:-):-) Clerks II comes to mind...
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A prayer-worthy thought right here for us exiles.

I'd like to take my mom back so she can see our homeland at least one last time.
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Go check it out now... not much better...AC that is
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We should do a herf there!
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I guess I should pass then! :-)
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I am one of the few that hopes this doesn't happen.... more than political reasons too.

When this happens prepare for Habanos to turn to the awfully bad or awfully expensive side. Everyone will want "Cuban Cigars" and I am afraid that Cuba can not support the demands of the US and you will see the quality diminish.
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I hear you and totally understand where you are coming from as any others with this same fear/thought.

Me? I don't care what happens to the quality of cigars. If not Cubans, there will be other awesome ones to be had. At one time, the US was a market for them and they were still the best in the world. Could there be an initial decline in quality? Of course. Could it be long term? Will have to be seen.

In the interim, while cigars go south quality wise, my mom can see her brother who she has not seen in 43 years. Same with wife and her dad. We can go now but we don't want to risk going as a Cuban citizen. We want to go as Americans.

So, while I totally see your viewpoint, when human lives are in question and long lost loved ones are caught in the middle, it is truly tough for me personally to worry or care less what happens to the quality of cigars.

This Cuban thinks the day is near and long overdue.
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Tourism and visiting family are 2 different situations.
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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.
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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?
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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
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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.
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Do you really think that the Cuban governernment would all of a sudden tell you that you can't leave?

Doesn't seem realistic to me. They have nothing to gain by doing that and have a lot to loose, as such actions would not go unnoticed by the US and the world, and all it would serve to do is throw relations back 30 years or so.
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Agree.
The possibility of it just looms over you like a bad dream.
I think with us, that document my dad signed is the biggest factor. Regardless of what the world may think, he did sign something saying that he acknowledged he would be imprisoned. I sure as heck am not a contract attorney but man, that sounds like a binding document.:-)
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He can't go back. But you didn't sign it, and nor did he sign it for you.
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It is a complex thing.
If I were someone from the outside looking in, I totally agree.
Being on the inside, I have a different perspective relative to the question of who did what and if the Cuban government can take it out on a family member or not.:-)
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Fair enough and understood.
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I believe a relevant analogy would be to say that the moment it's your balls in the vise, your perspective on whether or not to trust the guy holding the handle changes entirely.
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