{"id":2143,"date":"2016-03-24T18:23:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T18:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","slug":"padgett-84-covers-obama-visit-to-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/03\/24\/padgett-84-covers-obama-visit-to-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Padgett \u201984 Covers Obama Visit to Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will still take quite a while for Cubans to see the change Obama waxed about. But before his visit it really did seem to most of them that their only option was \u201csocialism or death.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Or leaving.<\/em><\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning something vastly different got beamed in.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Tim Padgett \u201984<\/em><\/p>\n

Few journalists understand Cuba\u00a0better than Tim Padgett \u201984, who has covered events on the island nation and throughout Latin America as an award-winning reporter for Newsweek<\/em>, TIME<\/em> Magazine, and now as Americas Correspondent for National Public Radio affiliate WLRN-Miami and the Miami Herald<\/em>. He’s also a frequent contributor to NPR’s Here and Now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Padgett has interviewed more than 20 heads of state, including former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva and current Mexican President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto, and he was one of the few U.S. correspondents to sit down with the late Venezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez during his 14-year rule. In 2005, Padgett received Columbia University\u2019s Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the oldest international award in journalism, for his body of work from the region.<\/p>\n

Padgett brought insights gained from years of covering Cuba and Cuban exiles to his reports in advance of the President\u2019s visit as Cuban police rounded up dissidents.<\/a><\/p>\n

And\u00a0check out\u00a0his memorable commentary\u00a0from Havana<\/a> for WLRN-Herald News in the visit\u2019s aftermath.\u00a0It\u2019s a must-read for anyone interested in the historic changes taking place in that country and in our world.<\/p>\n

Padgett writes:<\/p>\n

Shortly after Barack Obama\u2019s historic speech in Havana Tuesday morning, I met a smart, 34-year-old Cuban accountant named Kariel Gonz\u00e1lez in the Vedado district.<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019d listened to President Obama on the radio, and he was cheering the U.S. leader’s last line \u2013\u00a0\u00a1S\u00ed Se Puede!\u00a0\u2013 a Spanish rendering of his iconic campaign slogan, Yes We Can!<\/em><\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez said he’d already heard Cubans repeat the soundbite on the sidewalks. “It\u2019s the sort of thing that makes Obama so popular on the island,” he told me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meaning,\u00a0\u00a1S\u00ed\u00a0Se Puede!\u00a0is a hell of a lot cooler mantra than the dreary, Soviet-style mottos Cuba\u2019s communist leaders have slathered on billboards and airwaves for half a century. Like\u00a0\u00a1Socialismo O Muerte!\u00a0\u2013 Socialism Or Death! Now there\u2019s a political jingle for the GroupMe generation!<\/em><\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s clever sign-off seemed to have emboldened Cubans like Gonz\u00e1lez to praise, out loud, the meatier content of the address \u2013 including Obama’s remarkably direct call to Cuba\u2019s President Ra\u00fal Castro to adopt democratic reforms.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read and listen to more of Padgett’s work in the links below:<\/p>\n

Cuba’s Communist State Now a Client of Its Capitalist Entrepreneurs<\/a><\/p>\n

Dissidents Arrested Hours Before Obama’s Arrival<\/a><\/p>\n

Cuban Government, Citizens in Different Moods on Eve of Historic Visit<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Steve Charles<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will still take quite a while for Cubans to see the change Obama waxed about. But before his visit it really did seem to most of them that their only option […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/03\/padgett1cropped-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2143"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2158,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions\/2158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}