KPBS Midday Edition

San Diego's Cuban-Americans Respond To Effort To Revive U.S.-Cuba Relations

By Alison St John / Reporter, Peggy Pico / KPBS Evening Edition Host, Megan Burke / News Editor

Published December 18, 2014 at 8:18 AM PST

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

An American classic car passes next to the building of the US Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, Dec. 17, 2014.

San Diego's Cuban-Americans Respond To Effort To Revive U.S.-Cuba Relations

Cuban-American San Diegans React To Thawing Of U.S.-Cuba Relations GUESTS:Luis Monteagudo Jr. was born in Cuba. He is director of communications for San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox. Oliva Espin, was born in Cuba, she left at age 22 after the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. She is a professor emeritus of women's studies at San Diego State University. Daniel Mera co-owns Andrés Restaurant on Morena Boulevard, which serves Cuban and Puerto Rican food. His father was born in Cuba.

President Barack Obama's Wednesday announcement that the U.S. will reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba sparked an array of opinions from Cuban-Americans in San Diego.

Obama said the U.S. would re-establish an embassy in Havana while Congress would consider ending a trade embargo with the Caribbean island. The news swept fast across the country, including to San Diego County. An estimated 6,201 Cubans live in the county, census figures show.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Oliva Espin, a professor emeritus of women's studies at San Diego State University, said the change needed to happen long ago. Espin left Cuba when she was 22 after the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

“We know that this [embargo] has only made the Cuban people suffer,” Espin told KPBS Midday Edition on Thursday.

Espin said the Cuban government will no longer be able to hide behind the embargo.

“The embargo has provided an excellent excuse for the failure of Cuba,” Espin said. “Now they have to say what they say because they cannot blame the Americans and the embargo. It takes away the excuse they have always used to justify their incompetence.”

Luis Monteagudo, who was born in Cuba but has lived in San Diego since 1984, said he hopes Obama's actions lead to "more than just getting Cuban cigars to the U.S."

Become a KPBS sponsor

“I hope the U.S. companies can invest in Cuba and provide much-needed assistance. I hope the Cuban government takes this opportunity to change," said Monteagudo who serves as the director of communications for San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox.

Monteagudo's father was imprisoned by Fidel Castro and later brought his family to the U.S. because he was worried that they would be persecuted.

He said he visited Cuba last year, and the experience was eye-opening.

“As you get into the interior in the country, you see the poverty,” Monteagudo said. “You see the hopelessness. They have to change. This is the first step. I hope this is the first step to improving the life on the island.”

Daniel Mera, the co-owner of Andrés Restaurant, a Cuban eatery in San Diego, is more skeptical about the president's decision.

“I feel like its a microscopic fracture in the right direction,” Mera said.

Tags

KPBS Midday Edition San Diego

Alison St John

twitter

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.

Peggy Pico

Peggy Pico served as the host of KPBS Evening Edition. Pico originally joined the KPBS newsroom as the science and technology reporter in 2010 after spending two years covering biotechnology and medical news in the Bay Area. Pico was raised in San Diego and has worked as a broadcast journalist in California, Arizona, and Texas. She previously reported for NBC 7/39 where she worked as a medical and science reporter for five years. Pico has won two Emmy’s and numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press, and the San Diego Press Club. She also received the USC Health Reporter Fellowship and is a member of California Chicano News Media Association and the Association of Health Care Journalists.

See stories by Peggy Pico

Megan Burke

twitter

Megan Burke is an Emmy-award winning news editor overseeing the environment, health, and racial justice and social equity reporting beats. Prior to her current role as editor, Megan spent more than a decade as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition, a daily radio news magazine and podcast. Other news production credits include KPBS Evening Edition, KPBS Roundtable, and San Diego’s DNA, a two-part documentary highlighting the region’s oldest traditions and culture using personal artifacts and oral histories of San Diegans.

See stories by Megan Burke

What do you want to hear host Jade Hindmon talk about on Midday?