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PERILOUS VOYAGE EDITION

Call me crazy, but I usually agree with Paul Gardner. Whether it’s preaching the power of Spanish culture in American soccer through his columns for years before the nation came around to it or his feisty off the field rants which I have cherished for their honesty and humor the few times I’ve been privy to them, most things Gardner writes or says are on point.

But (and this is a big but)…

while his critical portrayal of the recent Cuban defection following the first game of Olympic qualifying is largely spot on—Cuba should have done better to secure the team, CONCACAF did nothing, Miami FC was insensitive showing hasty interest—Gardner’s inability to disagree with Cuban soccer federation official Antonio Garces who said of the incident, “This was a very irresponsible act of cowardice by these five players,” completely blows my mind.

“To cynically desert your team,” Gardner writes, “to leave your teammates in the lurch is not an action that elicits any admiration in this column.”

Irresponsible? Cowardice? Teammates? Are we talking about teammates? I’m sorry, but screw soccer.

I’m not the right person, nor is this the right place, to debate the social and political realities of the relationship between Cuba and the U.S., but I’m thinking there are a few people—real heroes (forget athletes) that believe it necessary to risk their lives in order to have one—that might think this “thoroughly sordid episode” (which the defectors and our Constitutional authors might call life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) is a little bigger than a soccer game.

Just today a report from Havana said “the number of people attempting the perilous voyage across of the Florida Straits has risen 21 percent compared to the same period last year.

“Since the beginning of October 2007, some 2,891 Cubans have attempted the journey across the straits. While 1,697 successfully reached the United States, 1,194 were intercepted at sea and returned to Cuba. Nearly ten times the number intercepted (11,488) arrived at U.S. Southwest Customs and Border Patrol land ports in fiscal 2007.”

Those aren’t all athletes. They don’t all have teams lining up to offer a try-out or contract. The majority don’t have anything at all but maybe a phone number, an address, a contact. The only thing they all have is hope in the face of outrageous obstacles. It’s not rocket science. It’s simple mathematics.

Cuba expert and former CIA analyst Brian Latell in his latest newsletter for the University of Miami Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies wrote, “Fidel [Castro] himself, in late 2005, during one of his last major speeches, warned an audience of Cuban youth that ‘this country can self-destruct. The revolution can destroy itself.’ A short time later his warnings were reiterated by foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, who expounded at length about the disaffection, alienation, and apathy of Cuban youth. He too warned that the revolution could destroy itself.”

“What they probably cannot yet be sure of, however,” Latell followed, “is whether they are experiencing an incipient rebellion of the country’s youth.”

As Fidel Castro continues to fade like a Che Guervara t-shirt in the searing Caribbean sun… as thousands risk their lives on hand-built rafts… as three of the defectors arrive on a cross-country bus from Florida to L.A. for a trial with the Galaxy, Cuba’s questions are mounting over the future of a nation, not a soccer team. But yeah, the kids should be judged and punished, Olympic qualifying should take priority. Maybe Gardner would like to carry the torch.

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