Cuban Quotations

My view of myself doesn't change. I know who I am. I'm Cuban American; both my parents are Cuban - one was a little browner than the other one. That's who I am. I feel sorry that it's taken so long for the film industry to figure it out and to catch up.

But the most important thing about that story, which is not often told, is that as a result after the Cuban missile crisis, immediate steps were taken to correct our inability to collect on the movement of nuclear material out of the Soviet Union to other places.

The lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis is plain: Strength prevents war; weakness invites it. We need a commander-in-chief who understands that - and who won't leave us facing a foe who thinks he doesn't.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, decisions made by President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev could have plunged both countries into thermonuclear war.

One October day in 1976, a Cuban airliner exploded over the Caribbean and crashed, killing all 73 people aboard. There should have been 74. I had a ticket on that flight, but changed my reservation at the last moment and flew to Havana on an earlier plane.

I believe in the promise of America. Being a Cuban refugee, having come here when I was eight, I know that this is a shining city on the hill.

I always smoked cigars. I've smoked cigars with everybody in show business.

I was born in New York, but I'm of Cuban heritage. Maybe there's a little island in my blood.

My main point in this regard was to compete for my country and my people and to receive the support of the entire Cuban society, to carry my flag in whatever competition I was in, the Olympic Games, Pan-American Games.

I am Cuban, my parents are Cuban, and I was not adopted.

'La Lupe' is my passion project. I've done it as a one-woman show, but I'm raising money to turn it into a film. It's a story of a Cuban singer who became the Queen of Latin Soul, the first woman on the N.Y. salsa scene.

I had a chance to play for the Cuban national team during the 2009 World Baseball Classic, but at the time I never thought about leaving Cuba.

I have been obsessed with seamed stockings my whole life, and I would collect vintage ones that were made in the '40s and '50s with the authentic styling of the keyhole, the welt, the reinforced toe and heels, French or Cuban heels, and hand-stitched seams.

I'm Cuban-American, everybody says. I have a Cuban background, Cuban blood.

Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Most people give Kennedy a passing grade, a good grade on the Cuban Missile Crisis handling, but what they don't realize, if he had had strength, if he had showed strength before, there would never have been a Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cubans are frantic when it comes to appreciating music.

The roots of Cuban music are in my head.

I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke every last one of 'em.

I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.

In 1993, I chased Cuban and Spanish drag trawlers off the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland. And it cost them $35 million in losses.

Nineteen-seventy-nine had been a year of American setbacks around the globe. Before the year began, Cuban troops were already roaming Angola, and a pro-Communist regime ruled Ethiopia.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That's why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

One of the main features of the Cuban Federation is to enjoy a close relationship with our athletes, we like to give them our full support.

On one level, I enjoyed the irony of the situation: a girl who's from a Cuban or Puerto Rican household who's been discouraged from speaking Spanish.

Non-professionally, Cuba is one of the best teams in the world. Everyone hears about what a great reputation the Cuban ball club has. A lot of people want to see Cuba measure up against a professional team so that's going to draw a lot of attention. In Puerto Rico everybody is looking forward to the game against Cuba. I think it's all about bragging rights.

I don't know about the politics, but since it's named the World Baseball Classic, I would like to see the Cuban team there.

If we could win Monday, it would be the greatest victory in Cuban baseball history.

If they make it here, it will be the first time a Cuban will ever reach this land in this fashion. You don't come here, be sent back there and come back here again that way. This is huge.

I grew up eating Cuban food all the time.

Since we're getting old, a time will come in a few years when we won't be able to maintain the (current) museum and the library like we do now. We're trying to get the younger generations, the children of brigade members and others interested in Cuban history to help maintain that interest in the brigade and in Cuba after we're gone.

We're eyeball to eyeball...and I think the other fellow just blinked.

He is very much a fool. He doesn't know who the Cuban baseball players are, or that they are Olympic and world champions. If he knew, he would know something about this country's government.

I could talk about him all day. He's the Mozart of Cuban music,

From time to time, the irresponsible acts of the Cuban government remind us that this is far more than about the freedom of one country, but it really is about the stability and security of the region and the national security interests of the United States.

