación social y discriminación
racial hasta que el triunfo de la Revolución cubana le ofreció la oportunidad de
formarse como profesional de la medicina veterinaria. Su papel como director
provincial de Laboratorios de Diagnósticos Veterinarios de Oriente fue crucial
para el desarrollo del sector en la provincia. Debido al actuar corrupto de
algunas figuras de poder, fue inculpado y encarcelado durante cuatro años y
medio. Tras diversos intentos infructíferos para que el gobierno reconociera su
inocencia y asumiera la responsabilidad por el error cometido, emigró a los
Estados Unidos para recomenzar su vida. Allí desarrolló su propia empresa y se
destacó por su activismo social a través de diversas organizaciones solidarias
con Cuba y el mundo, como Pastores por la Paz. Estas memorias de Alberto N.
Jones recorren su vida desde la infancia hasta la actualidad, y son una manera
de alzar su voz para dar a conocer la verdad sobre los hechos que lo privaron de
libertad y sobre sus impunes acusadores, mostrando la disfuncionalidad del
sistema judicial. Se trata del testimonio sincero y desgarrador de un hombre que
no se rindió jamás en la búsqueda de la justicia ni en el despliegue de acciones
por el bien común.
Click here for pricing & to order ==>
www.holbrooktravel.com/where-we-travel/americas/cuba/cuba-500-years-cuban-history-and-culture
| 500 Years of Cuban History and Culture with Dr. Alberto Jones |
About Your Leader
Alberto N . Jones is a retired veterinary pathologist who migrated from Cuba to
the U.S. in the year 1980 and has lived in Florida since 1989. He is the
founder/president of the Caribbean American Children Foundation, a board member
of the Cuban American Alliance and Education Fund, the Saint Augustine Baracoa
Friendship Association, Cuba Vive and other solidarity groups with Cuba.
Through these institutions and working with Pastors for Peace, we have improved
relations and understanding between the people of the United States and Cuba,
while delivering precious material support to the healthcare and educational
system and the physically challenged in Cuba.
For more info, see 500 Years of History East/West, PDF
Contact Sandy Schmidt at schmi.comdt@holbrooktravel or 877 907 5360
See also Articles by or about Alberto Jones, especially ‘Pink to Pink’ tour to Cuba 11/12/2015 Daytona Times for a great review of a previous trip he has led.
‘Pink to Pink’ tour to Cuba 11/12/2015 Daytona Times: "Palm Coast resident
Alberto N. Jones organized a trip to his native Cuba last month and included
breast cancer survivors, physicians and well-wishing comrades. His wife, Silvia,
is a survivor and served as motivation for the trip. In homage, Jones titled the
voyage: “Pink to Pink” tour."
Cuba: Pink to Pink | Led by Alberto Jones - October 10, 2015 - October 17, 2015 3/22/2015 Holbrook
Travel: "Advances in knowledge have increased the number of cancer survivors,
many of whom need our moral, psychological, and material support to improve
their quality of life. Our group will be visiting healthcare facilities and
meeting with survivors in Havana, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad, which will give us
an opportunity to learn how the Cuban healthcare system works and is able to
serve its people with limited resources. We can bond, share experiences and
mitigate the suffering."
The culture, the history, the hospitality: Remembering 2000 trip to Cuba 1/8/2015 Daytona
Times: by Alberto Jones - "“I felt love,” said Robert A. Brooks, chairman of
Black Studies at the African American Cultural Society. “The people were nice,
generous, and giving – and had a real concern for others.” What amounted to a
Brooklyn-Queens block party took a stance in miles of agricultural plains with
goats along the countryside of thatched-roofed houses and quaint horse-drawn
buggies."
Look toward a brighter future with Cuba 12/31/2014 Daytona Beach News
Journal: 'Working with Cuba can help us erase an ugly and painful past,
strengthen our economy and transform Central Florida into a world-class
educational, health, culture and sports mecca, where our children will be proud
to be."
Afro Cuban
Relations with Florida 11/16/2013 Havana Times: "Can anyone imagine Jazz,
professional baseball, Latin American and Caribbean literature, without Afro
American and Afro Cuban close collaboration?"
Memories of Crossing
Borders: Alberto Jones and Guantanamo, Cuba 4/13/2013 Vimeo, Guantanamo
Public Memory Project: "Alberto Jones was born in Cuba to a Jamaican family like
many of his peers. He grew up in Guantanamo, which means that during his
childhood and early adult years, he traversed (sometimes daily) the borders of
Guantanamo, Cuba and the US Guantanamo naval and airforce base. This 5 minute
clip is the beginning of a full documentary on his life story that illustrates
the entanglements of nations, languages, and ideologies across a 20 kilometer
zone that will highlight issues of race, gender, and personal fortitude through
representing his life journey."
