On Friday evening, November 25, 2016, Fidel Castro passed away at the age of 90. He ruled Cuba for 47 years, a despot who jailed and killed those who spoke out against him and kept this island nation isolated from the rest of the world. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled the island in 1959 and again during the Mariel boatlift in the early 1980s.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba has been in place since 1962 and crippled the Cuban economy. In spite of that, Cuba has free medical care and free education through college and beyond. Food is often scarce, though, and according to Cuban friends who still have family on the island, life is hard in ways that most Americans can’t even imagine.
Relations between the two countries began to thaw in December 2014, thanks in large part to the facilitation of Pope Francis and the Canadian government. In March 2016, President Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928.
When a controversial figure like Castro dies, I start looking for the global synchronicities and that one happened today, November 28. As Cuba entered its first day of nine of the mourning period for Castro and the day of his funeral, American Airlines left Miami on its first commercial flight to Cuba in 55 years. It touched down in Havana at 8:25 a.m., a preliminary step in the thawing of relations between the two countries.
Other American airlines are gearing up for commercial travel from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando: Spirit Airlines, Delta, and Jet Blue are among them.
In some ways, this is a trickster synchro with a global twist: the Cuban dictator dies and the day of his funeral, the first commercial flight from the U.S. lands. One door shuts, another opens.
But this open door may not last long. Trump’s stance on the thawing in U.S. Cuba relations is, as one news site put it, “straight out of 1962.”
Personally, Cuba has been on my bucket list for years, since I lived in Venezuela. That interest was renewed when I was hired through a federally funded program in 1981 to teach English to the Marielitos. The Cuban people I’ve met throughout my life have been awesome.
reading material….. but I never sank any bodies boat…..
“Heisting the Beard”
I visited Cuba in 2004, when the United Nations gave my boss money to hold a conference on climate change there. I had to fly to Puerto Vallarta and then take a Mexican flight to Havana. My passport had my entry visa stapled in, so it could be removed if necessary when flying back to the US. I loved Havana and the people could not have been more wonderful. I hope you get to visit before He Who Must Not Be Named takes office. 🙁
You’re so fortunate! I’m hoping we can get there before the nameless one overturns it all!