My father arrived to the United States as a teenager right after the revolution. His childhood home and all possessions were confiscated by the Cuban government. I grew up in Miami, my childhood steeped in nostalgia for Cuba, everything from the garbly records my father played to the foods we enjoyed and his teary stories from the island. To this day, my father has the deed to his childhood home.
But, like so many other Cubans—the “silent majority” as I’d come to know them—my father was also practical. His grandparents and almost all of his aunts and uncles and cousins remained on the island. Thus, he and my grandmother would frequently send money and basic necessities like medicine and shoes—costing a whopping $65 a pound to ship back in the 1980s. “¡Qué robo!” (“What robbery!”) he’d mutter when we’d leave the agency. “The only person the embargo helps is Fidel Castro.”
Thanks to reforms by Presidents Clinton and Obama, I have visited the island twice as an adult. For the average Cuban, including the extended family I have left on the island, life is a hustle to supplement paltry food ration cards and obtain basic necessities like shoes, toilet paper and toothbrushes
This has weighed heavily on my mind as, once again, Donald Trump plans to undo an Obama Administration policy that benefits the grand majority of Americans—including Trump supporters. This time, he plans to restrict travel by Americans to Cuba and halt business transactions, potentially costing the U.S. economy $6.6 billion and affecting more than 12,000 American jobs.
One of my littlest family members living in the nickel mining town of Moa, Cuba. His family has faced shortages of medicine and toiletries.
While the United States has not completely lifted an almost 60-year economic embargo against the island due to its communist government, a majority of elected and business leaders agree that Obama’s reforms were in the business and political interests of both countries. So much so that Senators Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) recently introduced legislation to lift all travel restrictions to the island. The bill enjoys the backing of 55 U.S. Senators from both political parties.
In spite of this widespread support, including the majority of Cuban Americans in Florida, Trump continues to nepotistically listen to only a select group of family or friends. In this case, he’s been in back room meetings with a very small and vocal right-wing Cuban American contingency in Florida … and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
This is a problem. Not only is Menendez attempting to speak for all Cuban Americans (despite being wildly out-of-step with them), but he is giving “bipartisan” cover for an alternate plan to Flake’s and Leahy’s. As progressives, we must continuously strive for a united front against harmful and regressive policies such as the U.S.’s nonsensical laws against Cuba.
If you live in New Jersey, please consider calling Senator Menendez at any of his three offices, or emailing him here.
What should you tell the person on the other line? Please mention if you are of Cuban descent and/or still have family on the island. Let his office know that you support the genuinely bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Flake and Leahy, the “Freedom for Americans to Travel to Cuba Act,” as the almost 60-year embargo against the island has not brought down the Castros. Let the staff member know that not only have the Cuban people suffered, but that his anti-Cuba stance hurts Americans, too, at a time when we need more — not less! — jobs.
It’s hard to believe we need to make such a call, but nothing about our Cuba policies have ever been steeped in facts or common sense.
There is no guarantee that lifting all sanctions will bring democracy to Cuba. But we know for sure that our policies from the last 60 years haven’t worked. The Cuban people have suffered enough. Americans need jobs, and could contribute to the island in the way of ideals and entrepreneurship.
If you haven’t already, please call or email Senator Bob Menendez. It’s time for him to put his nostalgia aside and do what is right for both Americans and Cubans. Keep fighting!
