U.S. President Barack Obama, on a historic three-day visit to Cuba, spoke to the Cuban people from the Gran Teatro in Havana Tuesday.
Here is a full transcript:
PRESIDENT
OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) Muchas gracias.
Thank you so much. Thank you very much.
President Castro, the people of Cuba, thank you so much for
the warm welcome that I have received, that my family have
received, and that our delegation has received. It is an
extraordinary honor to be here today.
Before I begin, please indulge me. I want to comment on the
terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels. The
thoughts and the prayers of the American people are with the
people of Belgium. We stand in solidarity with them in
condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people.
We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and
ally, Belgium, in bringing to justice those who are
responsible. And this is yet another reminder that the world
must unite, we must be together, regardless of nationality, or
race, or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.
We can -- and will -- defeat those who threaten the safety and
security of people all around the world.
To the government and the people of Cuba, I want to thank you
for the kindness that you’ve shown to me and Michelle, Malia,
Sasha, my mother-in-law, Marian.
“Cultivo una rosa blanca.” (Applause.) In his most
famous poem, Jose Marti made this offering of friendship and
peace to both his friend and his enemy. Today, as the
President of the United States of America, I offer the Cuban
people el saludo de paz. (Applause.)
Havana is only 90 miles from Florida, but to get here we had
to travel a great distance -- over barriers of history and
ideology; barriers of pain and separation. The blue waters
beneath Air Force One once carried American battleships to
this island -- to liberate, but also to exert control over
Cuba. Those waters also carried generations of Cuban
revolutionaries to the United States, where they built support
for their cause. And that short distance has been crossed by
hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles -- on planes and
makeshift rafts -- who came to America in pursuit of freedom
and opportunity, sometimes leaving behind everything they
owned and every person that they loved.
Like so many people in both of our countries, my lifetime has
spanned a time of isolation between us. The Cuban Revolution
took place the same year that my father came to the United
States from Kenya. The Bay of Pigs took place the year that I
was born. The next year, the entire world held its breath,
watching our two countries, as humanity came as close as we
ever have to the horror of nuclear war. As the decades rolled
by, our governments settled into a seemingly endless
confrontation, fighting battles through proxies. In a world
that remade itself time and again, one constant was the
conflict between the United States and Cuba.
I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in
the Americas. (Applause.) I have come here to extend the
hand of friendship to the Cuban people. (Applause.)
I want to be clear: The differences between our
governments over these many years are real and they are
important. I’m sure President Castro would say the same thing
-- I know, because I’ve heard him address those differences at
length. But before I discuss those issues, we also need to
recognize how much we share. Because in many ways, the United
States and Cuba are like two brothers who’ve been estranged
for many years, even as we share the same blood.
We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans. Cuba,
like the United States, was built in part by slaves brought
here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban people can
trace their heritage to both slaves and slave-owners. We’ve
welcomed both immigrants who came a great distance to start
new lives in the Americas.
Over the years, our cultures have blended together. Dr. Carlos
Finlay’s work in Cuba paved the way for generations of
doctors, including Walter Reed, who drew on Dr. Finlay’s work
to help combat Yellow Fever. Just as Marti wrote some of his
most famous words in New York, Ernest Hemingway made a home in
Cuba, and found inspiration in the waters of these shores. We
share a national past-time -- La Pelota -- and later today our
players will compete on the same Havana field that Jackie
Robinson played on before he made his Major League debut.
(Applause.) And it's said that our greatest boxer,
Muhammad Ali, once paid tribute to a Cuban that he could never
fight -- saying that he would only be able to reach a draw
with the great Cuban, Teofilo Stevenson. (Applause.)
So even as our governments became adversaries, our people
continued to share these common passions, particularly as so
many Cubans came to America. In Miami or Havana, you can find
places to dance the Cha-Cha-Cha or the Salsa, and eat ropa
vieja. People in both of our countries have sung along with
Celia Cruz or Gloria Estefan, and now listen to reggaeton or
Pitbull. (Laughter.) Millions of our people share a
common religion -- a faith that I paid tribute to at the
Shrine of our Lady of Charity in Miami, a peace that Cubans
find in La Cachita.
For all of our differences, the Cuban and American people
share common values in their own lives. A sense of patriotism
and a sense of pride -- a lot of pride. A profound love of
family. A passion for our children, a commitment to their
education. And that's why I believe our grandchildren will
look back on this period of isolation as an aberration, as
just one chapter in a longer story of family and of
friendship.
But we cannot, and should not, ignore the very real
differences that we have -- about how we organize our
governments, our economies, and our societies. Cuba has a
one-party system; the United States is a multi-party
democracy. Cuba has a socialist economic model; the United
States is an open market. Cuba has emphasized the role and
rights of the state; the United States is founded upon the
rights of the individual.
