Cuba is only 90 miles away from the
coast of Florida yet getting into Cuba is nearly impossible. The embargo was put
in place between the US and Cuba during the cold war. The embargo does not allow
commercial, economic and financial exchange between the two countries. Although
somethings have been changed there are still restrictions between the United States
and Cuba. Many Cuban’s want tourism in their country as others would rather not.
Under the embargo tourism is banned although you can go to Cuba for educational
people to people trips. The embargo has kept Cuba in past times allowing very little
updates to modern society. Due to embargo and the relationship with the United States
some Cubans feel they have to suffer with economic hardships. Some are forced to beg while others use ration
cards to buy food from a government owned shop. Most Cubans receive their money
from family outside of the country that send it back. If the embargo was lifted
between the United States and Cuba that would allow international hotels to be
built, US banks and money. In Cuba now you have to either pay a lot of money
for an internet card that is very lousy or go to an international hotel or government
office for internet access. Lifting the embargo would allow internet access
throughout Cuba.
During the
revolution the United States was okay with helping get Cubans out of Cuba who
wanted to move to the United States. Why would the United States and Cuba not
want to work together? The United State and Cuba both have new Presidents and
the times have changed. I understand where some Cuban’s do not want tourism to
take over and change the way their country looks but with tourism comes money
and with money they would not have to struggle. In one of the films they talked
about private restaurants that could only have 12 seat and some had secret rooms
so they could make more money. It seems that everyone in Cuba is working ten
times harder than they need to be and the government gives them nothing in
return. In Cuba the embargo is called el bloqueo which means “the blockade”.
The United States was not reason Cuba became such a poor country, but many
Cubans want to put the blame on the United States. While reading and watching
the information from this module it leaves with the question of, how much do citizens
of Cuba in 2019 understand the relationship between the United States and Cuba?
Its very interesting to see how much a country is influenced by the outside world once their relations are cut off, especially one like the United States. It's so crazy to think how the actions of one country can have vast effects on another. For example, you mentioned how without having relations with the United States, the Cuban people have suffered economically and some are even forced to beg for food while others have ration cards to get the essentials, but no more. Additionally, I found your first question to be very interesting because you are right when you say that in the past, the United States has been friendly to the Cuban people, allowing them to freely enter the country and gain citizenship, so why will our countries not work together? I think the answer is due to deeply rooted animosity towards the historical actions of one another. It seems that throughout the years, neither country has attempted to take the high road. However, things did begin to improve under the Obama administration, but when Trump became president, nearly all improvements vanished. I believe that for there to be any hope of our countries working together, we will need another president similar to Obama to have the determination to become allies with our neighboring country, or the Cuban regime would need to change, which is unlikely in the near future. Lastly, to answer your final question, I think a lot of the Cubans fully understand the relationship between the two countries, especially because many have families in the United States that can provide them with information the Cuban government may not share. However, I think the situation is similar to that of the United States, where the history we are told growing up is biased and explains things where the home country is always the "good guy" and the foreign country is the "bad guy".
ReplyDeleteHey Natalie,
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between the US and Cuba has definitely always seemed like such an odd one, with close proximity and the opportunity of trading it would be easy to think that the two would have good relations. You make a good point about the embargo, and how, despite how far both countries have come in getting along, it's still present. I agree with Ingrid in regards of your first question about working together though: I think a lot of it comes down to history. Cuba has reasons to have animosity towards the United States with the control and liabilities the US took, especially in regards to supporting Batista. Fidel Castro is almost a direct symbol of that betrayal (though Castro, too, provided reasons for there to be tensions between the two countries- like the Cuban Missile Crisis). Some Cubans may still share Castro's views, and fear being controlled by, or too reliant on another larger country again through tourism. I think it has always been a want for the country to have independence and they haven't really had it. First they were controlled by Spain, then the US and then they were almost completely dependent on the Soviet Union. Despite this fear though, I do think more and more Cuban citizens are starting to understand the relationship between the US and their country. Tourism is helping, it may not be the exact ideal, but there's no doubt that it is helping the economy in Cuba- and the more the US and Cuba interact, the more understanding there, hopefully, will be. I think the answer to this question, however, could also be one of time. It has only been about three or four years since the death of Castro and due to Raul's age, he can't be in control for too much longer. Perhaps when the Castro's and all that they symbolize are no longer in power there will be more change/awareness of the relationship between the US and Cuba, but we'll have to wait and see I suppose.
I agree that lifting the embargo would improve Cuba’s hardship because it was placed to destroy Fidel Castro as a dictator. With an embargo placed on a country, neither country is allowed to do any sort of trading with each other. Not being able to trade with the United States is a big deal because the United States major exports during that time period were cotton, grain, etc. Some of those things Cuba needed to import in order to keep afloat. For example, in the film “Cuba and the Cameraman”, Cubans were saying it was hard to get food because of the embargo and showing how empty their fridges were. Before the embargo, the country had a great economy and American fashion was very popular in Cuba, along with Cadillacs according to the article “Culture of Cuba: History, People, Society, Beliefs and more...”. When an embargo is placed on a country then travel restrictions are usually placed on the country as well. That explains why even though Cuba is only ninety miles away but hardly anyone has ever visited to Cuba. The United States trade embargo was placed on Cuba for fifty years while Castro first established power and was finally lifted after he had passed away. Tourism is growing in Cuba now that the embargo has been lifted and travel restrictions have been lifted. I completely agree with Natalie’s statement about how with tourism generates income and now Cuba is able to build hotels for tourism to flourish. With this newfound relation with Cuba, it has been beneficial for Cuba’s tourism and has already generated mass income. Now, I don’t necessarily believe Cubans understand the reason for the embargo or relationship between because being under a regime, they were probably taught not to like the United States as much and only told one side of the story.
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