Only a sliver of ocean separates Yvette Busot from the island nation of Cuba where her parents were born.
Yet, despite its geographical proximity, Busot has never visited the land of her heritage, as insurmountable political barriers have always stood in the way.
But with the introduction of a new U.S.-Cuba policy by President Obama last week, under which Cuban-Americans are now able to travel freely to Cuba, those barriers may slowly be receding.
Soon, Busot, a fourth-year English student, may be able to reunite with relatives who have, until now, only existed in her parents’ stories ““ aunts and uncles and cousins with names, but no faces.
“The only contact we have now with family in Cuba is infrequent phone calls, and sometimes we send them money. But the new policy gets government out of the way and focuses on family values,” Busot said.
She added that she felt hopeful that under the new policy she will be able to see Cuban culture firsthand.
“It would be an out-of-body experience to just be on the beach in Cuba and have real, candid conversations with the people of Cuba, and maybe get even get pulled into a salsa dance,” said Busot.
Yvette’s sister, Elizabeth Busot, a third-year sociology student, said that interaction with the Cuban people is one of the main reasons she hopes to visit Cuba sometime in the near future.
“I want to reconnect with my culture and meet the people on the island and hear what they have to say,” Busot said.
For Alejandro Meruelo, a second-year doctoral student at the UCLA School of Medicine, returning to Cuba would be a chance to see where his parents grew up, in the Cuban capital of Havana.
“I would want to go back and see the square where my parents grew up, and where they used to live. But I would want to go back with them, so that they could tell me, “˜This is where we used to walk our dog Chambi’ or, “˜This is where we used to eat sugar cubes,'” Meruelo said.
But despite his hope to one day visit Cuba, Meruelo said that he is not ready to embark on that voyage just yet.
“Because of my grandfather’s political involvement (in protests against Castro), my name is blacklisted in Cuba, so I don’t feel very safe going back. It will be five to 10 years before I feel comfortable enough to go back,” Meruelo said.
Before he makes the trip to Cuba, Meruelo said he needs to first feel at ease with Raul Castro’s current regime, which he optimistically acknowledged is moving towards a freer Cuba.
Additionally, he said he wants to observe how the Cuban government handles the influx of tourism and money that is anticipated as a result of the new U.S.-Cuba policy.
“Before I travel to Cuba, I’d like to first see how the additional tourism will be handled by the government ““ whether it will be given to the Cuban people, or whether it will simply benefit the government workers,” Meruelo said.
Yvette Busot expressed similar concerns over the way the Cuban government would manage increased revenue.
“I think there is fear in the international community that all of the money going into Cuba after the policy change will simply enrich the Castro government,” Busot said.
But she added that the money has the potential to foster grassroots change within Cuba.
Although Busot and Meruelo both agreed that returning to the land of their relatives is an exciting, if slightly frightening, prospect, they expressed differing opinions about whether their parents will return to the country from which they were forced to flee as teenagers.
Meruelo’s father left Cuba in 1959 to escape persecution due to his own father’s political involvement. Meruelo said that it is still painful for his dad to recall memories of his home country.
“My dad might not be willing to (return to Cuba) because he still feels some of the repercussions of what happened with his father,” Meruelo said.
Meruelo’s grandfather was arrested, put into jail and subjected to a number of brutalities, including a mock firing squad, Meruelo said.
Yvette Busot, too, said that she was unsure if her parents were yet ready to return to Cuba.
“I think with my parents there is a certain wistfulness about Cuba and I think they would want to go back eventually, but not under the current tumultuous circumstances,” she said.
But she said that she hopes the new policy will be a step towards a more humane Cuba to which her parents would someday want to return.
Her sister also considered the changed policy as a move in the right direction, although she says that more still needs to be done.
“The embargo is still in place, but at least this way government is not in the way of families. There is still a lot that needs to change over on the island, but this is a good first step from the American side.”