How My Heritage Fostered My Conservatism
By Anabella
If you had asked me as a child what my worst fear was, I would have told you “tyrannical government.” As ridiculous and dramatic as that may sound coming from a child, I meant it. When I was younger, I knew the government’s tyranny was a far fetched reality, but I also knew that it was possible. This seemingly irrational fear for such a small child stemmed from my family’s experience enduring and escaping two tyrannical governments. Leading up to the Second World War, my great grandparents fled to Cuba from Eastern Europe in response to the escalating antisemitism. Shortly after, Castro took power in Cuba, bringing with him the tyranny of communism. This change in regime forced both my grandparents and great grandparents to immigrate to the United States. Though my family never harped on the hardships they had faced under Castro’s dictatorship, the paranoia of tyranny was hardwired into the back of my mind growing up. As I got older, my grandparents’ stories have encouraged and prompted me to advocate for a limited government.
The theme of freedom, or rather the pursuit of freedom, was never more palpable as it was during our annual Passover seder. Passover, the holiday that marks the transition from the Jews being slaves in Egypt to being free people in Israel, naturally provided my grandfather with countless opportunities to discuss his journey from oppression to freedom. The story of Passover has an elevated meaning in my house. More than a cultural account of Jewish perseverance, Passover was a personal story of survival in my family. While my family’s story is unique and different from our neighbors, the story of oppression and resilience is a common thread that weaves my “Juban” (Jewish + Cuban) community together. It is this same thread that I found my passion for conservatism and the importance of preserving religious, cultural, and economic freedom.
To me, the bulwark between democracy and tyranny is the second amendment. After Castro came to powers, he set out to diminish gun ownership in Cuba, touting the slogan “Armas Para Que?” or “Guns for What?” His position on the topic of gun control sounds similar to the rhetoric we hear today. “Why do you need your guns? Who would you need to defend yourself from? The government will handle it.” It was too late when the Cuban people realized they needed protection from the government itself. It is instances like these that exhibit the importance of our right to bear arms. In fact, it is one of the only things that protect every other right we are entitled to. Without this right, nothing is stopping the government from infringing upon more and more of our other freedoms. What happened in my grandparents’ homeland serves as a constant reminder to not only fervently protect this right, but to admire the ultimate power it provides Americans.
While understanding my values as a product of my heritage and family’s experience is important, it’s just as important to understand what we’re fighting against. The stories I grew up hearing from my grandparents about corruption, fear, and depravity are no different from the millions of other stories you’d find if you researched “communist Cuba” or any communist regime for that matter. People disappeared in the middle of the night. They starved because there wasn’t enough food for them, while party elites wined and dined in confiscated mansions. Businesses were nationalized, and when business owners sought to reclaim their property from government officials, they were threatened with death, or, in some cases, actually killed. While my grandfather was lucky and only threatened, thousands of others were not as lucky. One of my grandparents’ contemporaries was imprisoned for speaking out against the regime. Another stole a plane to escape. At the airport, a woman gave one of my older cousins her baby and begged her to take the child with her to America. Think about that— she gave a stranger her baby, desperately hoping that someone would be on the other side to receive him. If you’re from south Florida, stories of people floating to freedom are far from uncommon, and empty rafts marooning on beautiful pale beaches is a stark reminder of those who don’t make it. The desperation of the Cuban people to flee their situation is a stark reminder of the freedoms we are so lucky to have in this country. Furthermore, the desperation should serve as a wake-up call to the privileged college students who espouse the bounties of communism, while not recognizing the pain and destitution occurring just 90 miles from our shores.
Hopefully, this puts the desperation that communism cultivates into perspective for those condemning today’s capitalist system. These experiences might seem beyond belief to American citizens who have never considered the possibility of living under these circumstances. Still, the threat of communism is more pervasive today than they might realize.
Today, people unapologetically declare themselves socialists, while popular politicians promote socialist policies. Considering my family history, the popularity of “democratic socialism” is alarming. In reality, we must beware, as the name is a disguise for its true meaning. There is no such thing as “democratic” socialism. The only thing that could ever be democratic about socialism is the initial election that brings it about. Unfortunately, as was seen in Cuba, in Venezuela, and countless other nations, this last election to empower socialism, is the last time an election will empower anything. Socialism is a pathway to communism— an oppressive vacuum in which the purity of democracy cannot exist. It is not only extremely upsetting but scary to see so many people actively supporting a destructive ideology that has forced my family, along with many others, to emigrate twice. Socialism did this to us, first under the Nazis, who self-identified as socialists and then under Castro, who pushed for communism, the second step of socialism. No matter what spin the Left wants to put on it— no matter how hard they try to convince us that this isn’t like the socialism we’ve seen around the world— people with backgrounds like mine see right through it.
The paranoia I felt as a child and shrugged off as a teen is back in full force as a young adult. When I hear Kamala Harris adamantly call for strict gun control and even threaten to have firearms confiscated by force, the fear of tyranny that I once deemed irrational creeps back up. When I see the censorship of speech and people losing their jobs over political beliefs, I am reminded of my family friends who were imprisoned for doing the same against Castro. When businesses in California have to open in secret simply to survive, it reminds me of the secret black markets Cubans depend on to survive. As a direct product and beneficiary of my ancestors’ sacrifices, struggles, and ultimate success in America, I owe it to them and to our nation to do everything in my power to ensure that we do not follow the same socialist/communist path that has doomed every country where it has been implemented. For this reason, I am proud to say that I am a conservative.
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