From Miami to Havana: Why This Cuban American Is Speaking Out

Cuban-American politicians have long been a driving force behind the U.S. government’s economic war on the island. But many people of Cuban origin living in the United States reject the hard-line policies that have ravaged the island’s economy and caused widespread scarcities and hardship.

Danny Valdes, a Cuban American born in Miami, recently visited Cuba with the Nuestra América Convoy to help bring humanitarian aid to the island.

“There is a very well organized and powerful right wing Cuban lobby, that even is in the halls of the Congress that gets to determine what U.S. policy is toward Cuba,” said Valdés. “But we feel like it's a very important time now to say, not in our name.”

TRANSCRIPT

“There are 2.5 million Cubans living in the United States, and the vast majority of them want normalized relations between the United States and Cuba,” said Danny Valdes, a Cuban-American participant in the Nuestra América Convoy.

“There is a very well-organized and powerful right-wing Cuban lobby, even in the halls of Congress, that gets to determine what U.S. policy is toward Cuba,” he stated.

“But we feel like it’s a very important time now to say: not in our name.”

“I was born in Miami, Florida,” he continued.

“The first time I came was in 2023.”

“There’s this stigma that still exists, especially with older Cuban-Americans—Cubans who came from Cuba in the 60s and in the 70s—that coming back to Cuba is really a betrayal,” he explained.

“My grandmother had no idea that I had ever been to Cuba until three days ago,” he recalled.

“I feel very sure of why I’m here and what I’m doing,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I don’t pay taxes to the Cuban government. I don’t have any political influence over the politics of Cuba, but I pay taxes to a government that is using those taxes to impose scarcity and hunger in a country of 11 million people,” he emphasized.

“Being here, especially last night when there was a nationwide blackout, and looking out and seeing complete darkness—it was really affecting,” he added.

“And it just made it very real.”

“It wasn’t dark because there was an accident or a natural disaster or anything like that. It’s being caused by a policy that we as Americans, especially as Cuban-Americans, have a duty to change, because it’s causing the immiseration and suffering of people in Cuba for no reason,” he stated.

“Cuba does not represent a threat to the United States,” he affirmed.

“No matter what future you want for Cuba—whether you want Cuba to remain socialist or you want a Starbucks on every corner—it doesn’t matter until the embargo is lifted and until U.S. policy toward Cuba changes in a meaningful way,” he continued.

“And if you want more change in Cuba, the way to do that is to allow Cuba to develop on its own terms,” he explained.

“Because if you don’t do that, instead of causing opening, you cause closing—you cause inward-looking, you cause defensiveness,” he added.

“And we have the example of Obama, which is a very important one, because Obama didn’t change a single law. All he did was tinker at the edges, and it caused an economic explosion in Cuba,” he said.

“And there was a sense of a hopeful future, for the first time in Cuba in a long time,” he recalled.

“And then for Trump and Rubio to come in and completely destroy all of that.”

“One thing a lot of people don’t understand is that when you have a lack of fuel, and when you have a lack of being able to import basic goods, it’s not just about the fuel—it’s about all the dominoes that fall after that,” he explained.

“It’s about not being able to pick up trash. And so you see trash building up on the streets and in corners everywhere,” he continued.

“And again, it’s not because the government doesn’t care. It’s just because there are no resources to do the job that needs to be done,” he emphasized.

“What I see here in Cuba, and what is kind of heartbreaking, is that the social foundations are so strong, and you can see where the intention and the economic reality are constantly conflicting with each other,” he reflected.

“We have universal healthcare, but we sometimes have trouble with the small things that are required to have a functioning system,” he said.

“And so what I think Cuba offers to the world is a positive, human-first vision of what a society can be like—a society that’s not driven only by profit,” he stated.

“It offers a different model, and I think that is what makes it a threat to countries like the United States,” he added.

“I always say that in the U.S., we have a dictatorship of capital, and capital is what determines what happens and what doesn’t happen,” he argued.

“I don’t pretend that Cuba is a socialist utopia. Let’s acknowledge what the real problems are,” he said.

“But let’s tell the whole story. And leaving out the U.S. part of it is not telling the entire story,” he emphasized.

“However Cuba decides to change things going forward, it should be up to Cubans,” he concluded.

“It should not be up to Donald Trump. It should not be up to Marco Rubio.”

“I want Cuba to have its own sovereignty to decide for itself how it wants to develop in the 21st century.”