US and Cuba relations

Why Cuban landholders keep losing

February 12, 2018

Earlier last month, Cubans Americans held their breath as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson contemplated what would become of Title III of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act.  Eventually passing the responsibility off to Thomas Shannon, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, it was decided that the measure would be suspended another six months, to the dismay of thousands who believed the Trump administration would upend the long disputed bill (Torres 2018).  

The Making of the Freshest Cigars in Cuba

October 7, 2016

The small Cuban city of Viñales is a colorful town situated at the foot of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico, a sharply pitched, palm-and-vine-draped mountain range with awe-inspiring internal caves and strikingly stark facades. The rolling fields that surround Viñales are saturated with color: the rich red-brown soil is almost as vivid as the bright green tobacco leaves growing out of it. The tobacco fincas, or plantations, extend around Viñales and into the mountains where coffee is grown as well.

Una Norteamericana en La Habana: Cuban Sentiment Towards the United States

September 16, 2016

You are watching a group of dancers perform at an outdoor salsa club when someone standing beside you asks in Spanish, “Where are you from?” You answer, “Los Estados Unidos,” and the young man’s face lights up. He exclaims in rapid, clipped Spanish that you can’t quite understand, and jokingly introduces himself as “Robin Hood.” You laugh.

Fidel Castro Responds to Obama's Visit to Cuba

April 16, 2016

A new chapter in Cuban-US relations has begun after President Obama’s recent three day trip to Cuba. Upon landing, he spent his time meeting with Raul Castro, touring the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, talking with Cuba’s Cardinal, Jaime Ortega, a proponent of US-Cuban relations, and eating at informal residential restaurants called “paladares.” By all accounts, Obama made sure to do as the locals do in order to normalize relations that have been frozen since the 1960s.

Subscribe to RSS - US and Cuba relations