Despite these differences, on December 17th 2014, President
Castro and I announced that the United States and Cuba would
begin a process to normalize relations between our countries.
(Applause.) Since then, we have established diplomatic
relations and opened embassies. We've begun initiatives to
cooperate on health and agriculture, education and law
enforcement. We've reached agreements to restore direct
flights and mail service. We've expanded commercial ties, and
increased the capacity of Americans to travel and do business
in Cuba.
And these changes have been welcomed, even though there are
still opponents to these policies. But still, many people on
both sides of this debate have asked: Why now? Why
now?
There is one simple answer: What the United States was
doing was not working. We have to have the courage to
acknowledge that truth. A policy of isolation designed for the
Cold War made little sense in the 21st century. The embargo
was only hurting the Cuban people instead of helping them. And
I've always believed in what Martin Luther King, Jr. called
“the fierce urgency of now” -- we should not fear change, we
should embrace it. (Applause.)
That leads me to a bigger and more important reason for these
changes: Creo en el pueblo Cubano. I believe in the
Cuban people. (Applause.) This is not just a policy of
normalizing relations with the Cuban government. The United
States of America is normalizing relations with the Cuban
people. (Applause.)
And today, I want to share with you my vision of what our
future can be. I want the Cuban people -- especially the young
people -- to understand why I believe that you should look to
the future with hope; not the false promise which insists that
things are better than they really are, or the blind optimism
that says all your problems can go away tomorrow. Hope that is
rooted in the future that you can choose and that you can
shape, and that you can build for your country.
I'm hopeful because I believe that the Cuban people are as
innovative as any people in the world.
In a global economy, powered by ideas and information, a
country’s greatest asset is its people. In the United States,
we have a clear monument to what the Cuban people can build:
it’s called Miami. Here in Havana, we see that same talent in
cuentapropistas, cooperatives and old cars that still run. El
Cubano inventa del aire. (Applause.)
Cuba has an extraordinary resource -- a system of education
which values every boy and every girl. (Applause.) And
in recent years, the Cuban government has begun to open up to
the world, and to open up more space for that talent to
thrive. In just a few years, we've seen how cuentapropistas
can succeed while sustaining a distinctly Cuban spirit. Being
self-employed is not about becoming more like America, it’s
about being yourself.
Look at Sandra Lidice Aldama, who chose to start a small
business. Cubans, she said, can “innovate and adapt without
losing our identity…our secret is in not copying or imitating
but simply being ourselves.”
Look at Papito Valladeres, a barber, whose success allowed him
to improve conditions in his neighborhood. “I realize I’m not
going to solve all of the world’s problems,” he said. “But if
I can solve problems in the little piece of the world where I
live, it can ripple across Havana.”
That’s where hope begins -- with the ability to earn your own
living, and to build something you can be proud of. That’s why
our policies focus on supporting Cubans, instead of hurting
them. That’s why we got rid of limits on remittances -- so
ordinary Cubans have more resources. That’s why we’re
encouraging travel -- which will build bridges between our
people, and bring more revenue to those Cuban small
businesses. That’s why we’ve opened up space for commerce and
exchanges -- so that Americans and Cubans can work together to
find cures for diseases, and create jobs, and open the door to
more opportunity for the Cuban people.
As President of the United States, I’ve called on our Congress
to lift the embargo. (Applause.) It is an outdated
burden on the Cuban people. It's a burden on the Americans who
want to work and do business or invest here in Cuba. It's time
to lift the embargo. But even if we lifted the embargo
tomorrow, Cubans would not realize their potential without
continued change here in Cuba. (Applause.) It should be
easier to open a business here in Cuba. A worker should be
able to get a job directly with companies who invest here in
Cuba. Two currencies shouldn’t separate the type of salaries
that Cubans can earn. The Internet should be available across
the island, so that Cubans can connect to the wider world --
(applause) -- and to one of the greatest engines of growth in
human history.
There’s no limitation from the United States on the ability of
Cuba to take these steps. It’s up to you. And I can tell you
as a friend that sustainable prosperity in the 21st century
depends upon education, health care, and environmental
protection. But it also depends on the free and open exchange
of ideas. If you can’t access information online, if you
cannot be exposed to different points of view, you will not
reach your full potential. And over time, the youth will lose
hope.
I know these issues are sensitive, especially coming from an
American President. Before 1959, some Americans saw Cuba as
something to exploit, ignored poverty, enabled corruption. And
since 1959, we’ve been shadow-boxers in this battle of
geopolitics and personalities. I know the history, but I
refuse to be trapped by it. (Applause.)
