As we Cubans rejoice, let's lead our own change

HAVANA -- Carried by a wave of popular enthusiasm, led mainly by the youth of America, Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States when he took office on Tuesday. That historic event smashed the prejudices that had existed in that nation for centuries and created great expectations worldwide regarding the colossal challenges facing mankind.

To us Cubans living 90 miles from the coast of Florida, this victory has a special significance, which explains the attention paid to the electoral process and the popular joy generated by Obama's inauguration -- in contrast to the attitude of the official Cuban media, which gave it the least possible publicity. It is wort noting that, while the growing rumors about Fidel Castro's worsening health attract much commentary abroad, on Cuban streets and in Cuban homes our hopes concentrate on the American president.

The reasons are many.

In the first place, while racial discrimination has been a harsh reality and may still survive in the minds of some, it is now in a process of retreat, as Obama's victory showed. This is extremely important in Cuba, where the percentage of blacks and mestizos is significant, and the national culture is the fruit of a mixture of Spanish and African cultures, with a strong U.S. American influence.

At the same time, we must remember that, during the campaign, Obama was the candidate who demonstrated the greatest understanding of the Cuban reality. In Miami, the largest settlement of Cuban exiles, he promised to lift the absurd limitations on the trips of Cubans and Cuban Americans to the island and on the remittances of economic aid to relatives and friends. He also vowed to give diplomacy a more relevant role in the handling of the Cuban issue.

His proposals immediately enjoyed great sympathy, both because of their human dimension and their likely incidence as a factor of national unity and a vehicle to promote a peaceful change in Cuba. Nevertheless, we must remain cautious: The hard-liners within the Cuban Communist Party and government retain important posts and will do their best to torpedo any process that might improve relations between Havana and Washington.

With Obama's rise to the U.S. presidency, the ball is in the court of Gen. Raśl Castro. Recall that on three occasions after his provisional takeover, he referred to his willingness to establish negotiations with whatever administration emerged from the U.S. elections, something he has reiterated with certain conditions.

Unfortunately, since June 2008 we have witnessed a paralyzation of the structural and conceptual changes promised on July 26, 2007, and an increase in the repressive measures against the informal sector of the economy, which has been forced to labor in the shadows because of the mechanisms that keep citizens from making a decent living out in public.

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