Tom Stieghorst
It’s an unfortunate anomaly that U.S. residents born in Cuba can’t travel back to their homeland on a cruise ship. The difference between arriving by air, which is permitted with proper authorizations from the Cuban government, and arriving by sea escapes me.
But that’s the thing about travel to Cuba. It is rife with odd difficulties and unlike traveling to most countries.
But the anomaly isn’t a result of prejudice against Cuban national origin.
A recent column in a paper in Miami stirred the pot by stating that Carnival Corp. is practicing discrimination by not taking anyone born in Cuba on its Fathom brand, which starts cruising to Cuba in May.
The column takes a rule enforced by the Cuban government and conflates it with a long history of civil rights struggles.
Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corp. vice president of public relations, accepted the thankless task of denying that Carnival discriminates. He told the Miami Herald that Fathom “is just following the laws that have been set up. We have requested a change in policy, which has not yet been granted, but our hope and intention is that we can travel with anybody.”
It is a disservice, to say the least, to suggest that Carnival discriminates against Cuban nationals. More than a few people born in Cuba work at Carnival Corp. and its assorted brands.
There’s no evidence that I know of that Carnival, its brands or anyone in the cruise industry denies passage to any U.S. resident from Cuba on any cruises that don’t stop in a Cuban port.
So if this isn’t about bigotry, what is it?
The animosity of the Cuban regime toward Cuban exiles is long-standing and well known, certainly in Miami. Anyone who left Cuba for the U.S. is viewed dimly in Havana, as an opportunist at best and a traitor at worst.
From the regime’s point of view, why would anyone who volunteered to depart Cuba want, or deserve, to come back as a tourist?
It is that bitterness, often forgotten outside of Miami, that is the root of Cuba’s regulation. To suggest otherwise is a red herring.