Administration after administration has perceived Cuba as an irritant inside our hemispheric shell and coated it with layer after layer of economic and political nacre, which unlike 
mother-of-pearl, has not created value. In fact, U.S. policy has rendered Cuba nearly irrelevant.
Fidel, of course, has been the focus of our sedimentary relationship, one that has hardened into clay, unmoving through ten U.S. presidencies. But with the announcement that Castro is stepping down after nearly 50 years, turning stewardship over to his brother Raul, the U.S. has an opportunity. Will the next president step out of the clay and back into the mud where things are sticky, sloppy, murky, but once again movable? Continue reading “After Fidel”