U.S.
Amel Ahmed
UNION CITY, N.J. — Just 4 miles west of Manhattan sits “Cuba's northernmost province," the moniker given to the working-class community of Union City, New Jersey, where Cuban-Americans have maintained a presence since before the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
News of the historic shift in the United States’ Cuba policy dominated conversations on Wednesday in the shops and cafés lining Bergerline Ave, the city's main thoroughfare.
While residents remain skeptical of Cuba's willingness to enact political reforms, they say they hope the loosened embargo will improve the quality of life for Cubans on the island.
"Many Cubans have mixed feelings. We still have family there, and we hope they receive some benefits from the opening up of diplomatic relations," said José Fernández, a 76-year-old retired accountant.
Despite his hopes for his former homeland, Fernández said he has deep reservations about Washington’s shifting Cuba policy, a culmination of 18 months of secret talks between U.S. and Cuban officials.
"The main problem is the people running the government,” he said at El Artesano, a Union City eatery that has been serving Cuban cuisine for some 40 years. “They haven’t demonstrated that they're willing to give the regular person on the street freedom. If we see free elections, a free press, the release of political prisoners, then I'll believe Obama made the right decision."
Union City was once the U.S. city with second most Cubans, behind only Miami. Today, about 85 percent of Union City’s 68,000 people are Hispanic, of which a little over 11 percent — about 7,500 — are Cuban, according to the latest Census data.
But the concentration of Cubans in Union City is shrinking as Cuba’s newest émigrés head elsewhere, especially to Florida and Texas. While thousands fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba for New Jersey’s “Havana on the Hudson” in the 1960s and 1970s, by 2000 only 4 percent of incoming Cubans settled in the Garden State.
The U.S. formally severed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 after Castro's Communist-run government came to power following the Cuban Revolution. Washington then imposed a trade embargo as Cuba turned toward the Soviet Union for support.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced plans to expand economic ties with Cuba, open a U.S. embassy in Havana, ease travel restrictions and send high-ranking officials to visit the country and review its designation by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The move came with Cuba’s freeing on humanitarian ground of U.S. citizen Alan Gross, accused of spying, and an unidentified U.S. intelligence officer held for two decades in Cuba (several media outlets report that the man is likely former cryptographer Rolando Sarraff). They were allowed to return to the U.S. in exchange for three Cuban prisoners arrested in 1998 and convicted by the U.S. of conspiracy to commit espionage.
In Union City late Wednesday night, 46-year-old Neysi Plasencia recalled her life in Cuba before she fled to the U.S. in 1994. "Back then I had one child to feed. Every day was a struggle,” she said. “We struggled for food."
Pedro Del-Rio
small business owner
Plasencia, who spoke mostly in Spanish, was accompanied by her U.S.-born daughter Gabriella, who helped with translation.
"I don’t want to get my hopes up because I am disappointed,” she said. “Before I can believe in what Obama is doing, I have to see political change in Cuba."
Plasencia, who fled Cuba on a raft made of tires, said she has no plans to travel back following news of the loosened embargo. "I miss my country and I want to go back. But not as long as Castro is there," she said.
Plasencia's 19-year-old daughter Gabriella appeared less jaded than her mother. "I felt a sense of happiness for family members who were posting about the news on Facebook. But I know change won't happen overnight," she said.
Like Plasencia, Ignacio Alfonso also has concerns with the decision to restore relations with Cuba. The 51-year-old co-owner of El Artesano said that the Cuban government should have been required to make certain political concessions before the U.S. moved ahead with its decision to renew diplomatic ties.
"The first step is to discuss human rights, political prisoners, and free elections. Then we can talk about diplomatic relations," he said.
A few blocks down from El Artesano, Ruben Trujillo was enjoying his routine cup of coffee at Rancho restaurant. The 49-year-old welder said he was pleased with the announcement. "This is good news. I don't support Castro ... but we want this embargo gone so opportunities can come to Cuba. This will lead to democratic reforms."
A few doors down the street, Pedro del Rio, 51, stood in his office supply store, reviewing the day's orders. He was far more conflicted over the news.
"It's hard to explain what goes on inside our hearts as Cuban-Americans. I feel happy in a way, because having a better relationship with Cuba will benefit Cubans on the island. I really do hope they get something out of this," he said.
But del Rio's hopes for his former homeland were tempered by a sense of guilt that seemed to afflict many Cuban-Americans here.
"It feels like treason to support this decision, because the two Castro brothers remain on the island. As Cubans, we live between two worlds. Supporting diplomatic relations feels like we’re helping the enemy."
With The Associated Press
Obama shifted US policy on Havana towards that of the rest of world, saying that decades-long embargo had failed
Havana residents paraded through the streets upon learning ties with arch foe the US will normalize after 50 years
Reset of diplomatic ties will make travel easier for Americans, widen Internet access for Cubans
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