Out of the Humidor
Dear Marvin,
I have been a subscriber to your magazine for many years and I would like to tell you that I found the December issue to be the finest you’ve ever made.
Like my cigars, many of your issues have stood out in the past, but only one is now my “go to” issue since you have taken me to a place where I would love to go but probably never will—CUBA! In reading your magazine, I found myself in what I call a “virtual” vacation there.
I am now in my third re-read of all you have so wonderfully described. You have done for me what I thought I would never do myself—and that is to take a trip to Cuba. With that being said, I want to sincerely say thank you very much!
James Robinson
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Dear Marvin,
Your December 2011 issue is disgraceful. While you go out of your way to trash Cuban-Americans and American policy from the comfort of your armchair in the Land of Freedom, you don’t say a peep about the totalitarian Cuban regime which outlaws free speech, imprisons those who try to exercise it and tortures its political opponents. Apparently you prefer to pander to your “friendly Cubans” while turning your back on the real life-and-death struggle of freedom-loving Cubans who have no voice, some of whom are rotting in prison, all in the name of a good Havana. By your logic, the U.S. should have done business with and encouraged tourism to Hitler’s so Americans could buy BMWs and Mercedes.
Like the food lines in Eastern Europe, which disappeared the day after the Berlin Wall was torn down, the lines in Cuba will disappear and prosperity will return as soon as its Communist/Socialist regime is relegated to the ash heap of history.
Yocel Alonso
Sugar Land, Texas
Editor’s Note: Our Cuba coverage has generated more ionate over the years than any other subject. For those who dream of visiting, the island shimmers like a modern-day Mecca in the Caribbean beckoning to them. For those whose experience of Fidel Castro’s revolution remains an open wound, there seems to be no middle ground, no desire for compromise, only an anger driven by revenge. Our point is simple: we believe that an open door is the best and most effective way to bring about change. Will it be the change everyone wants? Maybe not. But in the end, we believe the people of Cuba and the United States will be the beneficiaries, not the governments on either side.
