Cuba is changing

Vail Daily column: Cuba is changing



An apparently polite and perfunctory presidential encounter at Nelson

Mandela's memorial became more than a mere handshake. Not only did

President Barack Obama shake Raul Castro's hand, but he also shook the

Beltway and blogosphere, ironically and metaphorically giving pause to

those with sanitary concerns about casual and calculated handshakes.

This one did indeed go viral. The handshake grabbed the synoptic

attention spans that comprise the Internet, inciting gobs of Google

returns and emotional comments.



While some pundits and politicians consider President Obama's

acknowledgement of Cuba's leader either a pragmatic grasp of diplomacy

or merely a funereal formality, others lambasted the palming as

insouciance, if not actually a tacit high five, to tyranny and thuggery.

While the presidential handshake may have meant nothing more than a

spontaneous greeting without forethought or consequence, the possibility

exists that the gesture subtly acknowledged that our Cuban policy,

codified through ostracism and various legislative measures through the

years, has likely delayed rather than hastened Cuban democracy.



One thing is certain. Cuba is changing.



Last month, I traveled to Cuba on the Chamber of the Americas Cuban

Cultural/Educational mission trip. Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban native and

doctoral candidate at the University of Denver's Korbel School of

International Studies, guided the mission, introducing us to Cuban

artists, musicians, academics, students, bloggers, activists, religious

leaders and budding entrepreneurs. The introductions were more than an

exchange of handshakes and pleasantries. We engaged in spirited and

freewheeling discussions about socioeconomic and political challenges

that would've been impossible even a decade ago. Actually, finding a

budding entrepreneur in Cuba a decade ago would've been impossible. A

recent New York Times article explored the Cuban government's gradual

and limited shifts and allowances, quoting our tour organizer,

Lopez-Levy, on the intricacies the Cuban government and reformists

navigate on the delicate dance to a destination even remotely considered

a full-fledged free democracy. Cuba's limited freedoms and private

proprietorships appear more of an amateur dress rehearsal than the world

premiere of a polished production on any stage of the global economy.



Chamber of the Americas' Cuban mission exposed both the holdouts and the

passing of Castro's communist Cuba. While the government's economic

reforms and expanded freedoms and allowances appear slow, even

begrudging, the newfound permissiveness appears everywhere every day.

The Cuban government's long-awaited surrender won't come courtesy of

military strikes or economic embargos, but through pragmatism and

compromise. Democratic and economic reform will occur through evolution

rather than revolution.



The broad American perception of Cuba is that of an anachronistic

government and country; exiled to a bygone time and discarded ideology.

The forbidden fruit allure and film noir romanticism retain a potent

pull on the American imagination through bohemian bromides and celluloid

visages of Hemingway and fedoras, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and berets, and

vintage automobiles last seen with regularity in the Eisenhower era.

Remnants of those perceptions remain throughout Cuba, but the island

nation has progressed past America's stereotypical imagination of

Fulgencio Batista's decadence and Fidel Castro's severity. These days,

Castro's sweeping and soaring sermons under the monumental pillar in

Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion are seen and heard only on historical

video and audio recordings; the state no longer has monolithic business

and communication exchanges. Indeed, the general population eagerly

trades words, goods and services with foreigners.



New face of Cuba



Harold Cardenas Lema, a professor and blogger at La Joven Cuba, is one

of those Cuban citizens eager to express opinions without restraint or

limitations. He represents the new face of Cuba, an academic with

limited means, opportunities and freedoms, but agitating for change and

opportunities in ways that are more meaningful and effective than our

isolation of the Cuban government and, by extension, its citizens. The

setting of our meeting with Cardenas Lema also represented a shift in

the Cuban socioeconomic and political topography. We met at a paladar, a

privately owned restaurant. Actually, the establishment was more of a

movie-centric watering hole reminiscent of Hemingway's and Hollywood's

ideated and idyllic Havana, replete with sketches and murals of

Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe that would fit in SoHo or LoDo. The

location and setting represented Cuba's gradual transition, situated on

the cusp of Havana and Hollywood; communism and capitalism.



If the ambiance, location and nature of the paladar herald an evolution

rather than a revolution in Cuba, Cardenas Lema personifies it. His

words, written and spoken with insistent passion, push past the eroding

strictures and limitations of Cuban discourse. Cardenas Lema will win

his war with words rather than weapons. He displays frustration,

impatience and hope in equal measures. Like other Cubans I met, the

possibility of relations with America excites him, including the

prospect of collaboration between the Chamber of the Americas and La

Joven Cuba.



Whatever the motivations and implications of the controversial handshake

at the Mandela memorial, a generous interpretation foretells increased

American relations with a Cuban democracy led by people such as Cardenas

Lema and influenced by his passion and persistence.



Wayne Trujillo, director of communications for the Chamber of the

Americas, is a Minturn native and Battle Mountain High School graduate.

His family moved to Eagle County nearly a century ago. His uncle, Oscar

Meyer, was the Eagle County sheriff gunned down by James Sherbondy on

Tennessee Pass in 1937, and his Aunt Ollie Meyer was Eagle County

superintendent of schools. His grandparents, Irene and Ralph Meyer,

moved to Minturn in the 1940s and owned and operated Meyer's Garage. He

currently lives in Denver.



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