Week6

With Obama Visit to Cuba, Old Battle Lines Fade

HAVANA — For decades, Cuba and the United States have framed their relationship as a conflict of opposites: Communism vs. capitalism; Cuban loyalists vs. Cuban exiles; the state vs. the individual.

But last week’s visit to the island by President Obama — the first by a sitting American president since Calvin Coolidge — made clear that the old lines of battle are breaking down. Here in a place known for its rigidity, ruled since 1959 by a single family, a confounding mash-up of what was once held apart now defines how life works.

Just watching the awkward dance between Mr. Obama and his Cuban counterpart at a news conference on Monday left many Cubans stunned. Young and old remarked that their president, Raúl Castro, did not deliver a strong performance. But there he was, a Castro, admitting he had agreed to take only one question, then stumbling through three — about human rights, no less — as an American president nudged him along in a classic ritual of a more open society.

It was awkward to watch, the octogenarian guerrilla and the younger American, especially the missed handshake-hug at the end, precisely because it showed Mr. Castro moving into uncomfortable territory.

Mr. Obama’s engagement policy and Mr. Castro’s minor opening to free-market ideas and careful criticism have together created a new dynamic for Cuba that is just beginning to reveal what it could become.

“While I’m confident that history will judge Obama’s visit and speech as a unmitigated home run, in the Cuban context he’s only a pinch-hitter or a warm-up batter,” said Ted Henken, a Cuba scholar at Baruch College. “The real contest can only be decided through a frank, respectful and broadly inclusive national dialogue among Cubans themselves.”

who: Obama and Raúl Castro

when: March 26, 2016

where: Cuba

what: Obama visited to Cuba

Keywords

communism 共產主義 n.

capitalism 資本主義 n.