“It’s only a matter a time”, said Javier Dominguez in 2003, a Cuban government official after the Bush administration virtually ended all legal travel to Cuba. To give a profound sense of the time, not even Carlos Lazo, a surviving Cuban-American war hero from the battlefields of Fallujah, Iraq would be permitted to visit his children in Cuba before being sent back for another tour of duty, where he wondered if he would ever return. I was inspired by Javier’s optimism. After all, he lived his entire life under the U.S. Embargo against Cuba, a policy meant to snuff out the Castro government, but failed to do much other than hurt the Cuban people for 54 years.
However, on December 17, 2014 everything changed. President Obama and President Raul Castro at precisely the same time, announced a détente between the U.S. and Cuba resulting in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, trade, and the loosening of more than five decades of sanctions.
As I entered the grounds of soon to be Cuban Embassy, the lone flagpole stood waiting, as it had been for 54 years, to fly the flag of Cuba.
Seven months later, and on July 20, 2015, I had the honor of attending the official opening and flag raising ceremony of the Cuban Embassy, which had been missing from the Washington, D.C. landscape, since 1961. That morning, as my taxi driver and I approached the soon-to-be embassy, camera lights and talking heads from all the media outlets lined the sidewalks, Cuban Americans crowded outside the gates, with anticipated jubilance and tears of validation were already flowing. The significance of this moment was clear.
As I entered the grounds of soon to be Cuban Embassy, the lone flagpole stood waiting, as it had been for 54 years, to fly the flag of Cuba. Standing around me was a mix of unlikely government officials standing in solidarity including members of Congress, U.S. State Department officials, the Cuban Vice President Ricardo Alarcón, Cuban Ambassador, Cuba’s Prime Minister, and more. Then, with proper pomp and circumstance Cuban Ambassador José Cabañas along with members of the Cuban National Guard and U.S. Department of State Representatives raised the Cuban flag, for the first time in 54 years. It was an emotional moment for everyone.
Seconds later, we were granted entry into the new Cuban embassy. Prominent politicians excitedly took photos and some, (I won’t say who) were even taking selfies as they entered. As we gathered in the ballroom, one couldn’t help but notice the Cuban and American flags standing side by side in front of the podium. One of many firsts that day.
After the Cuban and U.S. national anthems were played, the Ambassador to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Bruno Rodriguez, officially welcomed renewed relations between the U.S. and Cuba. During his short but poignant speech, he pointed out that the Cuban flag hanging in the embassy hallway was the very same flag that flew at the Cuban Embassy in 1961 before the embassy closed. That flag was sent back to Las Tunas province in Cuba, where it was kept safe in a museum, until today.