Filmmaker to visit Palm Coast 4/3/2013 Daytona Beach
News-Journal: "Acclaimed Afro-Cuban filmmaker
Gloria Rolando will make an appearance Sunday at the African American
Cultural Society in Palm Coast. Alberto Jones, president and founder of the
Caribbean American Children's Foundation, said he has been trying to get the
Cuban filmmaker to visit Palm Coast for many years."
Blacks bear the brunt of Cuba's brutality 2/28/2010 Miami Herald: "Zapata's
ordeal is being spun from the other side of the coin, too -- the predominantly
white and U.S.-based, right-wing anti-Castro opposition who clearly stand to
score political points from the case of a black martyr. Righteous declarations
can be expected from organizations such as Democracy Movement, the Cuban
American National Foundation, the Cuban Liberty Council and, especially, the
Cuban Democratic Directorate. Many Cuban civil-rights activists accuse these
groups of working to corral and control the new internal opposition forces on
behalf of interests linked to Cuba's former Jim Crow oligarchy. That's why they
see U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart's ``indignation'' over Zapata's death, as much
as president Raúl Castro's ``regrets,'' as a double farce. A staunch supporter
of the tiny, white elite of wealth that was overthrown in 1959, Diaz-Balart can
cry crocodile tears, but during his time in Congress his right-wing, pro-embargo
agenda has only hindered the ability of black Cubans to improve their lot."
[Some observers credit Alberto Jones and Claude Betancourt's articles for this
historic turn against the Miami Plantocracy, unprecedented, to our knowledge, in
any statements by Black Cuban dissident groups.]
Despite Cuba embargo, relief finds a way 7/6/2009 Miami Herald: "This does
not concern Dr. Alberto Jones, a Cuban who arrived in Miami during the Mariel
boatlift and has been involved with the convoys each year since 1999. ''I'm not
afraid to go to jail,'' he said Sunday night at Ham & Eggery restaurant in North
Miami Beach, where the truck is parked. Jones' activities mirror those of a
growing number of Cuban Americans who question the embargo, which was imposed
almost 50 years ago to apply economic pressure on the Cuban dictatorship in the
hope of speeding its downfall. As Jones walked around the truck, which is set to
join others in Texas later this month, he said American treatment of Cuba
disgusts him. ''If you don't see the suffering, you don't feel it,'' he said.
``I saw kids starving and I changed my point of view. I do this [work] in Haiti,
Jamaica, the Dominican Republic -- and Cuba. What's the difference?''"
End failed trade ban with Cuba 12/14/2007 Times Union: by Tonyaa
Weathersbee - ""When I approached this solid waste dump, I couldn't even smell
it," said Alberto Jones, who is a native of Guantanamo and vice president of the
friendship association. "It was like a botanical garden ... the air quality has
improved in that area tremendously." "When I met this lady [Garcia], I said to
Soledad: 'She ought to be a CNN hero,' " Weeks told me. So Weeks nominated
Garcia. And she won. The living room erupted into cheers. Then came the rude
interruption. Actress Rosario Dawson announced that because of travel
restrictions between the United States and Cuba, Garcia couldn't come to New
York to pick up her $10,000 prize. Jones had to accept it on her behalf. Such
craziness ought to make more Americans want to step up - and push for an end to
the failed embargo and travel ban."
Attacking Tonyaa Weathersbee 12/2/2007 AfroCubaWeb: "Tonyaa Weathersbee is
a columnist for the Florida Times Union out of Jacksonville. A member of the
prestigious Trotter Group of African American columnists in the US, she has
maintained an interest in Cuba and issues of race & identity there. In
September, 2007, Tonyaa Weathersbee wrote an article about a recent trip she
took to Cuba, One Race, Two Countries. A group of 4 Cuban Americans attacked her
for this article in a letter to the editor, Cuba is no paradise for blacks,
11/07, citing a few myths that are common among Cuban Americans. AfroCubaWeb
columnist Alberto Jones comments on this attack in A Failed Revisionist attempt
To Mask Cuba’s Tragic History, 11/07."
Seeing the people, not Cold War politics 11/5/2007 Florida Times-Union: by
Tonyaa Weathersbee, a member of the Trotter Group, an association of Black US
columnists. This article discusses Alberto Jones, whose columns appear on
AfroCubaWeb.
