My mother waited her whole life for a liberated Cuba. My generation may see it happen, thanks to President Trump.
Around our dinner table, the stories always began identically: “When we lived in Cuba…” My mother, her siblings, and my grandparents would recount what they’d experienced, and the transition to living in the United States.
My father, who left France after World War II, after listening to hours of discussion, and heated debate about Castro’s imminent demise, would finally interrupt: “So how many times did we kill Castro tonight?”
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Often, there was an underlying tone expressing a desire to return, if even for a short visit. For them, it became all but a distant thought as my siblings and I were raised here in the United States.
As a teenager, I remember the Cubans chanting: “Cuba Si, Castro No” on the streets outside the UN where Castro was speaking.
In my adult life, I’ve gone back four times under various visas and programs. The contrast between memory and reality was absolute.
Havana is physically beautiful and systemically broken. Citizens work multiple jobs to feed their children. Cubans cannot visit relatives in hotels in their own capital. They cannot access certain beaches or recreation. They are second-class citizens in their own country. The hopelessness permeates all.
On my second visit to Cuba, I took my mom and dad. My mom stood on the streets of Old Havana where I expected her to cry given all the crumbling buildings and plight of the people. She stood there stoically and said: “My son, my Cuba is gone. This is not my country anymore.”
On my fourth and final visit, I brought musical instruments to a local Havana school — the students were elated, but it pained me to think that this was the Cuba they would be left with as adults.
My mother left Cuba to give herself, and our family, a better life here in the United States. Now, under President Trump, the United States is in a position to give a better life to the Cuban people.
The Trump administration’s reported active interest in exiling the Communist leadership is a beacon of hope for me, and likely the millions of other Cuban immigrants, and descendants of Cuban immigrants, living here in America.
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President Trump also sees that the 11 million Cubans also deserve a chance to live, to travel, to experience, and to flourish. And he understands that a free Cuba only makes for a stronger United States.
When my mother came to this country, the United States, she was 18. She immigrated through Miami before settling in the New York area, working as a seamstress and a clothing saleswoman. She married my father, a clothing salesman, and achieved all she could’ve hoped for here, except for seeing what President Trump may soon bring to reality: a liberated Cuba.
And, that, I know that would make her even more proud to be both Cuban and American.
Jean-Pierre Conte is an American businessman, philanthropist, and policy advocate.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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