Young Cubans await brave new world of better U. S. ties

Twenty- somethings who have known only poverty are already seeing changes in society

Natalie Baez tidies up the souvenir shop, dusting off wooden statuettes and straightening Tshirts as several Europeans glance inside.

“Have a look around,” says Baez, 21, waving them in. But the tourists don’t bite. Five hours into her shift, Baez has sold just one key chain for $ 1.10. Her commission: 11 cents, barely enough for a piece of gum. “No one’s buying anything,” she laments.

One of the more than 1.5 million 20- somethings in Cuba, Baez plans to stick around despite her low- paying job to see how this island nation — on the verge of sweeping change — will evolve now that the United States and Cuba are restoring diplomatic ties after more than five decades of hostility.

Baez is optimistic about her prospects despite her financial challenges. She dreams of finding success as an actress and buying a home.

“Cuba is not going to be the same in five years, I’m almost sure,” she says. “Who knows, I’ll probably have my own house. I’ll be able to help my mother.”

Even before President Obama announced the renewal of diplomatic relations in December, Cuba was transforming. Private businesses — from restaurants to laptop repair shops — are springing up all over the capital of Havana, catering to Cubans who suddenly have money to spend.

“My life and the lives of everyone are going to change as this process moves ahead,” says Cuban journalist Jasan Nieves, 27. “The landscape is still very gray,” but change is “inevitable.”

“No one can imagine the country we will have in three years. Relations with the United States will never be normal,” Nieves says. The USA is “the epitome of capitalism, and here they are trying to build a political system that is the antithesis.”

Musician Julio Cesar Oñate, 27, hopes for the day when Cuban and American artists travel freely between the two countries and he meets an American music executive who can promote his work, which blends Jamaican dancehall and hip- hop music. “My dream is to bring my music to the entire world,” he says. “Cuba is a source of unimaginable talent.”

Some Cuban officials are wary of capitalist ventures and the changes they’ll bring. Young people shouldn’t be “dazzled by consumerism and beautiful things,” Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, second secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party behind President Raúl Castro, said in an interview July 11 in the state- run newspaper Juventud Rebelde ( Rebel Youth). “Socialism is the future. We are not bankrupt.”

Arelis Blanco, 22, doesn’t buy that. She belongs to the opposition group Las Damas de Blanco, ( Ladies in White), whose members are routinely arrested by Cuban authorities after protest marches in Havana on Sundays.

“I’ve never agreed with this regime,” she says. “My dream is that Cuba be free, that there’s a total change, that we don’t live in misery anymore. There’s practically no food, there’s no money, nothing.”

Baez works in the souvenir shop part- time. Her latest acting role was as an agent on a popular Cuban police show.

“I want to help my mother, who lives on the other side of the country and who has given me everything. She made me the kind of person I am,” Baez said. “That’s what I want the most.”

“Cuba is not going to be the same in five years, I’m almost sure.”

Natalie Baez

PHOTOS BY TRACEY EATON, FOR USA TODAY Musician Julio Cesar Oñate, 27, far right, checks his email at a WiFi hotspot outside the Hotel Vedado in Havana. “There’s a little more freedom in things we didn’t have before,” he says. “Now they give you the opportunity to get on the Internet.”