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Meetings "The Nation and the Emigration" In October 1993, Cuban authorities decided to organize a meeting with sectors of the emigration the following year. On February 14, 1994, the official summons to the event became public and on April 22, at 10 in the morning, there were 221 Cubans, residents in thirty countries, sat down in a Conferences Center hall sharing the feeling of being attending a historical moment: the beginning of The Nation and the Emigration First Conference. The purpose of this conference was to analyze the measures that were possible to adopt in order to normalize the emigrants relationships with their origin country and its institutions, and with their families. The Conference was also aimed at stimulating stable relationships, family, cultural and social exchanges, through the promotion of constructive actions on the part of the emigrants, from the perspective of the historical juncture that defines the destiny of the Nation, the preservation of its sovereignty and independence, as well as the achievements of our people which constitute common cause for all goodwill Cubans. In November 1995 the Second Conference was held, with a larger attendance of Cubans residing abroad. Other events were carried out, and little by little the misleading sentence spoken about a “new Cuban policy toward the emigration." started to be manipulated. These words ignored years of rapprochements and disagreements among the emigrants and the Island. Culminating points were forgotten, namely: the visit of the youths that later made up the Antonio Maceo Brigade, who were received by the Commander in Chief and other leaders in Havana, in December 1977, or the so-called Dialogue of the 78, when more than 100 Cubans came from the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico to talk about a group of topics with the Revolutionary Government . As a result of those conversations, the so-called “Community travels” and "family reunification" began. Said in a different way, “a Cuban policy toward the emigration” always existed starting from 1959. It is a policy determined, in the first place, by the characteristics and the attitude of that emigration toward the country. In the sixties, when amid their heterogeneity, broad sectors of the emigrants coincided in their bet against the emerging Revolution, Cuban policy was then of confrontation with a marked priority aimed at ensuring the security of the country. In the middle of such events as Playa Giron invasion, the October Crisis or the terror imposed by counterrevolutionary gangs in the Escambray and other sites of the country, nobody would have spoken of holding conferences similar to those that were later organized in the 90’s. Nowadays, our relationships with Cuban-Americans can not advance faster because an anti-Cuban policy is still in force, a policy that, translated into millionaire projects, pointed at creating an alleged dissidence in Cuba, at inventing a sector depicted as a supposed alternative to the Revolution, both to achieve international condemnations in Geneva and, at a last resort, to justify a military aggression against Cuba. Cubans of the Island are able to consider an emigrant as a relative or a friend, but they are also aware of the fact that, within that emigration, also exist people or organizations that have attempted against their well-being or have remained impassive when such attempts have happened. The relationship with Cuban residents abroad, not with all of them, but surely with those that are willing to have a respectful exchange and don't support any kind of hostile action against the country, has become a specialty in fact. The Cuban emigration is a topic in itself defined to a certain extent by our relationship (or non relationship) with United States, the country that holds 90% of such an emigration. It is a full with shades topic that go from the understanding of the identity concept, to the acknowledgement of the value of communication for a human being that has been eradicated from their environment, customs, language, feeding. But It is also part of that specialty to end up understanding that there are individuals in this world able to abhor of their origin and their history, able to reach the point of looking for the protection of a foreign master to carry out actions that can harm even their nearest relatives left behind by them.
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