Oh boy...
Here's where you can ask the Cuban, I guess.
My parents were born in 1958 in Cuba, (one in Camaguey, a farm providence in the west, the other in Havana, the capital on the east) just one year before Castro took over. Castro had promised the people that it would not become a Communist state. Within years, my grandparents decided that they would flee their homeland, their families, their own personal belongings to come to the United States with no money and young kids to start a new life.
My mom has told me several times about leaving everything she owned behind. The only thing they were allowed to take on the flight to Miami was one suitcase of clothes each and one toy. My mom was nine when she left, my dad was ten.
As of today, I still have so much extended family in Cuba. My grandmother's sister broke her hip a few years ago. The hospital botched up her surgery and it became infected. Her leg is now six inches shorter than it should be. She depends on us to send her custom made shoes so she can walk.
My boss visited Cuba a few years ago as part of an orthopedic/prosthetic study on other countries. He said that the doctors had tools that had never been used. He said it felt like it was all staged for them. State of the art equipment, but the doctors there have no idea how to use it. And no, this guy is not a Cuban. He's a white boy from Wisconsin.
Over the years, my grandmother has sent her family money every month to help with food. Every person in Cuba receives a ration card where they are alloted a certain amount of everything. If the store runs out, your luck runs out and you go home empty.
Now I'm not even sure if she still does send money since Castro declared that American currency would no longer be accepted in Cuba.
I can see the appeal of visiting Cuba, after all, check out Varadero beach:
But you have to remember that this is Castro's tourist trap to feed his own pockets, and those of his subordinates. In movies like Miami Vice, they show Havana being the hit party spot. This is more what the real Cuba looks like:
Even though the following photos are from an extremely biased site, I can confirm that this is what Cuba looks like. My grandmother visited her family about 10 years ago, before all the new U.S. restrictions on visiting Cuba were put into place. This is really what it looks like.
One of our parks holds a memorial every year for all the political Cuban prisoners who have been killed under Castro's regime.
The crosses grow in number every year.
Again, I can see how people can ask to lift the restrictions, but if you do buy things from Cuba, you will only be supporting Castro's government. He does nothing to help his people. He's one of the richest men in the world (I think a total wealth of 900 million dollars) and yet his country is one of the poorest. Just a classic case of dictatorship, I suppose.
Here in Miami, we already have plans to celebrate Castro's death with a party at the Orange Bowl. When they announced he was sick, people took to the streets in celebration. So many people want to go back to their homes, to their remaining family. They fled because of necessity and they've accepted changing their lives around to join the American culture. Given the chance, many of them would love to be Cuban citizens again under a free Cuba.
I can answer any other questions about Cuba if you'd like, and if I can't I can always ask my mom.
And pretty much every Cuban I've ever met is a Republican. I'm not, but I also won't support anyone who can view Castro (or Che Guevara for that matter) in a favorable light.