I’ve made it clear that the United States has neither the
capacity, nor the intention to impose change on Cuba. What
changes come will depend upon the Cuban people. We will not
impose our political or economic system on you. We recognize
that every country, every people, must chart its own course
and shape its own model. But having removed the shadow of
history from our relationship, I must speak honestly about the
things that I believe -- the things that we, as Americans,
believe. As Marti said, “Liberty is the right of every man to
be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.”
So let me tell you what I believe. I can't force you to agree,
but you should know what I think. I believe that every person
should be equal under the law. (Applause.) Every child
deserves the dignity that comes with education, and health
care and food on the table and a roof over their heads.
(Applause.) I believe citizens should be free to speak
their mind without fear -- (applause) -- to organize, and to
criticize their government, and to protest peacefully, and
that the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions
of people who exercise those rights. (Applause.) I
believe that every person should have the freedom to practice
their faith peacefully and publicly. (Applause.) And,
yes, I believe voters should be able to choose their
governments in free and democratic elections.
(Applause.)
Not everybody agrees with me on this. Not everybody agrees
with the American people on this. But I believe those human
rights are universal. (Applause.) I believe they are the
rights of the American people, the Cuban people, and people
around the world.
Now, there’s no secret that our governments disagree on many
of these issues. I’ve had frank conversations with President
Castro. For many years, he has pointed out the flaws in the
American system -- economic inequality; the death penalty;
racial discrimination; wars abroad. That’s just a sample. He
has a much longer list. (Laughter.) But here’s what the
Cuban people need to understand: I welcome this open
debate and dialogue. It’s good. It’s healthy. I’m not afraid
of it.
We do have too much money in American politics. But, in
America, it's still possible for somebody like me -- a child
who was raised by a single mom, a child of mixed race who did
not have a lot of money -- to pursue and achieve the highest
office in the land. That's what’s possible in America.
(Applause.)
We do have challenges with racial bias -- in our communities,
in our criminal justice system, in our society -- the legacy
of slavery and segregation. But the fact that we have open
debates within America’s own democracy is what allows us to
get better. In 1959, the year that my father moved to America,
it was illegal for him to marry my mother, who was white, in
many American states. When I first started school, we were
still struggling to desegregate schools across the American
South. But people organized; they protested; they debated
these issues; they challenged government officials. And
because of those protests, and because of those debates, and
because of popular mobilization, I’m able to stand here today
as an African-American and as President of the United States.
That was because of the freedoms that were afforded in the
United States that we were able to bring about change.
I’m not saying this is easy. There’s still enormous problems
in our society. But democracy is the way that we solve them.
That's how we got health care for more of our people. That's
how we made enormous gains in women’s rights and gay rights.
That's how we address the inequality that concentrates so much
wealth at the top of our society. Because workers can organize
and ordinary people have a voice, American democracy has given
our people the opportunity to pursue their dreams and enjoy a
high standard of living. (Applause.)
Now, there are still some tough fights. It isn’t always
pretty, the process of democracy. It's often frustrating. You
can see that in the election going on back home. But just stop
and consider this fact about the American campaign that's
taking place right now. You had two Cuban Americans in the
Republican Party, running against the legacy of a black man
who is President, while arguing that they’re the best person
to beat the Democratic nominee who will either be a woman or a
Democratic Socialist. (Laughter and applause.) Who would
have believed that back in 1959? That's a measure of our
progress as a democracy. (Applause.)
So here’s my message to the Cuban government and the Cuban
people: The ideals that are the starting point for every
revolution -- America’s revolution, Cuba’s revolution, the
liberation movements around the world -- those ideals find
their truest expression, I believe, in democracy. Not because
American democracy is perfect, but precisely because we’re
not. And we -- like every country -- need the space that
democracy gives us to change. It gives individuals the
capacity to be catalysts to think in new ways, and to
reimagine how our society should be, and to make them better.
There’s already an evolution taking place inside of Cuba, a
generational change. Many suggested that I come here and ask
the people of Cuba to tear something down -- but I’m appealing
to the young people of Cuba who will lift something up, build
something new. (Applause.) El future de Cuba tiene que
estar en las manos del pueblo Cubano. (Applause.)
And to President Castro -- who I appreciate being here today
-- I want you to know, I believe my visit here demonstrates
you do not need to fear a threat from the United States. And
given your commitment to Cuba’s sovereignty and
self-determination, I am also confident that you need not fear
the different voices of the Cuban people -- and their capacity
to speak, and assemble, and vote for their leaders. In fact,
I’m hopeful for the future because I trust that the Cuban
people will make the right decisions.
And as you do, I’m also confident that Cuba can continue to
play an important role in the hemisphere and around the globe
-- and my hope is, is that you can do so as a partner with the
United States.
We’ve played very different roles in the world. But no one
should deny the service that thousands of Cuban doctors have
delivered for the poor and suffering. (Applause.) Last
year, American health care workers -- and the U.S. military --
worked side-by-side with Cubans to save lives and stamp out
Ebola in West Africa. I believe that we should continue that
kind of cooperation in other countries.
