Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This document by Rafael Hernández, a Cuban political scientist and professor, was written in 2016 just before U.S. President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba and details some of the feelings in Cuba toward the occasion as well as what steps the author thinks must be taken by both countries to normalize relations. Hernández discusses the ills that have plagued U.S.-Cuban relations and some of the faults both countries have that have prevented them from relieving the tension, as well as what he feels needs to change in how each country approaches interactions with the other.
This essay highlights the problems still facing U.S.-Cuba relations even on the eve of the most significant normalization in the two countries’ history of fraught relations. Hernández brings attention to some of issues between the two countries that stem from attitude and the political approach of each country, and he spends less time covering the specific incidents and conflicts. He examines the mentalities of both countries that led to those problems and still lead to tension in the present, while also offering suggestions of how to remedy these issues.
“President Obama’s visit to Cuba has been avidly anticipated by all the world’s mass media. What do Cubans on the ground anticipate? Do they really care that Obama is coming? Will it help them, or harm them, or something else entirely? How are things going to change after he arrives in Havana, on Palm Sunday [March 20, 2016]? Will they feel more free? Some even speak of “the chemistry between Obama and the Cuban people”—a strange property of light that nobody has been able to see yet, but which is awaited, like the phenomena predicted by the theory of relativity.
After the early expectations that followed the San Lázaro Day celebration in 2014 [December 17], the more familiar long-term view took hold, bringing a rebound effect, a commonsense reading along the lines of “life is still the same.” In fact, during the past fifteen months, many have repeated that normalization of relations is “a very remote goal,” that relations between the two countries continue to be “essentially the same,” that “the objectives are the same, only the means have changed,” that “there is no end in sight to the blockade.” Thus the presidential visit has been anticipated as “just a symbolic act” because “nothing will change as long as the blockade continues,” or even “we are still at war, but now it’s a cultural war.” Et cetera.
Nevertheless, when you look around, you can see that during these same fifteen months Havana has overflowed with visitors, not only in the hotels but also in private rentals; Customs can barely handle the influx; expensive restaurants, rental cars, and tourist services are raking in hard currency.”
Hernández, Rafael. “Obama and Us.” In The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, Alfredo Prieto, and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff, 652–56. Duke University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smxrz.136.