Andrés Restaurant, a Cuban eatery on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, is a favorite haunt of some major league ballplayers who miss the food that's common to the Caribbean. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama added some spice to a diplomatic dish that's grown stale after a five-decade standoff between Cuba and the United States.
Some people at Andre's liked the taste of it, and some did not.
Obama announced that the U.S. will reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba, including re-establishing an embassy in Havana. Although ending a trade embargo with the Caribbean island will have to wait for congressional action, rules that govern travel and commerce will now allow much more interaction with the people of Cuba.
"If the embassy ever gets done in Cuba, I think that's going to be a good thing," said Daniel Mera, co-owner with his brother of Andrés.
His positive spin on Obama's announcement, however, took a quick turn.
"I do think that before he gave anything — his olive branch or whatever you want to call it — he should have gotten something more," Mera said. "Democracy should come first before we do anything."
Obama's announcement followed an exchange of imprisoned spies and the celebratory release of American Alan Gross, a government contract worker who had been held in Cuba for five years.
Mera was born in New York, but his father was born in Cuba. The restaurant owner still has family who live on the island. He said the U.S. will regret any move that leads to an end to the trade embargo.
"Most people are wrong to think that if Americans can buy cigars and the trade embargo comes down that money is going to go to the people. They are full of baloney!" he said. "That money is going to go to build up their armies again to be a threat to the United States, and that's the wrong stance to take."
Not all of the folks eating at Andrés agreed with its proprietor. Anthony Rivera is a Miami native whose family comes from the neighboring Caribbean countries of Puerto Rico and Columbia. He said a political move to mend the rift between the U.S. and Cuba is long overdue.
"The embargo is approximately 55 years old and I don't think it ever achieved what it meant to do," Rivera said. "Actually, it just prohibits us from experiencing the culture of Cuba and from opening new economic opportunities between the United States and the island."
He said the hard line on Cuba has little support among young people whose families come from the Caribbean.
"It's more for sentimental reasons ... the old generation that appreciated the embargo," Rivera said. "But I think its time has come and gone."
Some San Diegans were in Havana when Obama made his announcement, including Richard Feinberg, a UC San Diego international political economy professor. In an email, he described the "joyful celebrations in the streets over the release of their citizens, held in U.S. jails, and the prospects of much improved relations with their big neighbor."
Chris Jennewein, editor of the Times of San Diego, an online news website, was reached by phone in Havana during his vacation there. Cuba is already seen as a special place by American tourists, but that could become an even greater reality, he said.
"Everyone I talked to in the Cuban tourism industry has been smiling," Jennewein said.
