A group of veteran Cuban baseball players recently arrived in Florida. Their first game was expected to be played in Miami at Florida International University (FIU) against former Cuban baseball players who defected to the United States. However, this game was abruptly canceled by FIU thereby leaving the Cuban veterans without a venue to play their South Florida game. Of course, South Florida has a dominant Cuban population that includes die-hard, anti-communist supporters who will go out of their way to suppress any cultural or athletic performances of Cubans visiting the United States. It is not certain how such actions to intimidate the Cuban visitors can impact the state of affairs and lives of the residents in Cuba. However, certainly such suppressive actions are not expected from a university that professes to produce independent, academic thinkers. Surely, a university such as FIU who is working to become recognized as a top-notch institution would not get involved in the political antics of these groups but rather to promote the cultural exchange that many baseball lovers would have loved to view. Shame on you FIU as the situation was poorly handled.
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