Cuba Yes, Yankees Yes

At these heights, it is already commonplace to repeat that the meeting between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro during the Summit of the Americas in Panama represents a historic milestone. Of course it is, and it has consequences for the entire continent because it changes the nature of relations between Latin America and the United States, giving them a new tone.

If the understanding between the two countries continues progressing, there are two ghosts that appear destined to return to their tombs, and they are the ghosts of anti-imperialism and anti-communism, although the extreme right of the tea party in the United States and the champions of socialism in the 21st century between us are going to agitate those ghosts while they can still provide political benefits.

The well-thought-out sentence of Raúl Castro exonerating Obama from the imperialistic aggressions of the past and bestowing upon him the qualification of “honest man” had an adequate complement in another sentence by Obama, when he said, “I believed that our nations had to break free from the old arguments, the old grievances that had too often trapped us in the past; that we had a shared responsibility to look to the future and to think and act in fresh ways…This shift in U.S. policy represents a turning point for our entire region.” The argument of those who oppose this understanding is that the government of Cuba puts in very little effort itself in terms of human rights and democratic liberties, while the United States makes all the concessions. Without question, a discussion of human rights and civil liberties in Cuba does not tell of mere concessions, but rather of topics that concern the nature of the political system: the power of one party, the control of civil society, and the monopoly of the communications media. Here is where Raúl Castro has been uncompromising in stating that Cuba will not change its system, and thus everything seemed to be in a deadlock.

But there are no deadlocks from now on. Raúl Castro, who is over 80 years old, represents a generation that is bidding farewell. Therefore, in Cuba there will necessarily be a generational shift. Whether these new leaders will conform to political orthodoxy and cling to the idea of a single party is something that remains to be seen.

Surely, everything is being carefully planned so that the actors of the shift do not have to part from the traditional line and can continue tolerating the economic openness, but not the political openness. But history has shown repeatedly that one cannot dictate the future to a tee. Once a generation disappears, neither from the tomb nor from the deathbed can it control the events of tomorrow, which do not depend on a will preserved in formaldehyde but only on a myriad of elements that collide and intersect: new worldviews, new needs, new realities, abrupt environmental changes. The old dialectic always comes back on track.

Generational change becomes crucial to breaking down barriers — to leaving behind the intransigence of the elderly — and this will have to be seen with the Cubans from the inside and outside. The young never want the past delivered on a plate, for the past would repeat incessantly. They have their own idea of the future that goes beyond the ideological corset, especially in a county like Cuba, where they have demonstrated creativity in many ways: Beginning with the artistic, and without doubt, the economic, like with the entrepreneurs, whose small business operations have been authorized, and who have learned to move in the prohibited waters of yesterday — those of private enterprise.

On the other hand, there is the geographical proximity to the U.S., which has played an essential role, although often negatively, in the history of modern Cuba. If our memory serves us well, signaling that Cuba and the United States are at a distance of only 90 miles apart was a theme that became recurrent during the Cold War in the discussions of both parties. Today, at the lifting of the barriers, that proximity will bear, without doubt, a positive mark. That is why the meeting in Panama between the leaders of the two largely opposed countries is historic: because it has removed the closing of doors in the future, which will be novel without a doubt.