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If you want to know the real history of Che Guevara I will be happy to oblige.

“Those who ignore history are damned to repeat it.” (George Santayana)

You said “This is not an issue of knowing his history; this is an issue of what comes to mind to a Latin American when they think about Che”.

When John Paul II and Benedict visited Cuba was in solidarity of the Cuban people, not to support the regime and what they got were some minimal concessions for the operation of the Church. All Pope Francis has done so far was getting the support of the U.S. government for the Cuban regime that is far from helping the Cuban people and will prolong their long and cruel purgatory.

You replied: “The concessions public observances of the Nativity of Our Lord and the Crucifixion of Our Lord. These are not minor concessions; these are extremely important concessions. Without either the Nativity or the Crucifixion, we would not be saved.”

It is not enough to allow those important public religious celebrations that were prohibited for over half a century and then murder the most important Catholic leader, Oswaldo Paya, while the regime continue persecuting and imprison pacific dissidents that claim for freedom and respect for the human rights for the enslaved Cuban people.

“Unfortunately, this is not the actual book and so not the actual quote. Amusingly (using google translate), I got this gem out of your link "

You questioned the integrity of the Spanish historian because his research goes against your limited knowledge of the historic reality.

There is no worse blind man than the one who doesn't want to see.

If you want to know the real history of Che Guevara I will be happy to oblige.

If you go back and read my post, I give an example of what I think of when I hear the name Andrew Jackson and what a Native American hears when they hear the same name. I am well aware that Che Guevara is a mass murderer. His mass murdering tendencies come to mind when I hear the name Che Guevara. However, my statement "This is not an issue of knowing his history; this is an issue of what comes to mind to a Latin American when they think about Che” was to point out that I DO NOT know what a Latin American thinks of when they hear the name Che Guevara and like the example of Andrew Jackson above with Native Americans, Latin Americans may hear something completely different when they hear the Che Guevara. The point of the quote is that before criticizing the alleged desire of Pope Francis to be like Che Guevara, I need to understand the underlying cultural context of what Latin Americans communicate when they say Che Guevara.

It is not enough to allow those important public religious celebrations that were prohibited for over half a century and then murder the most important Catholic leader, Oswaldo Paya, while the regime continue persecuting and imprison pacific dissidents that claim for freedom and respect for the human rights for the enslaved Cuban people.

You are absolutely right, it is not enough. It is a very large step in the right direction. By permitting the celebrations, the government is allowing someone to publicly state in Cuba that the government is not God and allowing someone to publicly state that redemption comes from Jesus, not the government. Listening to most communists/socialists, they appear to believe that the government is God and that redemption comes from the Government.

You questioned the integrity of the Spanish historian because his research goes against your limited knowledge of the historic reality.

I have not heard of Cesar Vidal before; however, his wikipedia page denotes very little that would be desireable.

Cuban Cardinal, Jaime Ortega, just declared that Pope Francis told him that in his meeting with Obama the Pope insisted that if U.S. wanted better relations with Latin America U.S must improve relations with the Cuban regime.

It may actually be true that a large percentage of Latin Americans hold a grudge against the United States and that the continued icy relations between the US and Cuba are held as evidence that something is wrong the US. This is not a statement their view of the US is accurate. Somebody has to make the first move.

Those foolish enough to get into Castro’s bandwagon followed the same path to bankruptcy, as did the Soviet Union.

I agree, any company that invested in Cuba was foolish and should lose the money they invested rather than have the US government bail out their foolishness.

Shouldn’t our question rather be, isn’t about time to consider a worldwide blockade against Castro’s (as the one against the South African apartheid regime) since 56 years of free trade with over 150 nations failed miserably to restore freedom and democracy to Cuba.

This may have happened a few decades ago, but it is not happening today.