The island and its emigres in 2009-2010

Perhaps even more than Cubans would like to see normalization of relations with the United States, they would like to see full normalization of relations with Cuban emigrants—the friends and family members who have moved abroad but maintain connections to the island, and oftentimes send money and goods back to those who remain. For years after Fidel came to power in Cuba, the Cuban emigre was portrayed by the state as a weak traitor who had betrayed the motherland. Indeed, for two decades, Fidel publicly referred to emigrants as gusanos (worms).

In years since, general relations between the Cuban state and its emigres have greatly improved. In fact, this morning the “2010 Conference against the U.S. Blockade of Cuba and in Defense of National Sovereignty” began in Havana—a conference of over 450 Cuban emigrants from 42 countries, including 200 individuals from the United States alone. Similar conferences in previous years have not only covered discussions of the embargo, however, but offer Cubans abroad the opportunity to voice concerns to and make direct requests of the Cuban regime.

And they have had tangible effects from the beginning. In 1978, after the first such meeting with emigrants, Fidel announced that he would stop using the derogatory terms gusanos and “counterrevolutionaries” to describe Cuban exiles, saying that these were “unjust generic references to people who had emigrated.” He proceeded to use the term “Cuban community abroad” (Cubanos en el exterior) for the first time in official speech, and adopted it from then on. More importantly, after that meeting it was decided that Cuban emigrants would be allowed to visit the island. In 1979, more than 102,000 Cubans living abroad visited their families in Cuba—many for the first time in 10-15 years or more.

Since then, each conference has had a similar scheme of mutual interest coverage: for the Cuban state, the conferences address the need for organized resistance to U.S. policies; for emigrants, the regime allows dialogue on emigrant-state issues. And as those channels for exchange expand (coupled with the Obama administration’s relaxation of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans, certainly), emigrants continue to visit the homeland in increasing numbers: former Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque announced in 2008 that in the previous year, over 193,000 Cubans abroad visited the island; today, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told the Havana Conference that 296,000 Cubans living abroad were able to visit in 2009.

This year’s conference promises to issue a condemnation of the U.S. embargo and strategies for opposition action based on geographical areas. But what issue will the emigres demand action on this year, and will they have a positive response from the regime?

One idea: emigrants may push for elimination of the long-protested and much-despised “tarjeta blanca” (or “Permiso de Salida”), a permission that is difficult to acquire and which costs far above what average Cubans can ever hope to afford, despite the fact that Cubans must apply for and be granted the permiso in order to leave the country on visit or permanently. Opposition to the tarjeta blanca is broad, so much so that it has spawned a Facebook group of Cubans on the island and abroad—an impressive feat. See here.

(AP Photo: Franklin Reyes)