Rep. Sam Farr and an inevitable dinner in Havana

By Elíades Acosta Matos

A Democratic Congressman from California’s 17th District has just coined a fortunate phrase to illustrate what’s irrational and absurd about the policy of blockade and confrontation that more than 10 U.S. administrations have applied to Cuba for almost half a century.

“If you’re a potato,” Sam Farr said last September, “you won’t have any trouble getting into Cuba. If you’re an American citizen, you won’t be able to travel – and that’s our problem.”

Unquestionably, this man, born on the Fourth of July 1941, Independence Day in the nation he serves as a lawmaker, has a sharp sense of humor. But the topic of travel restrictions goes beyond a caustic and clever phrase. It goes through the heart of the sacred rights granted by a country that is zealous guardian of its Constitution and free decision-making, without which American society is inconceivable.

What has been impeded all these years under the most peculiar arguments, initially backed by the atmosphere of the Cold War and, for many years, without any backing whatsoever, is the free exchange between neighboring nations and peoples who are irremissibly joined by adjacency, trade, emigration, culture and history.

The barriers have been of a political nature, forceful measures to attempt to influence the Cuban people’s sovereign decisions about its fate. And, like anything that opposes the natural flow of life, the blockade has been overtaken by life.

That is why Farr’s phrase and particularly his bill titled Freedom To Travel to Cuba Act, now before the House, are a patriotic effort and a manifestation of the most elementary common sense to keep the potatoes from being the only ones to travel to Cuba – unlike the people who cultivate them – and that the longed-for meeting of representatives from both countries can take place across a table, at dinner time.

Sam Farr is not an improvised politician or an over-the-hill visionary. He is one of the representatives who best know Latin America, not only because he fluently speaks the language of the peoples of the region but also because, after graduating from the Monterrey Institute of International Studies, he worked with the Peace Corps in Colombia for two years.

The son of Senator Fred Farr, he knows well the background of the relationship between his country and government and Latin American emigration. His voting record since 1993, when he replaced Rep. Leon Panetta, is that of a realist, with his feet planted firmly on the ground and on the principles he believes. His prestige is such that he has secured the support of 181 members of Congress for his Cuban initiative. If his bill gets the remaining 37 votes needed for eventual passing, which he hopes will happen before year’s end, he would add a historic victory to his personal record, which is by itself impressive.

To accomplish this, he has the support of the National Tour Association, United States Tours Operators Association, and Washington Office on Latin America. Lisa Simon, president of the first of these associations, has said that, should authorization be granted for Cuba travel, more than 1 million Americans would visit the island every year. That figure is nothing to scoff at, when it comes to the industries of tourism and air or sea travel, which have been hit especially hard by the global crisis.

Sam Farr knows what he talks about and what he does, no question about it. His road to Damascus with regard to Cuba has had its ups and downs, a reflection of the highs and lows of bilateral relations. While in 2000 he voted in favor of an initiative the lifted travel restrictions, the following year he voted in favor of another bill that conditioned a lifting of the restrictions to the release of the so-called Cuban political prisoners.

But in the eight years since, which coincide with the atrocious administration of George W. Bush, Farr had an occasion to look closely at the injustice of a measure that impeded, in his own words, “freeing the government from being a hostage of a failed policy applied in the past 50 years,” for which it was necessary “to initiate a complete change in our relations with Cuba and reestablish responsible links.”

Precisely that opportunity, which mustn’t be missed, is the one Sam Farr has envisioned under Barack Obama’s presidency. And he’s fighting to make it a reality.

Neither the implacable neoconservatives nor the Cuban far right in Miami will find it easy to tag this important initiative as the product of naiveté or the irresponsible enthusiasm of someone who doesn’t take into account the potential dangers that might occur if American citizens are given the right to go to the island, a right that only potatoes have at this point.

Sam Farr is not only the co-chairman of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus but also has been a member for years of three subcommittees, two of which grant him enough authority to legislate on the issue without fear of criticism. He sits on the subcommittees on Agriculture and Homeland Security.

It is precisely for that reason that his initiative has been heard with much respect and has enjoyed overwhelming support. In a letter to President Obama in February, he included among the 10 mandatory steps to normalize relations with Cuba (in addition to a lifting of all restrictions on travel, and permission for merchant ships of both countries to facilitate direct trade between both ports) the need to remove the island from the list of states that sponsor terrorism or oppose antiterrorist efforts.

Renowned as a defender of the environment, the oceans, excellence in education, the rights of veterans, sustainable economic development, and for his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, the leonine Free Trade treaties Washington has signed with Central America, a co-sponsor of a legislative initiative to impeach Dick Cheney for having lied to the nation about the alleged links between the government of Iraq and Al Qaeda and Iraq’s hypothetical production of weapons of mass destruction, Sam Farr today embodies consistency and a unique opportunity in the political panorama of his country: to bring to an honorable end an unjustified situation that is contrary to the spirit of the nation, to its fundamental values and freedoms, to the enjoyment of business opportunities, of international law, and to the right of its neighbor to sovereignty and free determination.

Like every Cuban who wishes that we can someday travel without restrictions in both directions and that the two nations can face each other off only on the baseball field, I hope that we’ll have an opportunity in the near future to welcome to Cuba a tourist named Sam Farr and his family. If that happens, nothing could be better than sitting down in peace to the same table and celebrating together with a fine dinner, where of course there will be congri and yucca with mojo, as well as a good supply of fried potatoes from California.

Elíades Acosta Matos, a philosopher, doctor in political science, and writer, is a member of the Progreso Weekly/Semanal team.