Exploring another side of Cuba

Re “Resigned Cubans expect no changes,” Dec. 17

This article said the Cuban people are paralyzed and impotent and resigned not to do anything about Cuba’s future. I don’t think the reporter talked to people from every angle. I’ve been to Cuba several times, and I know they are proud of their free healthcare system and how well educated the Cuban people are. The Cuban people can go to baseball games, the National Ballet Theater and other concerts and foreign films for almost nothing, whereas in our country you have to have the money to be able to afford such things. The reporter said the Cubans prefer escapism to confronting the country’s ills. That sure sounds like a lot of Americans, doesn’t it?

LYNN THOMPSON

Redondo Beach

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This anti-Cuban, anti-Castro article reads like a dispatch from the State Department’s Cuban desk or, which is much the same thing, the Cuban defectors’ headquarters in Miami. This unsigned, unbalanced, hackneyed and blatantly propagandistic piece, based solely on carefully cherry-picked examples, calls into question the journalistic integrity and political motivation of The Times. Publication of such an article at this time appears designed to sabotage the long-overdue visit to Havana by a U.S. congressional group led by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to discuss U.S.-Cuban relations.

DAVID DART

Los Angeles

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Re “U.S. officials visit Havana,” Dec. 16

How can we go about encouraging the member of Congress who visited Cuba? The active participation of the U.S. in the rebuilding of Cuba’s economy can forestall the rising of a new dictatorship.

PHILLIP GOOD

Huntington Beach