Show some respect to Cuban history, or at least, to our food.

I just loved to sneak around my fellow Cubans bloggers' sites to see what's the hot issue out there every day. And I am so glad that I've developed this new addiction.

In a recent post at El Mizzoubanazo, I just got a sneak-preview of what was meant to be a Cuban restaurant in Baltimore, in the so "in" Nuevo Cubano style.

With the first click, I was intrigued. With the second one, I started laughing. With the third one, it just become another day when I feel extremely concerned with the world's chronic ignorance.

Ay, Martí!!!Debes estar echando espuma por la boca y revolcándote en la tumba, whenever your dead body is resting now...

So, I decided to write a letter to the contacts they are posting in their website.
And this is what I came with:

Dear Tim, Ron, Marc, Scott, and whoever else in related to Little Havana Restaurant and Cantina, in Baltimore.

With all due respect to all your amendments-given freedom to do whatever you want in your business, I have to tell you I am shocked that citizens from this great country sometimes can be so ignorant, cruel and clueless about the history and the traditions of other countries. Eg: Cuba.

Thanks God you guys are running a restaurant and not teaching at any given classroom in this country.
Thanks God. Again, again, and again.

I've got to tell you... love the intro in your webpage:
"Over the course of nine years"... very poetic.

But, over the course of nine years, you should have started by having a native Spanish speaker proofreading all the words in faked Spanish you're using in your menu and webpage.

If you were really a little bit interested in doing business with a Cuban flare, you should have known that in Cuba we say Bares, not Cantinas --those are the ones in Mexico.

Then, that non-existent authentic proofreader should have told you that parrilla is spelled with two r's; the same ones that most Americans struggle so much to roll.

Then, may be you would also have known something about concordance in the Spanish grammar: the ensalada es vaquerA (no vaquero) and that frijoles negros is only one soup, not several sopaS.

And you poor things really believed you guys are bringing Havana to me?
G-I-V-E M-E A B-R-E-A-K
Sorry to wake you up, but that is just SO WRONG.

Come on!!! You didn't even researched in advance, at least to know that nachos and quesadillas are Mexican and Mexican American dishes, but not Cuban. In Cuba's traditional food, you will never ever find anything with tortillas. Helloooooo????

And there you add the glorious final touch...the image of a murder as decoration and their names in your menu. I wonder what would happen if I decide to do the same, but then I add the images of Hitler and his crew?

I am so sad. But not for me, or the thousands of Cubans that have lost their beloved one in the hands of Castro, his regimen and under the bullets of Che.

I am sad for you.

And I am sad for all the Americans from Baltimore and near by places that go to your restaurant hoping to buy something authentic. Too bad for them if they also believe that you have any idea of what the Nuevo Cubano is.

And I won't even mention the offense to Cubans for your political implications.

But, what can I do?

Ignorance is killing the world, and is being vicious in the United States, with people like you.

FYI: I am not a "rabid" Cuban from Miami, eager to constantly shout against Castro. I am a young woman that was born and raised under that regimen, that has lived in the U.S. only for a few years.
Believe me, I DO know what I am talking about.
But you don't.

_____________________________

Then I signed with "Best Regards".
And now, I just feel so accidentally GOOD.
(sight)