Given the well-known anti-Americanism of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments, rallies in Havana and Caracas cannot be considered representative of public opinion in the hemisphere.

If a Cuban has the choice of seeing old exiles shout at each other or to watch CNN or HBO, what do you think they are going to do?

I gladly accepted the commission but was uncertain about what the end result would be. On the one hand, Cuban music was conquering the world; being heard everywhere, and our small island was already producing one of the popular musical genres of the 20th century.

I believe this modification is warranted so as to inform the Congress and the public of any involvement by the State Department and the Cuban government in the raid,

I believe this team is much stronger and will be probably the strongest team that Japan ever had against a Cuban team.

Castro will never change, never. Our job is to provide inspiration and explosives to the Cuban people.

What we are trying to do is communicate with the Cuban people.

I am looking forward to meeting one-on-one with this distinguished group of Cuban officials and specialists to discuss the real business potential for Southwestern United States. Cuba with its recent discoveries offers our business community another option for oil and gas exploration and discovery.

He was a symbol of Cuban fishing and of human brotherhood, thanks to all of his years of friendship with Hemingway,

Whatever team they are going to bring they are playing together longer than some of the teams here. It looks to me that the Cuban team may have more cohesion. And they always have pitching. In a short series like that anything can happen.

This wasn't a gift. We won this. The Cuban team simply had to come and show the quality of Cuban baseball.

Mark Cuban made mention of all the Wild Turkey he thought would be flowing at Southwest Airlines, and we would hate to disappoint him.

Mark Cuban has a nicer plane. Michael has been a lot more help to us.

Mark Cuban is candid, animated and incredibly accomplished, having achieved extraordinary success at a young age in the worlds of business and sports.

Some of the players are gone, but ... not all of them were stars. If we go back before the revolution, you will see that a lot of the Cuban players were playing in the major leagues. ... We have a large number of players.

My mom can cook really good Cuban food, so we go eat there on the regular. And the Cuban coffee - you know how you drink coffee at a really young age.

It absolutely is a throwback. Cuban exiles are still worried about the Castro issue, and they hinge everything around that issue, the existence of Castro. But the rest of the country has long forgotten that this Cold War period ever happened.

I talked with him for about 25 minutes through an interpreter. First of all, I was scared to death. I grew up during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, and here's the dictator who almost led us to World War III.

Our boxers need technical support and we need the technical coaches who work them to travel with the national teams. They will be of great assistance to our national teams. Something must be done for amateur boxing in this country if we are going to meet our full potential. We need international help. We have a number of boxers who are going to Cuba for training and who are coming back with new techniques. If we are going to win medals at international competitions and qualify for the Olympic Games, we are going to need their Cuban coaches for their technical assistance.

Italians at the end of the day are Europeans. This Cuban guy is a person of color and a political refugee.

Those who have always had faith in its final success can do no less than rejoice as if it was our own triumph after five years of daily struggle to impose Cuban music on the European continent.

We have been very successful with this project because we have been apolitical. Both governments seem to understand this program is to help children ? in this case, they happen to be Cuban children. Our objective is to not take political sides.

Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, he would have that. We're just accelerating the time so that his permanent residency status would take this out of an immigration issue and into a family court so that we can determine what's in the best interest of this child,

We didn't earn our paycheck. We need to give Mark Cuban a rebate, all of us.

We don't sit on the U.S. ambassador's lap, nor do we sit on the Cuban ambassador's lap,

What we came up with is a dress code that even Mark Cuban could comply with - if he wanted to.

We hope to make contacts and develop relationships with Cuban officials so that Southeast Texas rice farmers can export their fine products into this country in the future,

We have instructed all Cuban firms to start using the euro as of the first of June of this year in transactions with the 11 nations of the European Union as well as several others.

In 1934 there were very few Cubans in Miami.

We should sell them to our worst enemies, the Russians and the Cubans.

We are grateful for the cooperation of the Departments of State and Treasury. The license we have been given opens the way for the Cuban Baseball Federation's participation, along with other federations from around the world, in the inaugural Baseball Classic, and we now look forward with even greater anticipation to the opening of the tournament in early March.

We are only trying to communicate with the Cuban people. Only a dictator would be upset.

