The Miami Cuban community is often maligned as a bunch of “older Cuban men” who’ve not been able to get over the loss of their “stuff” from the thieving and murderous reign of Fidel Castro. They are portrayed as troglodytes, fanatically rightwing, living in the past, playing dominoes, recalling the good old days, sexist and totally irrelevant. Definitely not the “in” crowd to such “cognoscenti” who dismiss them.

Well, Miami Cubans have a way of throwing those stereotypes right back in the faces of their accusers, who are often U.S. leftist ignoramuses with no understanding of the Cuban-American experience, no grasp of what it is like to flee a monstrous tyrant, no ability to listen to that experience and learn, and with big enough egos to think these Miami Cubans can be talked down to, lectured, put in a box, and dismissed as irrelevant. Some, of course, are happy to do the bidding of Fidel Castro, who is an avid supporter of this stereotype.

It’s baloney. Miami’s vibrant, lively exile Cuban community, just this weekend put on an in-your-face Cuba Nostalgia festival, for those who dismiss them as irrelevant “older Cuban men.” And they just happen to look like this:

Source: Julio Zagroniz

Such is the vibrance of the Miami Cuban community! Take a look at the mix of old and young here:

One thing ignoramuses who hate the Miami Cuban community don’t know is that Latin culture in general is not broken down in market segments – that’s a gringo phenomenon and it dates to the 50s and 60s, all that ‘youthquake’ and ”Pepsi generation” rubbish. It’s something hippies think, faithful to their television sets and corporate branding, even as they babble to themselves that they are free spirits while doing everything advertisers tell them to do, so that they, too, can feel groovy. When one is lost in a rapidly changing society, as they are, uniformity feels good.

Well, I got news for such Miami Cuban haters: Miami Cubans and other Latinos are not lost, they know exactly who they are. They don’t care about generational divides. Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez achieved their great fame in the 80s and 90s, when Ry Cooder ignored their ages and just listened to their music for the Buena Vista Social Club. For Cubans, or Mexican, or other Latinos, if they like you, they like you, and they don’t care what your age, your income, your university or your market niche is. In that regard, they are very different from Perfect North American Idiots who think everyone goes in a box, and “Older Cuban Men” are especially irrelevant. But they are not irrelevant. Their dismissers are the ones who don’t know anything. These Free Miami Cubans, right here, in all their vibrance, show otherwise. And guess what? They win, too!

Val Prieto, at Babalu blog covered this event in Miami, and wrote several fascinating entries that tell the truth about the Real Free Cuba. Just click here and keep scrolling.