The unsettling news over Radio Dominica, WDBS, was that in a fortnight the government would be welcoming a delegation from Castro’s Cuba.
Something was said about a friendship pact but I was so shaken by the first words that I am not sure what they said next.
There was to be a rally for the Cubans on the New Town Savanna after their long drive from Melville Hall Airport.
The few American and British expatriates were visibly unhappy at the prospect of this impending alliance and much discussion was promulgated around town and in the Dominica Club.
Cuba had provided scholarships for young Dominicans as had the United States, but the United States did not bother to see that the recipients returned, as promised, to Dominica after they completed their schooling. Cuba on the other hand did not allow its scholarship recipients to remain in Cuba after finishing and they returned, full of communist ideals, to Dominica.
Pro Castro communist cells had for some time been gathering strength in some of the outlying villages, instituted by these returning Cuban indoctrinees. A growing list of incidents began to incline the conservative Dominicans and expatriates to unease.
This announcement by the Dominican government, that Cuba would be welcomed, apparently came after an indication that some Cuban financial assistance could be arranged for the development of Dominica.
“Would the local populace welcome the Cubans?” was the question most often asked in the next few days.
Either the Dominicans we asked were telling us what they thought we wanted to hear, or they were genuinely against the friendly relations with Cuba.
“We could send to the States for some American flags,” one American suggested.
“But, would that be interfering in the local government? Remember we are not citizens,” another expatriate said.
“If the Cubans are to be favored now, we might be sent packing if we came into customs to clear an order of American flags,” I opined.
There did not seem to be much hope of frustrating the government’s current flirtation with communist Cuba and we each knew that if communism became Dominica’s philosophy of fashion we could kiss our investments, and perhaps even our residency good-by.
As the day grew near and tensions increased, Sylvia Johnson, a friend who had a dry goods shop in Roseau remembered buying a bolt of discounted 1976 US bicentennial celebration cloth in the United States in 1977. She intended to sell it to her customers to make shirts and blouses. The pattern was a print of the United States bicentennial logo of 1976, superimposed on a representation of the US flag. The pattern was a repeating one and by cutting straight across the bolt at the boundaries at each she found she could produce dozens of fairly large representations of the US Flag.
Without fanfare these simulations of US flags were quickly cut, attached to hand held sticks, and secretly made ready for the Cubans’ arrival.
The day came and the Cuban delegation was driven from the airport with much fanfare but when it reached town, windows, balconies and street corners, immediately began to display the US Flag representations.
When, after this unsettling development, the people at the rally, emboldened by their flags, gave a less than friendly reception to the uniformed Cubans, the Dominican Government officials rethought and dismissed their potential alliance with Cuba. Note: I missed the arrival and the rally so some of this is second hand. PB.