There are many examples of Cuban professionals who saved lives thanks to their rapid collaboration with affected populations in the countries where they have been giving their services.

We ask on this Christmas Day for freedom for our political prisoners and for the Cuban people to have a better future.

Originally, John Kennedy was going to come speak, and then Lyndon Johnson. Because it was October of '62, neither made it because of the Cuban missile crisis.

we remember forever for his deep caring, support and solidarity toward the Cuban people and our revolution.

Until Cuban exiles get their country back and figure out a way to get rid of Castro, nothing else will matter to them.

Cuban baseball, Olympic and world champion, was always questioned because it didn't face professionals. And look, they reached the Classic final.

Direct mail service is not likely to happen without cooperation from the Cuban government, nor the scholarship programs for Cuban students. Humanitarian assistance by non-governmental organizations is already ongoing.

I used to watch my Cuban mother getting ready singing 'Dos Gardenias,' so to me fashion has always been fun.

The government doesn't really want to win this case because the government wants to curry favor with the Cuban community.

Two blocks have been given to us by the Cuban government to explore. We are hopeful we will find oil,

Boxing is a technical sport and a number of countries are getting technical. The Indian team in Glasgow brought their Cuban coach along and he was helpful to them because he knew Reno and how Reno fights. These are the adjustments that we need to make. We need technical help and there is no way to escape that, and it has to come from the Bahamas Olympic Association and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture through the government.

We want change with or without the embargo. In general, the Cuban government treats (dissidents) like people who do not exist.

Everywhere we went, ... we encountered former colleagues and scenes from our childhood. Mr. White and I also got to spend a day with our great teacher, Fernando Alonso, who is now 90. We were greeted graciously, as well, by Alicia Alonso, whom we met at a performance of Giselle at the Garcia Lorca Theater, where we once danced. And we were swamped with love by Cuban ballet fans who remember the two of us dancing our roles in theaters all over the island. It was as if the last 40-some years had melted away. It was incredibly moving.

unequivocal signal of support for the Cuban people.

Both teams played great baseball. Two days ago we told everyone to wait patiently for today's game... This is what Cuban baseball is all about. Our players wanted to come back strong after losing in a mercy rule game and they came through.

actions by the Cuban diplomat were incompatible with his diplomatic status.

As long as Florida remains a swing state, Cuban exiles in Florida will remain a very powerful voting bloc.

As long as the United States is taking a threatening position, the Cuban government will act defensively. They'll call for internal discipline, rally around to defend against the threats -- exactly the opposite climate for change.

Ambassador Jimenez has already assured me that the Cuban Sports Ministry has allowed Raul to come back. He's arriving this month.

A lot of people don't know about Cuban history, and I don't expect them to.

This celebration means a lot to me because I owe all in my life to the cultural heritage I came from, specifically Cuban American but also Hispanic American. What gets you through the daily struggle of pursuing that dream is rooted in cultural heritage.

This is a Cuban sport being played at its best.

This is a Cuban sport being played at its best. We thought Venezuela (and the DR) were ... strong teams and they could have made it to the final. But they didn't; Cuba did. It seems to us that we deserve to be here.

In honor of this film, our opening night feed features Cuban food and Andy, who plays bongos, is scheduled to be part of a band.

I'm very happy. With so many foreign broadcast journalists watching, it was a good opportunity to see that Cuban baseball players play well anywhere in the world and at any level.

I had already done a two-chapter subplot on the second Cuban revolution in the book 'Under Siege' in 1990,

The billboard is an effort to dialogue with the Cuban people.

The billboard is an effort to dialogue with the Cuban people. Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen.

No, there is no defection. The Cuban team is in very high spirits. The aspirations from when we left Havana have been multiplied.

This is Cuban baseball. Cuba is not gone. We're still here to play and whoever wants to beat Cuba will have to sweat it out.

The U.S. and Cuban travel restrictions reflect an utter disregard for the welfare of families. Both countries are sacrificing people's freedom of movement to promote dead-end policies.

the U.S. government is delusional with the idea that it can overthrow the Cuban revolution.

They committed no crime in holding this meeting ... the Cuban government is violating civil rights here.