by Daniel González and Dan Nowicki - Jun. 11, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Victor Calderon hasn't seen his two daughters in 15 years. He has never
met his two grandchildren. And his mother, at 84, is getting old.
So, Calderon recently decided it was time he tried to return to Cuba,
the communist country he fled in 1994 on a homemade sailboat cobbled
together from oil drums, scrap metal and old bedsheets.
The trip, which Calderon plans to make in August, won't be as difficult
as it has been for other Cuban-Americans in the past.
In April, President Barack Obama lifted travel and spending restrictions
for Cuban-Americans with relatives on the island. The move has prompted
a wave of people from Phoenix and other parts of the country to openly
visit relatives in Cuba.
It also opened a debate over whether easing travel to Cuba could help
bring democratic change to the communist country or help prop up the
50-year-old Castro dictatorship.
"What it says is that at least there is a thawing in the relationship,"
said Kyle Longley, a history and political-science professor at Arizona
State University, who has written about Cuba.
Phoenix has a small but rapidly growing Cuban-American population made
up largely of Cubans who have been resettled here by
refugee-resettlement organizations.
Since Obama ended the travel restrictions, many have already left for
Cuba or are making arrangements to travel there, said Carlos Gutierrez,
a Cuban immigrant and a leader of the Organization of the Cuban
Community of Arizona, a group that helps newly arrived Cubans adjust to
life in Phoenix.
"It is a basic human right that everyone should have to travel freely to
their homeland," Gutierrez said.
Travel and trade with Cuba has been restricted since the 1960s. Before
the April rule change, Cuban-Americans were limited to one visit every
three years. Those who did go there often did so clandestinely, first
traveling to Mexico, then catching flights to Cuba.
Most other Americans are barred from visiting or spending money in Cuba,
though some do travel there via another country, violating the rules.
Jeff Flake, a Republican congressman from Arizona, has introduced
legislation in Congress that would allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.
Flake, a libertarian-leaning conservative, has been pushing to revoke
the travel ban since he first came to Congress in 2001. He believes
dismantling the entire U.S. trade embargo eventually would bring about
the end of the Castro government.
Although the Cuban government has protested the embargo for years, Flake
believes the Castro government doesn't actually want the embargo to end
because Fidel Castro, who governed Cuba for nearly 50 years, and his
brother Raul, who is now president, have used it to help stir up
anti-U.S. sentiment that has helped them hang on to power.
The bill to lift the travel ban already has more than 150 sponsors.
Flake thinks it will move through the House this year, perhaps in the
fall, and believes Obama is receptive to the idea. Former President
George W. Bush's administration opposed lifting the travel ban.
"It's an issue of freedom. This isn't a sanction on Cubans, it's a
sanction on Americans," Flake said of the travel ban.
"There's no guarantee that this will be the thing that turns the Castro
brothers around or changes Cuba into a democracy. I don't necessarily
believe it will happen that fast. But it's a lot more likely to hasten
democracy than retard it."
Some members of Congress vehemently oppose ending the embargo and are
angry with the Obama administration for allowing even Cuban-Americans to
visit the island.
Calling the changes a "serious mistake," Reps. Lincoln and Mario
Diaz-Balart, Republican brothers from Florida who are originally from
Cuba, say lifting travel and spending bans for Cuban-Americans will help
feed the communist government, keeping Castro in power.
"Unilateral concessions to the dictatorship embolden it to further
isolate, imprison and brutalize pro-democracy activists," the
congressmen wrote in a statement.
"(A)nd this unilateral concession provides the dictatorship with
critical financial support."
Longley, the ASU professor, said that although the Obama administration
has softened American policy toward Cuba, the end of the trade embargo
remains a long way off.
For the U.S. to end the embargo, the Castro government would have to
embrace democracy, which Longley doesn't see happening because it would
mean relinquishing power.
Meanwhile, Calderon is looking forward to seeing his family for the
first time in 15 years.
His two daughters, Danay and Jessell, were 8 and 17, respectively, when
he left. They are now 23 and 32. One of the granddaughters he has never
met is already 13.
The other is 3 and was born with heart problems. A friend took pictures
during a visit to Cuba last year.
Calderon, 54, was among about 35,000 "balseros," or rafters, who fled
Cuba during the summer of 1994 on makeshift boats to escape an economic
crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union. After his boat was
interdicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, Calderon spent a year and
six days in a military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay before he and
about 30,000 balseros were allowed to come to the United States.
Calderon spent a week in Florida before being resettled in Arizona.
An architect in Cuba, he now works as an artist and musician in Phoenix,
painting murals and performing at restaurants such as the Havana Cafe in
Ahwatukee Foothills.
Calderon, now a legal permanent resident of the U.S., said he plans to
travel to Cuba as soon as possible. The only holdup is renewing his
Cuban passport, which he left behind when he fled the island in 1994.
"I am so excited," Calderon said. "I am finally going to meet my two
granddaughters."
Lifting of ban sends wave of Valley relatives on visits to Cuba (11 June
2009)
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/06/11/20090611cuba-travel.html
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