Karolyn Alvarez: What you won’t see on your trip to Cuba

Re: Full page advertisement, Page 7A, Feb. 25: It’s important that people realize what will and won’t be included on a trip to Cuba sponsored by the Merced Chamber of Commerce and advertised in the Sun-Star. You will see billboards along the highway praising communist leaders Fidel Castro, Che Guavara and “la Revolucion,” but the billboards blasting the U.S. might be removed considering the upcoming visit by President Obama.

You won’t see the hundreds of political prisoners kept in Cuban jails for decades for having spoken up against the Communist way of life. During an advertised “evening of leisure” you will never be allowed to wander off on your own. You will not be allowed to talk to thousands of Cubans who are not government employees and thus not participants in the “wonderful” medical care offered to Cuba’s elite. Many islanders spend their days trying to find food to feed the family, often on a rampant black market.

Will things get better for ordinary Cubans? It depends on your definition of “better.” Visiting families will be easier. But unless the U.S. lays down hard and fast conditions for normalization, nothing much will change. The first thing that must happen is release of political prisoners. Think about this before you sign up.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Karolyn Alvarez: What you won’t see on your trip to Cuba."