This should be an outstanding performance.  MCSCA will be one of the Presenting Partners.  Here are the particulars

Tiempo Libre is one of the hottest Latin jazz bands hitting the scenes today.  Expertly blending the sounds of their native Cuba with those of Florida, they were named “Best Latin Band 2008″ by the Miami New Times.

A hit in the U.S. and abroad, the group is celebrated for its incendiary, joyful performances of timba, an irresistible, dance-inducing mix of high-voltage Latin jazz, and the seductive rhythms of son, adding salsa to the mix. We…

Bendixan is a Miami-based research firm that specializes in polling  multi-cultural, multi-lingual populations.  They have a lot of experience sampling Cuban American sentiment.  A recent poll shows that not only do the vast majority of that population favor the recent lifting of restrictions, they would go further and lift them for all Americans.

A substantial majority of Cuban and Cuban American adults in the United States - 64 percent – support the changes in Cuba policy announced last week by President Barack Obama that lift all restrictions for Cubans in the United States on travel and

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The NY Times reviews the very favorable impression created by Obama at the Summit.  “Antagonism seemed to melt away;”  there was a, “palpable enthusiasm for a new openness;”  “the newfound togetherness was a turning point for the region”

“There was a spirit of good will that went way beyond the wildest dreams of any one of us,” Patrick Manning, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said Sunday.

Some of that good will went too far for President Obama’s critics in Washington, where seemingly friendly images of him with President Hugo Chávez of

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María Granela Suárez has been awarded the highest honor in psychology for her life-long career work including research and teaching specializing in patient care and assistance to patients’ family members.  She’s being honored for the  continuous impact on Cuban society her professional work has had  throughout her career.

With the summit coinciding with the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, this author reflects on the longstanding hubris of the US government in attempting to dictate Cuba’s development.  Gomez asserts that that is problematic in and of itself, but it is compounded by a complete failure to understand the nature of Cuba’s struggle to maintain its sovereignty.

A transition is already happening in Cuba, make no mistake. It is happening in the context of its own history and will be led by Cuban actors, not by commissions in the US, and

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A Sun Sentinal (South Florida) editorial praises the recent changes but argues that the remaining travel restrictions barring non-Cuban-Americans from travel are unconstitutional.  It also criticizes the embargo an anachronism and quotes Reagan’s Secretary of State, Ed Schultz, calling the embargo “insane”

Yet, well into the 21st century, the United States is stuck with this anachronism.

That’s because Florida, the nation’s fourth most populous state, possesses 27 electoral votes, and politicians from both major political parties have been reluctant to antagonize a Cuban-American voting bloc that can swing presidential elections.

The electoral calculus,

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Very good news coming from the summit.  Obama led off with an extremely hopeful message on US-Cuba relations.   From the  New York Times:

President Obama, seeking to thaw long-frozen relations with Cuba, told a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday that “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” and that he was willing to have his administration engage the Castro government on a wide array of issues.

Mr. Obama’s remarks, during the opening ceremony at the Summit of the Americas, are the clearest signal in decades that the United

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