A new way to look at Cuba.
Dear friend,
Welcome to The Cuba Reader. If you are reading this email, you are someone I care about who may also be interested in Cuba. You might be one of the 40 or so grad students that were about to fly to Havana with me in March – a trip postponed due to the spread of COVID-19. You may be someone with whom I traveled to Cuba in the past. Or maybe at some point we simply found ourselves deep in a conversation about U.S.-Cuba relations.
Whatever the reason, I'm grateful that you made it to the second paragraph of this email. You are in no way obligated to remain a subscriber (the button is below) but let me first tell you why you might consider staying.
My journey to Cuba
I discovered Cuba in 2016, just a few months before U.S. airlines would resume their first regularly scheduled flights to the island since 1961. My trip happened on a whim – my brother and a few of his friends were going and I tagged along. We stopped in Mexico to buy a “People to People” visa and then jumped over to Havana. I had no idea that after only a few days in Cuba, my life would be very different. I would spend the next several years working in Cuba for Google/Alphabet, and today, I continue to study the island, its people, and its government.
Cuba's complexity
Cuba means something different to everyone. To some, a triumph of socialism, to others, a repressive regime. But to all, Cuba is a mystery. It is a tiny nation of contradictions that has, for decades, puzzled and frustrated students of geopolitics. Some pundits, ignoring the island's nuanced past and present, often portray Cuba as a caricature of its true identity. Much like the people we know best, Cuba is not simple; it is more than just one side of a political narrative. There are no easy answers. After spending much of the past five years traveling to and from Havana, I am still confronted with uniquely Cuban riddles every day.
Cuba is more relevant than ever
Understanding Cuba in its own enigmatic way is more important than ever. In the U.S., Cuba is once again a key narrative in our presidential elections. Within the past two weeks, both President Trump and Vice President Joe Biden have made sure to pander to voters on the issue of U.S.-Cuba relations:
On May 15, VP Biden tweeted, "Trump's international failures have cleared a path for Cuba to join the UN Human Rights Council," which would, "betray Cuba's political prisoners and further undermine U.S. diplomacy." Biden assured voters that, as president, he would focus on "empowering the Cuban people and defending human rights." This is the rhetoric that anti-Castro Cuban-Americans want to hear. Biden's critics quickly pointed out, however, that Cuba was part of the Human Rights Council during the Obama administration. Biden finds himself threading the needle on a difficult foreign policy issue in order to satisfy a small (but powerful) group of American voters in Florida who typically vote Republican. If elected President, I suspect Biden would take a friendlier position towards Cuba than his tweet indicates.
Five days after Biden's tweet, the White House tweeted a video and released a statement addressed to the Cuban people, citing "the many sacrifices of Cuba's freedom fighters," and Trump's commitment to "stand with the people of Cuba as they seek democracy, peace, and freedom." Like Biden's tweet, Trump's messages are triggering for the Cuban government. It's the type of language formerly retired during the Obama administration. Unlike Biden, however, Trump is in familiar territory here, comfortably pandering to a group to which he has shown consistent loyalty.
The outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election will decide much of the future for U.S.-Cuba relations. Each side will do as much as possible to secure the votes of Cuban Americans while trying to maintain some flexibility for how they approach the Cuban relationship after November.
For this reason and so many more, we should keep our eye on Cuba. This weekly newsletter will do its best to unpack the island's social, geopolitical and economic realities, guiding us through murky politics towards a clearer picture of Cuba. It will be a journey, and I hope you'll join me. We have a lot to cover.
If there are any topics you would like for me to touch on in future issues of the newsletter, please don't hesitate to email me at rob@thecubareader.com.
What I’ve been reading
We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World. Helen Yaffe’s new, highly researched book shows how Cuba survived after the Soviet Union collapsed and stopped providing everything on the island, from oil to food to basic home goods. She celebrates Cuba's revolutionary successes in a way you don't often find in Western literature.
Anthony DePalma's opinion piece in the New York Times: How Cubans Lost Faith in Revolution. While certainly not all Cubans have lost faith in Castro's revolutionary ideas, many have. Today's food, medical and energy shortages on the island are driving more and more Cubans away from Fidel's ideologies. A veteran foreign correspondent, DePalma approaches this sensitive topic with humanity.
Interested in visiting?
If you or your friends have any interest in joining me on a visit to Cuba in the future, I plan to lead an educational group to the island once travel becomes more accessible. It has been a privilege to run these trips at cost i.e., not for profit. If you're interested, shoot me an email.