SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Listen to my people on the island. Give their stories more weight. They are no one's enemy. They just want to be left alone and to live without penalty.

Marco Rubio once claimed his family fled Cuba's Revolution in 1959 after Fulgencio Batista was ousted. When that was debunked with official documentation proving his family fled the U.S.-backed Batista regime, which was killing its opposition in the streets, he responded by saying his story was based on family lore passed down by his parents and grandparents, not official accounts.

And that, my friends, is how many Cuban Americans derive their opinions about Cuba. Hyperbolic “family lore” that when faced with even the slightest scrutiny, doesn't add up or jibe with historical records. That's why they get mad at you and call you names when you meet them with the slightest push back.

And I get it. Challenging decades-old false narratives that they lived their whole lives believing and accepting they were lied to my family is hard. 

But it's absolutely necessary.

Listen to my people on the island. Give their stories more weight. They are no one's enemy. They just want to be left alone and to live without penalty.