We’ve been on the different side of so many conflicts in the
Americas. But today, Americans and Cubans are sitting together
at the negotiating table, and we are helping the Colombian
people resolve a civil war that’s dragged on for decades.
(Applause.) That kind of cooperation is good for
everybody. It gives everyone in this hemisphere hope.
We took different journeys to our support for the people of
South Africa in ending apartheid. But President Castro and I
could both be there in Johannesburg to pay tribute to the
legacy of the great Nelson Mandela. (Applause.) And in
examining his life and his words, I'm sure we both realize we
have more work to do to promote equality in our own countries
-- to reduce discrimination based on race in our own
countries. And in Cuba, we want our engagement to help lift up
the Cubans who are of African descent -- (applause) -- who’ve
proven that there’s nothing they cannot achieve when given the
chance.
We’ve been a part of different blocs of nations in the
hemisphere, and we will continue to have profound differences
about how to promote peace, security, opportunity, and human
rights. But as we normalize our relations, I believe it can
help foster a greater sense of unity in the Americas -- todos
somos Americanos. (Applause.)
From the beginning of my time in office, I’ve urged the people
of the Americas to leave behind the ideological battles of the
past. We are in a new era. I know that many of the issues that
I’ve talked about lack the drama of the past. And I know that
part of Cuba’s identity is its pride in being a small island
nation that could stand up for its rights, and shake the
world. But I also know that Cuba will always stand out because
of the talent, hard work, and pride of the Cuban people.
That's your strength. (Applause.) Cuba doesn’t have to
be defined by being against the United States, any more than
the United States should be defined by being against Cuba. I'm
hopeful for the future because of the reconciliation that’s
taking place among the Cuban people.
I know that for some Cubans on the island, there may be a
sense that those who left somehow supported the old order in
Cuba. I'm sure there’s a narrative that lingers here which
suggests that Cuban exiles ignored the problems of
pre-Revolutionary Cuba, and rejected the struggle to build a
new future. But I can tell you today that so many Cuban exiles
carry a memory of painful -- and sometimes violent --
separation. They love Cuba. A part of them still considers
this their true home. That’s why their passion is so strong.
That's why their heartache is so great. And for the Cuban
American community that I’ve come to know and respect, this is
not just about politics. This is about family -- the memory of
a home that was lost; the desire to rebuild a broken bond; the
hope for a better future the hope for return and
reconciliation.
For all of the politics, people are people, and Cubans are
Cubans. And I’ve come here -- I’ve traveled this distance --
on a bridge that was built by Cubans on both sides of the
Florida Straits. I first got to know the talent and passion of
the Cuban people in America. And I know how they have suffered
more than the pain of exile -- they also know what it’s like
to be an outsider, and to struggle, and to work harder to make
sure their children can reach higher in America.
So the reconciliation of the Cuban people -- the children and
grandchildren of revolution, and the children and
grandchildren of exile -- that is fundamental to Cuba’s
future. (Applause.)
You see it in Gloria Gonzalez, who traveled here in 2013 for
the first time after 61 years of separation, and was met by
her sister, Llorca. “You recognized me, but I didn’t recognize
you,” Gloria said after she embraced her sibling. Imagine
that, after 61 years.
You see it in Melinda Lopez, who came to her family’s old
home. And as she was walking the streets, an elderly woman
recognized her as her mother’s daughter, and began to cry. She
took her into her home and showed her a pile of photos that
included Melinda’s baby picture, which her mother had sent 50
years ago. Melinda later said, “So many of us are now getting
so much back.”
You see it in Cristian Miguel Soler, a young man who became
the first of his family to travel here after 50 years. And
meeting relatives for the first time, he said, “I realized
that family is family no matter the distance between us.”
Sometimes the most important changes start in small places.
The tides of history can leave people in conflict and exile
and poverty. It takes time for those circumstances to change.
But the recognition of a common humanity, the reconciliation
of people bound by blood and a belief in one another -- that’s
where progress begins. Understanding, and listening, and
forgiveness. And if the Cuban people face the future together,
it will be more likely that the young people of today will be
able to live with dignity and achieve their dreams right here
in Cuba.
The history of the United States and Cuba encompass revolution
and conflict; struggle and sacrifice; retribution and, now,
reconciliation. It is time, now, for us to leave the past
behind. It is time for us to look forward to the future
together -- un future de esperanza. And it won’t be easy, and
there will be setbacks. It will take time. But my time here in
Cuba renews my hope and my confidence in what the Cuban people
will do. We can make this journey as friends, and as
neighbors, and as family -- together. Si Senate puede. Muchas
gracias. (Applause.)