Rum & TuKola

"If Romney had won most of the people here would have been really sad."

11/7/12

The Obama administration’s priorities in Cuba:

“In Cuba, the Obama administration’s priority is to empower Cubans to freely determine their own future. The most effective tool we have for doing that is building connections between the Cuban and American people, in order to give Cubans the support and tools they need to move forward independent of their government. U.S. citizens, engaging in well-defined, purposeful travel, are the best ambassadors for our democratic ideals.”

Agree. From Roberta S. Jackson’s testimony on Cuba at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, June 2012.

10/10/12

People to people visas to Cuba appear to be back on track!

10/5/12

From the Democratic Party National Platform: “We have taken additional steps to bolster Cuban civil society, expanding purposeful exchanges that bolster independent religious groups on the island and enhancing the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people. Going forward we will continue to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future.”

And from the people over at Cuban Americans For Engagement, a petition: “Understand that Cuban Americans do not unanimously support the embargo.” I’ve got my fingers crossed for more engagement going forward.

09/10/12

On tightened regulations for people-to-people travel to Cuba: “Two paragraphs added to the regulations also reinforce the message that tourism trips are illegal and punishable by a fine of up to $65,000.”

05/16/12

A story I wrote for Condé Nast Traveller on Havana’s best new paladares, in-home restaurants, now that permits for them are being liberally granted.

01/19/12

Havana on the NYT 45 Places to go in 2012

“The only thing that lies between Americans and the sultry streets of Havana these days is the Florida Straits, since the Obama administration has widened the kind of travel allowed.”

Just a wee bit misleading, this— 90 miles of Florida Straits stretch long and arduous when the paperwork and cost of visas and charter flights are factored in.

“A growing list of organizations have licenses to operate trips to Cuba, including National Geographic Expeditions, Austin-Lehman and the Center for Cuban Studies.”

And the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Tufts University, and others. Easier, but still not quite easy.

01/9/12

Under the Table, my Guernica essay on the feasts and foibles of buying black market food in Havana, as featured in Arts & Letters Daily.

01/9/12

The Berger home in Havana could be deemed the city’s most exclusive gallery.

01/9/12