“One of my greatest hopes has just been dashed. The immense joy I felt on December 17, 2014 cannot compare with the immense sadness I have felt now. I can undoubtedly tell you that this is one of the saddest days of my life.” This is Julio César Hernández Labastida at 11 on the night of last January 12, a few hours after U.S. President Barack Obama announced the end of the “dry foot / wet foot” policy. While surfing in the WiFi zone of Havana’s La Rampa, Hernández Labastida found the press release with the information. Not believing what he was reading, to make sure the 28-year-old industrial engineer followed his friends’ comments on Facebook. “I already had plans and the necessary coordination to be in the United States at the latest in March. Of course it would be through the border with Mexico, because getting a visa is impossible: I’ve already tried three times and nothing. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Dayron Díaz Jiménez, a 24-year-old self-employed, also saw his plans dashed. “On January 10 I was given a visa to travel to Mexico for 10 years....

Almost 90 years old, with the same voice, U.S. singer Barbara Dane returned to the same stage where she made her debut in Cuba half a century ago: Casa de las Americas. The jazz, blues and folk legend spoke with the contemporary tone of her last album, Throw it Away, the first of her production in 15 years. Accompanied by Cuban and U.S. musicians (Ruy López-Nussa in percussion, Ruth Davies on the double bass and Tammy M. Hall at the piano), Dane shared the stage with Pablo Menéndez, her son, and Osamu, her grandson. The evening revived the singer’s first meeting with the Cuban public, at a time in which the 90 miles that separate the island from Key West had become so long that it seemed impossible to cross them. Three generations of musicians who join the two nations: Barbara Dane, U.S.; her son Pablo Menéndez, Cuban American; and her grandson Osamu Menéndez, Cuban. In 1966 the singer landed, alone, in the oneiric Havana of the time. Or almost alone: she was accompanied by the guitar and a camera. The tense atmosphere between the two countries had prevented for seven years any U.S. singer from stepping on Cuban soil....

The U.S. airlines JetBlue and Southwest announced airfares to Cuba at less than 60 dollars, reducing the current costs of charter flights that oscillate between 200 and 300 dollars for the ticket. The step can mean a historic rapprochement between the two shores of the Straits of Florida, since the plummeting in prices benefits more than 400,000 Cuban Americans who travel every year to their country of origin. These offers, posted by the companies on their websites, will come into force starting next November. The JetBlue flights to the Cuban capital will depart from Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Airport – some 40 kilometers from Miami – with a frequency of two daily trips, except for Saturday when only one aircraft will take off. At a cost 54 dollars starting November 30, the users will be able to book airfares on the company’s digital platform. JetBlue includes its offer between Havana and New York for 99 dollars, presented last July. It also comprises on its routes the Cuban airports of Santa Clara, Camagüey and Holguín. Southwest, the other company enrolled in the announcements, presented the offer in a press release where it advanced the cost of the ticket at 59 dollars. With...