Barack Obama made history this week after becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years. In the historic two-day visit, Obama and Raul Castro vowed to set aside their differences, work on diplomatic relations, and bring change after many years of animosity, in pursuit of what Obama called a "new day" for the long bitterly divided neighbors.
"Change is going to happen here and I think that Raul Castro understands that," Obama said in an interview with ABC News."Our intention has been to get the ball rolling, knowing that change wasn't going to happen overnight. Although we still have significant differences around human rights and individual liberties inside of Cuba, we felt that coming now would maximize our ability to prompt more change," he added.
Meanwhile, Latino celebrities share their point-of-views on this historic event via social media. Puerto Rican merengue singer Olga Tañon, for example, said "it was about time this happened." Fifth Harmony's Camila Cabello, who is Cuban-American, expressed that Obama in Cuba was "awesome" and later stated that she's going to miss Barack as POTUS.
Although trying to stay positive with the visit, Emilio Estefan also weighed in. "The visit does not mean that the Castro dictatorship has ended. The word liberty means so much to me, and we all know that in our country, that does not exist," he said in an interview with El Nuevo Herald.
On another hand, Puerto Rican salsa singer Willie Cólon expressed his thoughts about Castro not greeting the President when he landed in Cuba. "The first US President to set foot on Cuban soil in 90 YEARS! This is what Obama gets for playing into the Castro's hands. There is no excuse in the world for Castro not to meet the President, especially with all the skin Obama has put in the game for him. Cuba pay back by disrespecting him and making him look the fool," he shared on Facebook.
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