Fernando Ravsberg

Raul Castro and Barack Obama have boarded a ship built in utmost secrecy over an 18-month period. They are sailing through turbulent waters and torpedoes are being fired at them from both coasts. What’s novel about these negotiations in comparison to previous attempts is that the two governments have sat down to talk without establishing any prior conditions, on the understanding that exchanging points of view is the beginning and not the end of the road.

Some years ago, I criticized the inconsistencies of Cuba’s information policy and a Cuban colleague of mine replied with a smile: “What information policy?” And it’s true: censorship seems to be devoid of all logic; as though it depended on what mood the official working that day woke up in.

When this post is published, Josefina Vidal and Roberta Jacobson, the two women tasked with re-establishing diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States, will be at a meeting, the starting point of a long road leading to the normalization of bilateral relations between the two countries.

At the “video rental” near my house, I was offered the “forbidden” episodes of “Vivir del cuento”, the most popular Cuban television show, starring Panfilo, a pensioner portrayed by comedian Luis Silva. They told me the censors had not allowed those episodes to be aired on television and I immediately asked them to make me a copy.

I got wind that Cuba and the United States were exchanging prisoners while interviewing a group of medical doctors who left for Brazil this Wednesday. When I told them the Cuban agents imprisoned in the United States were on their way home, there was applause, cheering and plenty of tears.