Friday, January 30, 2015

Thawing frozen ideas of Cuba

One of Cuba’s popular timba bands, Azucar Negra, performing
during a reunion concert with its former star singer Haila
Momprie, on the Malecon in front of the U.S. Interests Section,
April 2008. — Photo by Saundra Amrhein
In the past month, there has been a flurry of news features and articles about Cuba ever since President Obama announced that his administration was working to restore ties with the island nation following five decades of hostilities between the two countries.

Some of the articles took a political angle, some a business one, and others focused on anticipated opportunities for curious U.S. travelers.

Inevitably, a certain phrase cropped into some of the coverage, a popular expression used in U.S. news media reports to describe Cuba: that it is “frozen in time.” Or a companion descriptor: “time warp.”