Two forces define modern Cuban life: migration and resilience. Both run through Pensar Cuba, the new podcast from the Cuba Study Group and elTOQUE hosted by Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada. Airing every Monday since September 22, it features open conversations about what it means to be Cuban, on and off the island—creating a space where displacement, identity, and the hope of rebuilding intersect. These themes also permeate Jon Lee Anderson’s recent piece in The New Yorker on the bleak state of Cuban migration to the U.S., which cites the Cuba Study Group and is highlighted in this newsletter.
This edition also launches our new biweekly economic roundup by Cuban economist Ricardo Torres, covering Cuba’s debt restructuring talks with China, the critical state of the island’s road network, and the sharp decline of its tourism sector. We also cover the irony of a potential Trump Presidential Library being built next to Miami’s Freedom Tower, the U.S. president’s bizarre claims on autism and Cuba, Havana’s position on potential U.S. attacks against Venezuela, and the death of American fugitive Assata Shakur in Cuba.
