I enjoyed reading this article, and I expect there will be many others of this type, as people of this diaspora struggle with the ambivalent feeling the Obama action has aroused: cautious hope, sadness over lives disrupted and people left behind, the pain of a way of life snatched away.
It’s probably like the complex feelings that expatriates from other countries have felt.
My sister-in-law’s father-in-law was a Cuban political prisoner in the 1960s. He was a popular entertainer and radio host, and he ran afoul of the authorities when he refused to join the Communist Party. He was jailed for a few years. His family was able to get out after a few tries and he eventually joined them here.
I’ll probably see him next week when we get together for the holidays, but I don’t imagine he will say anything about the US-Cuba rapproachement.