"What's it like in Havana right now? It's incredibly empty. There were very few cars on the road. All of the public spaces were just empty. I also travelled beyond Havana to the countryside, to the cities of Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, and also to what Americans call the Bay of Pigs. Nobody was there. Talk to me about what's going on."
"Just ninety miles separate Florida and Cuba. And yet, for decades, the two have existed on either side of an invisible line. Now one side of that line is crumbling: a Communist Cuba is failing-this time, seemingly for good. Ten years ago, President Obama brokered an extraordinary, historic rapprochement with Cuba, when Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel, was the President."
Cuba is experiencing visible decline and depopulation, with empty streets and public spaces even beyond Havana. Economic and social deterioration accelerated after the COVID-19 pandemic, producing an exodus of especially young people headed toward the United States and Florida. A prior period of rapprochement and increased American tourism under President Obama briefly brightened travel and visibility across the island. The renewed outflow now collides with tighter U.S. immigration enforcement, leaving migrants vulnerable and heightening political and social tensions between Miami and Havana as both cities confront unfolding change.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]