Leaders say visits from U.S. help bring nations closer together

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA, Cuba – When Julio Gómez spirited his family out of Cuba in 1962, he thought he'd be gone for a few fleeting months. But the months turned to years, and the Rev. Gómez never made it back – until now.

The 71-year-old retired Methodist preacher put old grudges aside and returned for a family reunion, joining a growing number of Cuban-Americans who are going back to their homeland to mend decades-old wounds. And he called the experience "delicious. I'm glad I did it."

Such trips, some Cuban-American leaders say, are the most important driving force behind an eventual normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.

Family reunification – not American foreign policy – is what's slowly bringing the two countries closer together, they say.

"Governments come and go. But what binds us together are our families," said Sylvia Wilhelm, director of Puentes Cubanos, or Cuban Bridges, a Miami exile group that opposes U.S. trade sanctions.

An estimated 130,000 Cuban-Americans visited the island in 2001, Cuban officials say. That number rose to at least 150,000 in 2002, more than at any time since 1959, officials say. And so far this year, more than 100,000 have arrived, putting the island on track to break last year's record, officials say.

Some U.S. experts disagree over the numbers, but most agree there has been a dramatic increase in visits over the years.

'Heck, I'm going to go'
 

Mr. Gómez, a New Jersey resident, journeyed to the island with his wife, Irma, 63, and two of their three children, Eduardo, 39, and Julio Jr., 43.

Julio Jr. is a Massachusetts entrepreneur who founded Gómez Advisors, an Internet services firm. In 1999, he made Time magazine's Digital 50 – the most important Americans shaping technology.

"I was taken from Cuba when I was 2 years old," he said. "And over the years, I've heard every excuse not to return. But finally I said, 'Heck, I'm going to go.' "

His relatives say the reunion never would have happened without him.

"Julio was the one to break the ice," said his cousin, Abel, who lives in Havana. "We call him the Cyclone because he's always shaking things up."

Julio Jr. had visited Cuba last fall to help organize a project to safeguard letters and papers that belonged to the late Ernest Hemingway, a former resident of the island. He decided to visit his long-estranged relatives. And the more he learned about his family, the more he wanted to organize a reunion.

It was a daunting task, he said.

"Ripping a family apart is always difficult. Putting it back together isn't easy, either," he said. "Old wounds fester and grow. And bitterness and resentment spread like bacteria."

Some relatives in the United States didn't want to visit Cuba because they were troubled by the Cuban government's jailing of 75 dissidents and the execution of three hijackers in April.

Julio Jr. finally persuaded family members to meet, and they agreed to disagree on a lot of issues.

"We are trying to forget about our differences and enjoy being a family," Julio Jr.'s mother said. "They're not going to change my mind, and I'm not going to change theirs."

Reconciliation comes down to compromise, respect and "deciding if you want to go to your grave with revenge and vendettas," Julio Jr. said. "What makes it easier for me is that I was raised in a completely mainstream community outside of Miami, so I have no prejudices one way or another when it comes to the politics of this island."

Recent opinion polls show that growing numbers of Americans – including Cuban-Americans – favor normal relations with Cuba. Many U.S. lawmakers agree, and last month the House voted to end restrictions on travel to the island. The Senate followed on Thursday, and the legislation is headed to a conference committee. But President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that eases the trade embargo.

By law, Cuban-Americans, but not American tourists, can visit the island legally. Experts say the Cuban-American visits – combined with the money they send to their relatives on the island – add at least $800 million to the Cuban economy every year. Ultimately, some critics say, the windfall undermines U.S. sanctions.

'Like a sieve'
 

"The embargo is more a symbol than a reality. It leaks like a sieve," scholar Mark Falcoff testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4. Cuban President Fidel Castro "is the beneficiary of millions of dollars sent by Cuban-Americans to their families on the island," he said.

U.S. policy is also discriminatory, former State Department official Phil Peters says.

The Treasury Department has fined more than 1,200 Americans for illegal travel to the island since President Bush took office, he said, but not a single Cuban-American has been cited.

American officials defend the policy, saying their goal is to punish the Cuban government, not ordinary Cubans. So the U.S. government allows the Cuban-American visits.

But U.S. officials don't want to end travel restrictions entirely because that would prolong the socialist regime, Alan Larson, undersecretary of state, testified in September.

"Canadians and Europeans ... have traveled to Cuba by the millions over the last 10 years, yet Cuba is no freer, there is no less repression of human-rights activists, and Cuba's economy is no more open," he said.

It's all relatives

Julio Gómez Jr. steered away from such debates during his visit and instead spent time seeing relatives and getting in touch with his Cuban roots.

He rented a 23-foot camper, whisked his relatives inside and rumbled to his birthplace, Santa Cruz del Norte, a town of 32,000 east of Havana.

His mother shared photos with relatives, pointed out the Methodist church she used to attend and wept at her parents' grave.

She also recalled the day 41 years ago when she left Cuba by plane with Julio Jr. sitting on her lap.

"He had two changes of clothes and a nickel in his pocket," she said, tears coming to her eyes. "I still have the nickel – and the clothes, too.

"It was a moment I'll never forget."