Cuban-Americans reach out

By VANESSA BAUZA      
Web-posted: 11:13 p.m. Sep. 26, 2000

MIAMI -- After fighting fierce gridlock on the Dolphin Expressway, Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera rushed into the studio nine minutes late, plugged her microphone in and settled into her seat. It was another Monday morning, just after 7 a.m., and the talk show host was ready to roll.
   She blasted the Fox Family Channel for pouring salt in the wounds of the Cuban-American community by airing the Elian Gonzalez movie and then offered her commentary on the controversial handshake between Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro at the recent U.N. Millennium Summit.
   In a sea of provocative and often inflammatory Cuban talk radio shows spanning the political spectrum, Rodriguez-Aguilera's English-language Cuba Today is a rarity because reaches out to an non-Cuban audience. It is produced by the non-profit organization New Generation Cuba. She describes it as a bridge to "close gaps in the community with the black Americans and non-Hispanic whites."
   "How are they going to feel our pain if they don't know what's going on?" she asked.
    Rodriguez-Aguilera is part of a younger generation of Cuban-Americans who grew up in the United States and are taking a more inclusive approach to their parents' and grandparents' struggle for democracy in Cuba. They say reaching a wider audience for their cause is key.
   "We are going outside the box of just having friends who are Cuban," she said. "Our ties are much more global than maybe our parents'. That's why we want to communicate to a broader audience."
   Rodriguez-Aguilera, 42, started the talk show in February when Elian's custody battle was in full swing, exposing the fault lines between South Florida's ethnic groups. The show, which initially aired on a Spanish-language radio station, in on weekday mornings from 7 to 8 a.m. on WAXY, AM 790. The weekly $2,500 price tag is paid for by commercials and donations. Rodriguez-Aguilera said her callers range from exile leaders to English-speakers who tune in.
   Juan Carlos Espinosa, director of the Felix Varela Center for Cuban Studies at St. Thomas University, said the younger generation of Cuban-Americans has become more savvy in their use of language and media.
   "Our grandparents, when they came here, basically sat around the campfire and talked amongst themselves. Our parents' generation figured out that since they could not liberate Cuba, they needed to appeal to the American political [power]. What the younger generation has realized is that in this country the power is much more diffused. It is localized in three different places: on Madison Avenue, in Hollywood, and the third place is the bureaucracy of government," he said.
   Many younger Cuban-Americans are tying their struggle for democracy in Cuba to activists from other countries.
   John Suarez, 30, a student at Florida International University, devotes much of his time to the Free Cuba Foundation, a group he cofounded to work with Cuban political prisoners and opposition leaders on the island. He said he is energized by the constant trickle of new immigrants from Cuba and finds common ground with Chinese, Vietnamese and Tibetan students.
   "One of the things you could say about the new generation is that we are reaching out. We're definitely trying to get our message out of Miami," he said. "We look to a lot of other freedom movements."
   Nick Gutierrez, president and cofounder of Puente, a group of young professional Cuban-Americans, cautioned against painting all younger Cuban-Americans with the same political brush.
   "We reject the often-cited media proposition that younger Cubans are more liberal or there's a generation gap," Gutierrez, 36, said. "Our parents and grandparents were the ones who suffered the slings and arrows of that regime, and they passed that on to us."
   Growing up an exile in New York City, Rodriguez-Aguilera's activism was fueled by her family's stories. "There are a lot of things I don't necessarily agree with my parents on, but we definitely agree on one thing," she said. "That Cuba should not be with Castro."
   Vanessa Bauza can be reached at vbauza@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.
    Copyright 2000, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc.