Cuba Moves One Step Forward and Others Back

A Cuban family looking north from Jibacoa.

Paula Henriquez

HAVANA TIMES — I’ve been reading and re-reading everything that is happening with the US and Cuba again. It seems like these are poorly-told stories and bad jokes. What are we doing? And I say “we” because at the end of the day, we don’t know who’s doing what.

Some people blame people here and other people blame people there on whether this person or that person started it first. About whether there’s an investigation or something else… but… has anybody really thought about the thousands of families who will now lose all contact, the victims? On this side and there too?

What will happen to parents there who are waiting for their children? What will happen to the children who are waiting for their parents? And to those people who visit each other regularly?

What will happen to the people who had their immigration interviews set during the next couple of months? Will they have to lose all hope, even though the popular saying says that hope is the last thing that we lose?

What will happen to a country which seems to be more open to the world on a daily basis, but in reality is becoming more closed off? The iron bars that surround us are becoming more and more narrow… and we are becoming more and more isolated every day.

Yep, this is an old and poorly-told story. I don’t care who is to blame, what I am 100% sure about though is that none of the people being directly affected by this, on both sides, are to blame.

Will this never end?

Paula Henriquez

Paula Henriquez: Since childhood I have been told I should be careful what I say in public. "Think before you speak, especially in front of others," my mother would say, and it was more of a plea than a scolding. Even today I hear her and I obey her, just that I do not speak, I write. Letters and words are my escape, my exit and daily catharsis, which printed on paper, revive me. And this picture is my refuge.

2 thoughts on “Cuba Moves One Step Forward and Others Back”

  • I agree with the above article; politics should not get in the way to promote people to people contact, especially among families and friends, with unlimited visits across the Florida Strait by air and ferry. That is simple human behavior.

  • OR, who is behind it all?

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