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Written by Charley Norkus
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 Vladimir Nunez, born in Cuba in 1975, plays Major League baseball, these days as a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. Like most Cuban boys, Nunez chose to play baseball, the national sport of the Cuban people since the 1870s, partly a protest against the Spanish elitism of bullfighting. His homeland Cuba was taken over by Fidel Castro in 1959 when Castro and his fellow revolutionaries ousted the American-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. Following a botched CIA-led revolt in 1961 to overthrow him, Castro developed a close relationship with then Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev, their partnership culminating in the 13-day conflict with President Kennedy known as the Cuban Missle Crisis. Thousands fled their homeland by boat to escape to America, most remaining in Miami, FL to become a part of "Little Cuba." Although most of these expatriates still decry their loss, the fact that not all Cubans resented their Communist socialist influence can be seen in Nunez's first name, the same as that of Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the USSR.
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