Seeing the people, not Cold War politics 2/21/2007 Florida Times Union: by
Tonyaa Weathersbee - "Alberto Jones is the last person one would expect to have
any love for Cuba. Especially when hatred forced him out of it."
Mi Cubanidad 3/11/2006 Un Bohio: published 10/05 - "My worldview was tinted
by that dogmatic brain-washing (heavy on the bleach) until 26 March, 2000 when I
had the good fortune of encountering the indomitable Dr. Alberto Jones, a
generous Guantanamero, in the historic chapel of my alma mater. Dr. Jones is a
fascinating man whose energy belies his actual age. A defiantly and politely
proud patriot, he also takes great pride in his Jamaican ancestry. I have taken
great pride in passing along quite a few of Dr. Jones' columns and essays over
the years. Among the things I am grateful for about our friendship, the one
thing that stands out the most is the opening of what is an ever-increasing
devotion to freethinking and truth seeking. A price tag cannot ever be put on
that gift and I will be ever grateful for it. The times when I have heard an
African-American express any opinion about Fidel Castro, most of the time, the
opinion that is expressed is one based on that individual’s perception of a
certain significant level of respect he or she has for the Cuban leader. This
perception of Castro is often muddied by the incessant and confusing demonizing
of him and his initiatives as practiced by both this country’s corporate media
and successive administrations in Washington, D.C. Thus, the question that
logically follows is “what are we missing about Castro when it comes to skin
color?”"
Chabot Cuba conference faces a challenged Afro-Cuba 10/19/2005 SF Bay
View: "The panelists reported that the income gap between Black and white Cubans
widened during the "special period" (1990s) after the fall of the Soviet Union
and the tightening of the U.S. economic blockade. Remittances - money sent by
Cubans in the United States to their families in Cuba - go mostly to white
Cubans, 30 to 40 percent. Only 5 to 10 percent goes to Black Cubans. White
families received 58.3 percent of total income in 1999, while Black families
received only 4.3 percent. This income gap reproduces the race and economic
stratification system of the past and is a predictor of the position of
Afro-Cubans in the future. Twenty percent of the audience was African North
Americans, who met with other African North Americans and Alberto Jones on
Sunday to explore a remittance program for Afro-Cubans and to educate and
organize African North Americans to put an end to the U.S. blockade and travel
embargo against Cuba."
For the Record 3/14/2003 St. Augustine Record: "The Northeast Florida Peace
Rally will take place at noon on Saturday in the Plaza de la Constitucion. The
event is sponsored by People for Peace and Justice. There will be speakers, live
music, cookies and information available. Among the speakers are:
Alberto Jones, a Cuban-American living in Palm Coast, member of U.S. Cuba
Sister City Association, Vice President of the St. Augustine Friendship
Association, the Cuban American llian Education Fund, and President of the
Caribbean American Children Foundation."
Effort aims to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba 7/11/2002 Daytona Beach
News Journal: AfroCubaWeb columnist makes the news - "So, despite an
international trade embargo imposed on Cuba, local businessman Alberto Jones has
coordinated a busload of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to be shipped to
the Caribbean Island this week. "We don't care what you feel about (Cuban
President Fidel) Castro. We are concerned about helping people," Jones said. "If
a government has a problem with another government, they should deal with each
other -- not harm innocent people." Jones, 64, a native of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
has coordinated humanitarian shipments as part of an annual "Pastors for Peace"
convoy for the past eight years. The shipment this year includes surgical
gloves, syringes, needles, three wheelchairs and a full-sized diesel school bus,
which was purchased with donated cash."
