Change In U.S.-Cuba Relationship Stirs Debate Among Local Cuban Americans
CHICAGO (CBS) -- President Obama's decision to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba has stirred debate among Cuban Americans in the Chicago area.
At the 90 Miles Cuban Café in Logan Square, owner Alberto Gonzalez Jr. has a painting represents the last time he and his family saw their homeland, Cuba, before making it to Key West, Florida.
"I remember myself being on the back of a pick-up, looking at all this traffic and all this, highways and pretty much thinking this is pretty much bigger than God!" he said.
Gonzalez came to America during the Mariel Boat Lift in 1980, braving the sometimes treacherous 90 miles between Cuba and South Florida in a shrimp boat. He calls President Obama's decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, after more than 50 years, a positive change.
"There was basically an hour of talks on the phone with Obama and Raul and about a year of negotiations, so I have to believe that in a years-time something had to be concrete and something's going to happen," Gonzalez.
The one thing Gonzalez says he can't wait to do: travel to Cuba as a U.S. Citizen.
"My goal is to go back into Cuba as an American, with my kids and show them the house that I was born in," he said.
Cuban-American Marta Garcia celebrated the news with friends. She hopes that it will mean freedom of speech in Cuba.
"There's a lot of pain in Cuba, a lot a lot of oppression," she said. "My hope is that with these so-called open lines of communication, that we will hear some of their voices."
CBS 2's Mike Parker reports at Lincolnwood's Taste of Cuba restaurant, the food was hot and the debate over the U.S.-Cuban decision to make amends was even hotter.
At one table Jose Lamas, who turned against Castro at 18 and after a jail term and political persecution, escaped to the U.S. in 1963. He says he was lucky to get out.
"They have sent to the firing squads, 20,000 people, young and old. They have sent to the jail, thousands of Cubans for 20 to 30 years in prison," Lamas said.
And there was a friend of Lamas, Guillermo Alvarez, who got out when he was six.
"What are you going to do for the Cuban people in Cuba?" he asked. "Are they going to give them the same freedom we got here?"
The young restaurant owner Billy Alvarez was born in the USA and never experienced life on Castro's island. He has a different take.
"It's been fifty years since the embargo's been in place and really no good has come of it," he said. "Why not give it a shot?"
