Overturning Cuba Travel Ban

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by 2000ARMY

Tourism and visiting family are 2 different situations.

True.
Unfortunately, I think the only way for me to be able travel there as an American, with a US Passport and not a Cuban Passport, to visit family, is for any American to also be able to travel as a tourist.
I sincerely and realistically doubt the two will not go hand in hand.

At one time, I was at the total end of the spectrum on this issue, in spite of family there. I didn't think this should ever happen. Then, I got older. I hit 50. Then I got to see my homeland from 12 miles away, while on my way to Cozumel on a cruise. I got to stand on that deck and cry like a baby, looking at my wife and her tears, as just over the hills we were seeing, was her dad and where she grew up, right in Pinar del Rio, the area we all treasure for the leaves. I have slowly realized this life is not very long. My heart has opened and my perspectives have changed. I now wonder why, if one builds a dam out of dirt, that never works, that always allows water in to flood you, why would you keep feverishly working on it for 50 years? Why wouldn't you seek alternatives to that dirt dam?

This dam has been flooding for 50 years. Time to look at an alternative. Time to see one's birthplace. Time for hugs and tears with lost loved ones. Time to stock their shelves with goods and make them wonder how they can buy them. Cubans have a history of having brought some great minds to this world. They will figure it all out real fast.

I truly respect your viewpoint and hope no one sees this as anything else than a perspective from someone whose heart has recently transitioned and feels a grave pain and void.

Originally Posted by Blueface

I truly respect your viewpoint and hope no one sees this as anything else than a perspective from someone whose heart has recently transitioned and feels a grave pain and void.

No worries man ..... I did not want to seem unsympathetic to your situation. I though they passed something on Sept 3rd allowing Family to go to Cuba?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by 2000ARMY

I though they passed something on Sept 3rd allowing Family to go to Cuba?

Correct. Almost all of the restrictions for "family visitation travel" (or whatever they call it) have been lifted:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090303810.html

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by 2000ARMY

No worries man ..... I did not want to seem unsympathetic to your situation. I though they passed something on Sept 3rd allowing Family to go to Cuba?

Originally Posted by T.G

Correct. Almost all of the restrictions for "family visitation travel" (or whatever they call it) have been lifted:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090303810.html

Ahhhh.........
Not all is as it appears.
Sure they lifted that.
Actually, what they lifted was the once every three years ban.

HOWEVER, a very real fear my parents have and the wife and I share with them is that we HAVE to go with Cuban Passports, in spite of being US citizens. We have to pay the Cuban government $400 each for our passports and the second we leave here, we are no longer American citizens in the eyes of the Cuban government. In fact, the US government makes that very clear to us. That means if they decide we are not coming back, the US government will not be sending anyone to get me. I am stuck there. My dad was forced to sign a document when he left, that if he ever returned, he would be immediately imprisoned. I share the same name as he does.

Tough to risk giving up everything I worked for my whole life. Many Cubans do it all the time. In fact, as tough as it is to risk, I am frankly considering it for next year. That is how badly I now long to return. I would prefer that I could go as any American, with a US Passport and the only way that will happen is with a lift of the travel ban for non Cuban Americans.