Cuban surprise 2/4/2002 Boston Globe: "Perhaps I was surprised most by what
I thought I knew best: Cuba's racial situation. I'd been led to believe by black
Cuban expatriates that Fidel Castro, though he at first had no particular regard
for blacks, had, with the exodus of white Cubans to America, entrusted the civil
service, the military officer corps, and much of the middle class to blacks. It
was one eason I'd been convinced the Miami Cubans were kidding themselves to
dream of a triumphal return to power. Well, in truth I saw hardly any
brown-skinned or black Cubans running anything - not as managers or ministers or
maitre d's, not even as cashiers, clerks, or hotel maids. Black Cubans are in
plentiful supply, as a stroll through the poor sections of Havana will make
clear. But all the good jobs in this socialist paradise seem to go to people we
used to describe as ''light, bright, or damned near white.'' Ask nonblack Cubans
about this phenomenon, and they'll blink as though they've just noticed it for
the first time. There's just no color problem in Cuba, they'll insist." The
brothers here were not leading you astray: there is a marked difference between
the eurotourism sector, completely dominated by whites, and other sectors of the
economy, such as medicine, biotech, and even politics where afrocubans have
reached senior positions. See the writings of
Pedro Perez Sarduy on this
site for a discussion of this phenomena. See also Alberto Jones' response to
this column, Reactions to
William Raspberry's column on Cuba
The Lost Children 2/3/2002 CBS News: This story parallels the plight of the
thousands of Cuban children separated from their families in the name of
anticommunism. Some 10,000 British street children were sent to Australia for
servitude with the Catholic organization, Christian Brothers Academy, and never
told their parents were alive and, in many cases, wanted them back! See Alberto
Jones' Honoring a Mass
Kidnapper: Monsignor Walsh,
Respuesta Interna 4/6/2014 Desde la Ceiba: por Alberto Jones - "Ante una
nueva escisión que lamentable se ha producido en nuestra incipiente y débil
organización, les escribo temeroso e imploro, que esto no conduzca a un mayor
debilitamiento de los cimientos sin fraguar que estamos tratando de construir. A
pesar de no haber visto publicado las bases, conceptos, filiación ni mecanismos
para llegar a formar parte de ARAAC, el solo hecho de haberse concebido este
abanico unificador de los marginados, obliga a defenderlo, criticarlo,
fortalecerlo y crear un mecanismo de funcionamiento democrático, que augure un
crecimiento, expansión y reconocimiento, que sea capaz de llevarlo a cumplir con
sus postulados teóricos. Mientas ARAAC o cualquier otra institución carezca de
una estructura, una visión, una meta y formas de alcanzarlos, nos limitaremos a
hacernos señalamientos, nos fraccionaremos y jamás lograremos alcanzar la
autoridad interna y externa necesaria para poner en marcha nuestras
aspiraciones, nuestros sueños y obligaciones con la sangre de nuestros
antepasados."
Racism and its
Perpetuation Mechanisms 10/23/2013 Havana Times: by Alberto Jones -
"Simply, these people and thousands more are black and live or lived in a racist
world, where there accomplishments are overshadowed, buried and ignored. Their
contribution to the world are not exalted, or perpetuated by monuments, academic
curriculum, public buildings or in the mass media. This criminal action deprives
our children of their self-esteem, history and positive models in life while
they are bombarded with messages that illustrate and record all the despicable
acts they commit. This ancestral fear of the black, savage, the witch doctor,
that some people assumed is part of the past, still exists in different forms in
the XXI Century."
Cuba’s Ladies in White leader Berta Soler praises exile support 4/27/2013 Miami
Herald: "The leader of Cuba’s Ladies in White thanked Miami’s exile community on
Saturday for its continued support for dissidents on the island and asked for
more moral, spiritual and material help for those who seek to end the Castro
regime. Berta Soler also blamed the Cuban government for the lack of economic
and educational opportunities for Afro-Cubans and affirmed her support for the
U.S. economic embargo against the island." [See comments that include our
columnist, Alberto Jones]
My Cuba: The
Summer of 2010 10/12/2010 Havana Times: by Alberto Jones
A Sincere and Painful Apology to the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus 5/20/2009 Black
Agenda Report
An affront to the Cuban nation By Alberto N. Jones 10/16/2003 Radio
Progresso
Caribbean American Children Foundation
Fundación Caribeña Americana de los Niños
www.camchifoundation.org
Memories of Crossing Borders: Alberto Jones and Guantanamo, Cuba 4/13/2013 Vimeo, Guantanamo Public Memory Project: "Alberto Jones was born in Cuba to a Jamaican family like many of his peers. He grew up in Guantanamo, which means that during his childhood and early adult years, he traversed (sometimes daily) the borders of Guantanamo, Cuba and the US Guantanamo naval and airforce base. This 5 minute clip is the beginning of a full documentary on his life story that illustrates the entanglements of nations, languages, and ideologies across a 20 kilometer zone that will highlight issues of race, gender, and personal fortitude through representing his life journey."
Alberto Jones in the St Augustine Record
Alberto Jones in the Havana Times
Cuba: Pink to Pink - Led by Alberto Jones - October 10 to 17, 2015 Holbrook
Travel
Cuba: 500 Years of History - Led by
Alberto Jones - November 6 to 17, 2015
Holbrook Travel
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Dr. Alberto Jones is a former
veterinary pathologist and a member of the