Blog Posts

In case you hadn’t noticed, it seems that Cuba has been popping up in mainstream news headlines a lot in the past week. From Ozzie Guillen’s comments about Fidel Castro to this weekend’s Summit of the Americas, Cuba is a hot topic these days. The strange thing is—Cuba isn’t in the news for what its people or government have done—it’s in the news because U.S. citizens and politicians are putting in their two cents about the country (as is so often the case).

President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, was interviewed last week by Dr. Salim Lamrani, lecturer at Paris Sorbonne Paris IV University and expert on U.S.-Cuba relations, for publication in The Huffington Post. The interviewer and the interviewee produced an absorbing conversation on the state of U.S.-Cuba relations, particularly how the countries can cooperate to move forward—a   step that Alarcón claims would benefit both sides of the Florida Straits. He should know. Prior to his position as President of the Parliament, Alarcón spent twelve years in the United States as Cuban ambassador to the United Nations. Throughout the conversation, the two men did not hesitate to discuss some of the touchier topics plaguing U.S.-Cuba relations: including migration, the current administration, normalized relations, and even Alan Gross. Read below for excerpts of the more compelling questions and responses:

Dr. Reinerio Arce, President of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas, Cuba,  participated in a briefing at Washington, DC’s National Council of Churches last week regarding the current  reality of religious life and the role of churches  in Cuba. Dr. Arce’s presentation focused on the current economic and social changes occurring on the island and how they have affected various faiths and churches. He also expressed deep support for small, but important measures taken by the Obama Administration in regards to religious travel--which he claims has greatly facilitated his seminary’s ability to carry out social projects. Dr. Arce began by stressing the importance of the relationships between U.S. and Cuban churches:

Dr. Reinerio Arce, President of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas, Cuba,  participated in a briefing at Washington, DC’s National Council of Churches last week regarding the current  reality of religious life and the role of churches  in Cuba. Dr. Arce’s presentation focused on the current economic and social changes occurring on the island and how they have affected various faiths and churches. He also expressed deep support for small, but important measures taken by the Obama Administration in regards to religious travel--which he claims has greatly facilitated his seminary’s ability to carry out social projects. Dr. Arce began by stressing the importance of the relationships between U.S. and Cuban churches: