When my father came from Cuba at the beginning of the '60's he found that the University liberal arts were just as communist here as in Cuba. That period was the beginning of the demise of a world class Cuban democratic nation, which coincided with the destruction of urban America.
Cuba was systematically destroyed from being a prosperous Catholic nation with a bustling middle class to a disaster area of decrepit neighborhoods and widespread corruption and filth of every form. Now it is known for it's witch doctoring and child prostitution, and, yes, cigars, the huge sugar industry and the rum, (among so many other exporting industries) are gone.
Compare that with what has happened in every urban center of America in the same time frame. There are books written on the planned decentralization of the American city which caused the collapse of one after another, in the thousands. Countless devout Catholic ethnic neighborhoods throughout the land systematically destroyed by such government intervention as Urban Renewal Project, the most notorious fruit of which were the nationwide riots. Cf. E. Michael Jones, in The Slaughter of the Cities, catalogues the systematic destruction of four major American cites: Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Chicago.
The parallels between urban America and Cuba are shocking. If you did an comparative inventory of the major urban centers' economic, social, family and religious vitality in Cuba and USA 1955 and 1985, the downward trajectory would be exactly the same: a nose dive! Neither of the two failed experiments were accidental. The only question is if there was/is a relationship.
Well, at the very least (which is huge!) we can say that there was an ideological relationship from the start (which continues). The same atheistic anti-Catholic forces at work in Cuba's Marxism is the same ideology which has held the day in our nation's top universities during the same period, to our own day: forming the vast majority of the cultural elite: viz. anti-Catholic bigoted atheism.
Indicative is the fact that the Castro family has always enjoyed it's visits to New York! And it is no wonder they receive such a warm reception. Our elite is one with theirs. For example, I've never read in the New York Times anything but praise for communist Cuba and for the Castro legacy. But if you simply take a look at the footage of the live before and after videos on YouTube you will not fail to see that before Castro there was a real and diverse and colorful and prosperous society whereas all you have now is misery and social alienation of every form. I can relate very well to that having worked in dozens of parishes in the inner city which only sixty years ago were centers of a very high culture and are now practically war zones for the past forty years.
Obviously, this thought has been brewing in me for some time now, especially after almost three decades as a cleric working with people in urban America (the New York metropolitan area) and in light of a very recent visit to Miami, coming to realize how a large part of Miami's international flair is simply a transposition from Havana. The Miami of today would have never come to be with a bustling Havana, or, rather, they would at most be twin cities.
One can only dream what the Latino world would have been if Havana were still the center point of Latin American culture, as it was sixty years ago with huge success and even greater promise. The same must be said about the cities of America. They would be the centers of a prosperous Christian culture had they not been changed and neutered by the cultural elite which strives to stamp out all things Catholic, without counting the cost.
In many urban areas today I see the slow revival of some form of human decency with the new influx of immigrants populating the poor neighborhoods and buying real estate and starting family businesses, with their largely Catholic culture. The building quest is long and hard, taking decades. Beware! The destruction can often be quick. Anyway, the corruption of those people takes place right in the schools since the parochial school has never been an option for these new arrivals. They are indoctrinated in the elite anti-Catholic culture which ignores God and promotes every for of immorality in the name of freedom. There will be no need of an Urban Renewal Project to disperse them for they have no roots.
I do have hope though, because Jesus Christ is God and we worship Him, and nothing is impossible for Him. Christianity is the religion of the transformation of persons and of cultures and of cultural elites, because it is the truth, the truth that changes you. The truth of Jesus Christ will win the day, in Cuba and in all America!
P.S. Newark's Little Italy was destroyed by Urban Renewal Project. There is a fine video on that story from the little Italian Parish which is the lone miraculous survivor of the wrecked neighborhood (Newark's First Ward). Watch the story of Saint Lucy below. The Feast of Saint Gerard, the great patron of the Parish National Shrine there is tomorrow, 16th October.