By Juan Soto
The Cuban community in the borough was caught by surprise when President Barack Obama announced moves to restore diplomatic and commercial relations with the island after more than half a century of Cold War tension.
The deicing of the 50-year freeze in relations also came with a swap of prisoners in a deal that ended with the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor, and imprisoned Cuban spies.
Exiled members of the Cuban diaspora in Queens had mixed reactions to the culmination of secret negotiations between Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro in Canada with the mediation of Pope Francis.
Cuba is just about 90 miles from the Florida cost.
“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” said Obama during a televised statement from the White House announcing the new policy on Cuba. “We will begin a new chapter among the nations of the Américas.”
Simultaneously, Castro, brother of longtime dictator Fidel Castro, made the announcement from Havana, Cuba’s capital.
“The U.S. waited until the Castros destroyed Cuba to get involved,” said José Pérez, who was deported form the communist nation in 1980. “This is just a shame more than 50 years after.”
Pérez, a Havana native, was having lunch at Rincón Criollo, a Cuban restaurant located in Corona, near the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Junction Boulevard.
While in exile, he lost loved ones in Cuba, and was not able to pay his final respects.
“A lot of my family members died and I am saddened. Cuba is my homeland,” he said.
At the establishment, talk and discussion about Cuba occurs at a daily basis. Known as ‘cubaneo,’ locals usually argue about the past, present and future of the Caribbean island.
The talks between Obama and Castro were the first ones at that level since Fidel Castro led the Cuban revolution in 1959 overthrowing dictator Flugencio Batista.
Rudy Acosta Sr., owner of the restaurant, took a neutral stand on Obama’s reshaping of U.S.-Cuba relations.
But he said that at least on American soil, one can speak to 100 Cubans and all of them will have an opinion about the new policy.
“But in Cuba you can’t give your opinion freely, with an embargo or without an embargo,” he said.
Acosta is originally from Santiago de las Vegas, a municipality about 12 miles from Havana. His father opened the original Rincón Criollo in 1952. By 1961, Fidel Castro came “and he took the restaurant away from my father,” he said.
Almost 40 years ago, Acosta threw open the doors of Rincón Criollo in Corona. He has been in the United States for the last 47 years. At the restaurant, beside food, one can buy keychains, T-shirts and stickers with the Cuban flag.
Eddie Torres spent time in a Cuba prison for “political reasons,” he said, until he was able to flee the nation island in 1970.
“I was jailed because they said I was a terrorist, and I didn’t even know what a terrorist was,” he said.
He ended up in Madrid. He then lived in Paris for a while, before heading back to Spain. In 1972, he arrived in the United States.
“I won’t go back to Cuba until the Castros die,” he said, while ordering an espresso coffee at the restaurant.
Torres, 82, said he lost several family members, but he was glad he was able to bring his mother and his siblings to the United States.
“My mother died here at the age of 91,” he said.
“With this opening, the people will still have nothing, but the Castros will cash in, as usual,” said Torres.
But Pérez is hopeful the new situation will translate into economic growth for Cuba and its people.
“I hope little by little now, Cuba introduces a capitalist economy to help the people,” Pérez said. “There is nothing else one can do there.”
Reach reporter Juan Soto by e-mail at jsoto@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.
