Cuban Vacation?

In my second year at ________ University, I was accepted into a program to visit Cuba. Normally, Americans are not allow people to visit, but because it was considered an educational trip, and because I was writing a paper on the experience, I was allowed entry. We couldn't just fly there (even though it only stands about 90 miles off the Florida coast) so we took a 6 hour stop over in Jamaica and when they went to stamp our passports, we did not let them (if they stamp your passport you will not be allowed entrance into the US).

We finally got through customs that night. It was as life-altering an experience as you would think it would be. I was just some spoiled suburban kid going to college and getting as fucked up as possible all the time. So, it wasn't just the jolt of being out of place, because that was certainly there, but it was the jolt in their humanity. I was told that people make 20 pesos a month on average, which translates to roughly $2. $2 a Month?! Anyway, these extremely poor people, that held second and third jobs to feed their families, were extremely hospitable when they could have just as easily hated the spoiled Americans. Also there were some cuties there with ol' school (read pre-embargo automobiles):


America still has an economic embargo on the Cuban country even after the break down of the Soviet Union (Cuba's main benefactor after Fidel seized power in '59). I understand the heightened tension with Cuba (especially since Miami is a hot-bed for anti-Fidel rhetoric with all the displaced Cubans, and Florida is an important swing state in national elections), but enough is enough.

Bush continued in a long line of Executive abuse of Cuba and it's mercurial leader Fidel. In 2004 he limited family travel to two weeks every three years. Clinton had tried opening up relations with Cuba, and that is how I was able to get in there with an education exemption.

Well Barack appears to be changing the status quo once again. According to the NY Times article Obama

...is using his executive power to repeal Mr. Bush’s tight restrictions and the looser restrictions under President Bill Clinton so that Cuban-Americans can now visit Cuba as frequently as they like and send gifts and as much money as they want, as long as the recipients are not senior government or Communist Party officials.

This doesn't mean the trade embargo has been lifted (something that still cripples the Cuban people), and open tourism for all Americans is a ways off, but Cuban family members can visit as much as they want, and more importantly they can send money. One of the most fascinating trends I learned in Cuba was how reliant on Canadian tourists some Cuban residents are. Because Canada is not restricted in any way, many Cuban people befriend them and receive money from them.

I can't express how beautiful the land is and how generous and proud the people are (no one ever begged me for change), but they are poor and probably getting worse as the global economy takes more hits. Hopefully, Obama will find a way to go even further in strengthening our ties to this tiny country, so that everyone can experience it like I did, and the Cuban people don't have to work so hard to maintain impoverished conditions.