VOA双语新闻:8、美古复交 美籍古巴人情绪复杂(在线收听

美古复交 美籍古巴人情绪复杂

President Barack Obama's decision to ease restrictions on U.S. trade with Cuba is attracting a lot of attention from the business community, with many companies poised to enter the last communist stronghold in the Americas. Long-time Cuban exiles in Miami say the news is bittersweet, however, for those who had to leave everything behind.

When Jorge Valdez was eight years old, he and his family left Cuba with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

约格·瓦尔迪兹离开古巴时只有8岁,他和他的家人只身出走,把所有的家当都留在了那里。

"I remember getting out of school and getting to my house, and there would be a seal on the door," he said.

Now all he has left are some old photographs and a lot of memories.

现在他留下的只有一些老照片和满满的回忆。

"When I was a kid, my grandfather smoked cigars. We used to sit in the front of the house, and he used to sit in a rocking chair and smoke it, and I’d hold it -- my father and my uncle while they were playing dominoes, which is another part of being Cuban," he said. "It’s something that we do. We play dominoes, smoke cigars and roast pigs. It’s part of being Cuban.”

他说: “我小时候,我爷爷抽雪茄。我们坐在房子前,爷爷坐在摇椅里抽雪茄,我就帮他拿着。爸爸和叔叔们在那玩儿多米诺骨牌,这是另一个古巴人的习俗。这就是我们,我们玩多米诺骨牌、抽雪茄、烤猪肉。这是古巴文化的一部分。”

"One of my favorites is a Don Carlos [cigar brand]," said Valdez.

Today, Valdez owns a successful Miami cigar shop, Sabor Havana, with brands dominated by Cuban families who also fled Cuba and today use other tobacco to make top-brand cigars.

今天,瓦尔迪兹成为了一名成功的迈阿密雪茄店店主。这个名为“哈瓦那味道”的雪茄店出售其他从古巴逃离出来的家庭最喜爱的古巴雪茄品牌,他们使用其他的烟草来烤制高端品牌的雪茄。

Valdez said people have been smuggling Cuban cigars into the United States for years. But now, large distributors are planning for when the Cuban market opens up, and Valdez is expecting sales to jump.

瓦尔迪兹说,多年来,人们一直走私古巴雪茄到美国。但是现在,大经销商都将古巴市场开放纳入计划,瓦尔迪兹认为销售将大幅上涨。

“I think that  when trade opens up with Cuba, and when we do have Cuban cigars to sell here in the United States, there'll be a surge, of course, because it was, or it has been for 50 years, the forbidden fruit, so everyone wants to take a bite of the forbidden fruit,” he said.

他说: “我想,在与古巴开放贸易之后,我们可以在美国销售古巴雪茄,到时销售肯定会大幅上升。因为过去50年来,这一直是禁果,所以大家肯定都想尝尝禁果的味道。”

Across town in Miami, the stronghold of Cuban-Americans, Andy Consuegra said lifting the trade embargo with Cuba would instantly boost his wine and spirit sales in the Caribbean.

在迈阿密的另一端,古巴美国人聚集的地方,安迪·孔苏埃格拉表示,解除对古巴贸易禁运将马上使他红酒和烈酒在加勒比地区的销售量马上上涨。

"Overnight it’s about 4 or 5 more million tourists right overnight, plus the increase in tourists that would be expected, should things change or when things change, plus the local population, so another 11, 12 million people,” said Consuegra.

他说: “一夜之间,一夜之间就增加了400万到500万的游客,而如果政策改变,可能增加的游客加上当地人口,又增加了1千1百万到1千2百万人。”

Consuegra said presently, large European companies dominate the market as they do not fall under the U.S. economic embargo.

孔苏埃格拉说,到目前为止,欧洲大公司占据市场,因为他们不受美国经济禁运的限制。

Businessmen like Consuegra and Valdez look forward to the opportunities that open trade would bring. But for Valdez, it is difficult to forget the past.

像孔苏埃格拉和瓦尔迪兹这样的商人都期待这个机会将开启新的贸易契机。但是对瓦尔迪兹来说,他也很难忘记过去的经历。

"That’s the bitter part. I wish those kinds of things could be erased, but there is so much pain for 50 years that we hold onto that it’s hard to look at the upside of this exchange without there being some benefit to the people that are there," he said.

他说: “这是苦涩的另一方面。我也希望我能抹去那些经历,但是过去50年来我们经历了太多痛苦,所以如果古巴人不能得到一些好处的话,我们很难只看到贸易交换的乐观一面。”

Valdez said that even if he could, he does not want to return to the communist nation. He said he is content to spend time with his friends and clients in his own little bit of Cuba here in Miami.

 

瓦尔迪兹说,就算他可以回到古巴,他也不想再回到这个国家。他说,他很满足于现在在迈阿密的古巴人小圈子里与他的朋友和顾客一起共度时光。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/voabn/2014/12/297813.html