Dissatisfaction toward Desired US-Cuba Relations

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a big fan President Obama. However, when I first heard the news of the US restoring its relationship with Cuba, I was happy to hear that he was making steps toward improving a country that has been outcasted and ignored for so long. At the same time, there is an underlying reason why it has been: the communist Castro regime. While it is definitely time to end the suffering of the Cuban people, Obama is trying to do so by blatantly disregarding the very reason why they have endured such pain in the first place. Without recognizing the injustices dispensed by the Castro regime, progress in Cuba looks more like a golden star for Obama’s repertoire, rather than a genuine expression of concern for the true and ultimate victims — the Cuban people.

At first, I was a strong supporter of the rebuilding of ties between the US and Cuba. The Cuban people have been forced to live under a government that strips them from any privileges that the majority of the world’s population considers basic human rights. I don’t think it’s fair for people living in Cuba to be shunned from the rest of the world — and yes the US had a role in exacerbating some of its issues with the implementation of the embargo — but it did not necessarily come out of nowhere.

However, my family’s response to this news did not necessarily align with my own progressive perspective, which at first irritated me a bit, but indeed it’s rightfully so. Growing up, I often heard stories of how my family arrived to America when Castro had taken control of Cuba in the early 1960s. I vividly imagined my grandparents having to abandon the life they worked so hard to achieve to completely start over in the US. But I always thought of them as the lucky ones in that sense, since so many in Cuba were left behind to languish under Castro’s despicable rule.

When I asked my abuela if she would ever return to her home country given the chance, she bitterly replied that she had no intention whatsoever to do so. This is coming from a woman who has lived in the US for more than half of her life, but is reluctant to speak fluent English. Contrarily, this is also from a woman who watched Castro steal everything she had (and could have ever wanted) right before her very own eyes. She did not want to leave her good life in Cuba, but had no choice if she wanted to see any sense of prosperity for her children. She was forced to undergo the unfortunate realization that she and my abuelo would have to restart their lives from the bottom in a foreign country, if they wanted the simple luxury of living freely.

Cuban Americans (and surely Cubans in Cuba) dream of seeing the demise of the Castro regime. However, Obama’s approach at restoration does not address this whatsoever, which is why these negotiations feel like such a slap in the face. There is no condemnation for the Castro regime’s cruelties, no attempt to bring justice to the Cuban people and certainly no recognition of the history that has brought us here in the first place. How Obama can shake the hands of a communist dictator as if years of repression never happened truly bewilders me.

What’s worse, is that the negotiations between the US and Cuba seem to perpetuate the suffering of Cuban people instead of alleviating it. Undoubtedly tourism will boost the Cuban economy, but it will do so through the expense of exploitation. Yes, Cuban people in Havana and other touristic locations will have jobs and incomes, but is that really progress? What about the people who don’t live in those areas? What about the people with aspirations to work in a career outside of the tourism industry? What about the people that desire a government that actually takes into consideration their well being?

As a Cuban American, I want nothing more for the land of my ancestors to be able to prosper again, but it should be done so in a way that reflects genuine institutional change and progress, not just a superficial approach to foreign policy that ignores decades of suffering and deplorable governance.