By FABIOLA SANTIAGO
Herald Staff Writer
An unprecedented Cuban-exile led campaign to send humanitarian aid to hurricane-battered Cuba has become the latest hot issue in exile politics -- and more evidence, some say, that gradual but profound changes are taking place in exile attitudes toward the island.
For almost 20 years, Cuban exiles have been sending humanitarian aid to Cuba quietly and privately in the form of food, medicine and clothes to family members. It has often been a painful decision racked with debate over whether helping relatives also sustains Fidel Castro's government in power.
But the massive effort launched last week to help Cubans recover from Hurricane Lili has garnered a significant show of support from exiles and the most unlikely of promoters: WQBA La Cubanisima, a radio station that prides itself on being ``Cuban most '' and speaks with a fervently anti-Castro line.
``Family ties were always more important [than politics]. It's just that now it has become public and out of the closet,'' said Uva de Aragon, assistant director of Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute.
Cuba observers and participants in the aid effort say Cubans in Miami are much more willing than ever in exile history to distinguish between the government and the suffering of the people. Perhaps, some say, because they see the end of communism on th e horizon and they see a need to build bridges with the population.
``Even if the fear of the aid not getting to the people is there -- and there is history that the Cuban government appropriates the aid -- it's not enough to stop us from helping,'' said Antonio Jorge, an FIU international relations and economics profe ssor. ``It's important for the exile to show the people of Cuba our solidarity and establish bonds of trust that will be important in the reconstruction of Cuba when democracy is established.''
Among them are the heightened role of the Catholic Church on the island and the large numbers of the recently arrived refugees who have close relatives on the island and recent memories of the strife in their homeland.
Increased day-to-day telephone communications with the island, not available a few years ago, and the continuing flights to Cuba despite U.S. government regulations have given exiles a more realistic view of today's Cuba.
The increased contact has led to a gradual softening toward Cuba among many exiles -- including former hard-line militant activists who now want peaceful change on the island and are seeking to form alliances with dissidents inside Cuba.
``For many years the Miami community was dominated by the point of view of those who favored a strong anti-Castro position. Miami was monolithic and appeared to be monolithic as far as relations with the Castro government -- no negotiations, no trips t o Cuba, a total closing off the island,'' de Aragon said.
``The famous dialogue was considered a very negative experience by the hard-liners, but it opened the door to travel to Cuba. People did, and ever since then, there has been an undercurrent of ordinary people favoring contact with Cuba,'' de Aragon.< P> Those people, however, have been mostly shunned by hard-line Cuban radio commentators for taking to the island dollars they say are helping Castro survive economic hardships that should have otherwise toppled his government.
After the fall of communism in 1989, some exile leaders began to seek other ways to bring change on the island. Several movements that advocated negotiations with the Cuban government sprang up.
``What had been an undercurrent of ordinary people having contacts with Cubans on the island found some political leadership,'' de Aragon said. ``Ever since then, the community has become more pluralistic.''
In an impassioned editorial in which he cited his long background fighting Castro, WQBA commentator Julio Estorino said he also supports sending aid because the call to help came ``from the church into which I was born and under which I want to die.''
The Catholic Church asked exiles to help raise cash, food, medicine and clothes to send to the island and is using one of the most treasured exile institutions -- La Ermita de la Caridad, the Shrine to Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron saint -- to sta ge the massive collection drive.
Scores of people have flocked to La Ermita and other collection sites to make donations at the behest of WQBA. Rival station WCMQ, however, vehemently opposed the aid and harshly condemned its leaders, saying the goods would land in the hands of govern ment officials who support Castro.
On Wednesday, microphones crackled at both stations with passionate rhetoric on both sides.
WQBA station manager Agustin Acosta, who has spearheaded the promotion, said he has been called by some exiles ``a traitor and a vende patria, a soldout.'' Most listeners called to defend him.
``Everybody goes around saying we need to kill Fidel, we need to kill Fidel. And Fidel was in New York and nobody did anything. Nobody does anything,'' complained one woman. ``Even if half the aid gets there, even if only 25 percent of the aid gets t here, at least we're doing something.''
``I'm calling,'' a man told Acosta, ``to thank you in the name of the people of Cuba who cannot thank you themselves. This is a beautiful gesture.''
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald