For the first time in 50 years, Americans may be able to do business in Cuba. Some in Cleveland's Cuban community are eager to get started.
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Augusto Bordelois said re-establishing ties with Cuba will help to speed democracy to his homeland. He left Cuba in 1999 and now runs Augusto Fine Art Studio in Berea. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- News that the United States would restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba ran electric through Greater Cleveland's small Cuban-American community Wednesday, arousing astonishment and anticipation.
In other parts of the nation, especially south Florida, Cuban exiles reacted angrily to a surprise agreement. But Cleveland is a long way from Miami.
"I tell you, this is a heck of a new beginning," said Eduardo Gonzalez, the president of Ferrous Metal Processing Co. The Cleveland steelmaker watched President Barack Obama's address on television and said he began to cry. He had been waiting for this day for decades.
"My dad would have been so excited," Gonzalez said. "This is a tremendous day. A tremendous day."
The Gonzalez family fled Cuba in December of 1960, when Eduardo was 7. His parents, both lawyers, supported the pro-democracy movement that challenged former Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista, he said. But they opposed Fidel Castro, whom they saw as another dictator and a communist. As a result, their property was seized and their home was bombed, he said.
The family caught one of the last flights out. Gonzalez has never been back.
Now he hopes to return to Cuba as a businessman, bearing steel that can help to rebuild Havana.
"The economic potential is going to be incredible," Gonzalez predicted. "That country has to rebuild. It's an attractive destination. There's a lot of economic opportunity.
"I'm looking forward, from a selfish standpoint, to getting involved," he added. "I'd love to be involved in the steel processing. I've been looking forward to this day for a long time."
Taking the world by surprise, Obama declared an end to America's "outdated approach" to Cuba and said the U.S. would re-establish long-broken diplomatic relations and open an embassy in Havana.
"These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked," Obama said in remarks from the White House. "It's time for a new approach."
Wednesday's announcement followed more than a year of secret talks between the U.S. and Cuba, including clandestine meetings in Canada and the Vatican and personal involvement from Pope Francis, according to the Associated Press.
Setting the stage for the diplomatic breakthrough, Cuba released American contractor Alan Gross. He had spent five years behind bars after being accused of subversion while on a mission to bring internet services to Jewish community groups in Cuba.
Many Cuban-Americans reacted angrily to the news, especially in the large exile community of South Florida.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants, vowed to fight attempts at detente. He said the policy shift would only strengthen the regime of Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, and put off democratic reforms.
"When has tourism ever brought about democracy?" Rubio told CNN. "This government controls every aspect of life in Cuba. Every single policy change the U.S. has ever made towards Cuba, whether it's more travel, more person to person contact, more remittances, they have manipulated every single one of them and they will manipulate this as well."
Augusto Bordelois said Rubio represents the thinking of an older generation. The 45-year-old artist left Cuba in 1999, when Cleveland State University invited him to study and lecture. He met and married a local woman and now runs Augusto Fine Art Studio in Berea.
"I think that this is way, way, way overdue," he said. "Cubans are more pro-American than Puerto Ricans. They're super pro-American, at least those of my generation."
Bordelois said young Cubans want more freedom and economic opportunity and they look to America as a model.
"I was born and raised in the revolution period," he said. "My generation understood that free education and health care is good, but what comes next? We need more."
He said when he returns to Havana on visits, as he did five months ago, he has trouble finding friends because so many have left the island. He does not think that normal relations will strengthen the Cuban government and reward the Castros.
"People who say that, they have not lived in Cuba," he said. "When the American embargo can no longer be blamed for everything, that's it. Most people in my generation, they already don't believe all that crap."
He said he was shocked by Obama's action and has only one regret.
"Right now, I'm really mad I did not invest and buy a house down there," he said.