US-Cuba Relations

Apart from the fact that we're actually here in Cuba and meeting with
students, professors, and distinguished hosts, we've also been
fortunate enough to have lectures on the topic we all wonder about:
US-Cuba relations. Yesterday we heard from a member of the Cuban
Foreign Service, followed by a visit to the Foreign Service Institute.
Meeting with the students, most of whom are our age, we got an
unfiltered vision into their reality.
These students have been born under the embargo (they call it a
blockade) and represent the next generation of diplomats who will work
to restore relations with the United States. Yet in talking with them
some of our own doubts and concerns were brought up as we headed down
to the waterfront to talk. I though that as students of the same
general age, we would talk about music, movies, or something else that
we could bond on. Yet I was surprised to find that in my small circle,
it felt almost as if we were continuing the lecture. This is why Cuba
is so great, etc. This is why the United States is bad, etc.

What my classmates and I are finding out is that it's not simply
enough to say we are the same age and want to improve relations
between our countries. There are ideological differences that still
remain, and because both of our parties have been raised to believe
something different, it's going to take a leap of faith for us to move
forward. Maybe it will only occur when both countries can admit to
mistakes that a reconciliation can take place. We've heard the issues
and have listened to both sides, and now we are left to think about
what we'll need to do in order to move forward amicably.

from Jon Brandt