The Future of Cuba US Relations

Sitting down to the Chicago Council on Global Affair’s panel on Cuba, I was immediately struck by the faces before me. One black woman stood out amidst a line of seven old white men. Cuba is a country primarily of black people, and I immediately doubted the ability of this panel to accurately gage the situation in the country, or present viable solutions. The Castro family is far from perfect: they have a unavoidable record of forcibly silencing political opponents in the country. However, the Cold War informed message of Castro as an evil dictator who wants nothing but power and doesn't care for his people is a large roadblock towards collaboration between these two countries. For 50 years the US supported a dictator in Cuba who treated common people like slaves, and stole billions of dollars in cane sugar and other goods.  Castro came along and represented the common people of Cuba, and succeeded in overthrowing the ruling class, stopping centuries of American Imperialism in the region.  How could a bunch of white Americans, who are inherently opposed to Castro and his message, possibly paint a fair picture of how we ought to treat Cuba in the coming years? The vast majority of the panel supported President Obama’s recent moves to reconnect with Cuba, now allowing some trade and tourism with the country.  However, they were universal in their weariness towards trying to create meaningful diplomatic relations with the country. They talked in sweeping terms about the danger of a culturally accepted Cuba, and of the possibility of terrorism on the island. Their fears echoed with the sounds of Mccarthyism and the red scare, and felt more aimed at communism in general than at Cuba specifically. It’s panels like these that hinder and even prohibit the possibility of productive and collaborative dialogue between two countries that are 90 miles apart. While in the room, I didn’t think much about the voices that were represented in the room, rather I was preoccupied imagining the voices that weren’t.