Bringing Cuba Back

After discussing America’s conquest of Cuba in the Spanish American War in class, I was interested in a recent New York Times article discussing President Obama’s new plan to reconnect the United States with Cuba. During George Bush’s presidency, Cuba was made out to be an enemy, a country with whom we should not have relations. Bush continued the embargo on Cuba the U.S. initiated in 1962, and made travel to the island nearly impossible. The former president alienated a struggling country that needs America’s help, but Obama is working to fix that.

This week, Obama and the presidents of 33 other countries in the Western Hemisphere held a summit meeting to discuss Cuba’s future and whether it should join the Organization of American States after it was expelled from the group in 1962. Cuba was not at the summit meeting, but talks seemed promising for the island that has struggled as a Communist country for the past 45 years. Unlike Bush, who brushed issues with Cuba aside, Obama is taking the challenge head-on.

Although Obama did not discuss the trade embargo on Cuba, he did promote the rights of Cubans living in the United States to “travel freely to the island and send money to relatives there.” Obama also opened the door to communicating with Cuba’s president, Raul Castro. While George Bush wanted to simply end all exchanges with Castro, Obama wants to create a relationship with the president, the first step toward making U.S.-Cuban relations move in a positive direction.

As we talked about in class, the United States once fought for Cuba’s freedom from Spain. But, as we saw in the political cartoons, Cuba was portrayed in very different ways in the early 20th century, both as a lovely woman in a ball and chain that needed America’s help, and also as a filthy, violent dark man that Uncle Sam is glad to be rid of. It had many different guises. Since Cuba became a Communist country in the early 1960’s, and the U.S. closed its doors to the poverty-stricken nation, there is only one way to view Cuba now: beaten down.

But today, a century after the Spanish-American war, President Barack Obama is attempting to mend relations between the United States and Cuba, and in the process stepping up to a challenge that no president has been willing to face for forty years. Obama’s plan may get Cuba back on its feet and allow it to rejoin the Organization of American States. From there, Cuba would decide whether or not to help make the world a better place. But first, it has to help itself—and America’s overtures might be the catalyst.