Cuban Americans

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba drew nearly 300 Americans to the island they or their parents long ago fled. What they found was a country that was different from the one they had imagined, yet somehow still close to the place they had dreamed of. Many had grown up in Miami, hearing bitter tales of loss about their exile parent's beloved homeland. They worried about being followed by police, about the hostility they might face, and about the changes 50 years of communist rule had wrought on the island.

A blaze last month that scorched the offices of a Cuba travel agency in Miami was deliberately set, fire investigators say, one of the first acts of violence in years against a company arranging visits to the island. The Coral Gables Fire Department said in a report that investigators found a disposable lighter, the remains of a green bottle, and a piece of asphalt after the April 27 fire at the Airline Brokers Co. Those items indicate the "potential use of a projectile to breach the building window, and the use of a liquid accelerant incendiary device in this fire," the report...

Deborah Labrada was giddy as she stood in line at Miami-Dade International Airport, waiting to fly to the town of Guantanamo, Cuba. It is the place she visits roughly once a year to see her grandfather, aunts and uncles and cousins. She still considers it a second home, even though she has lived nearly all her 17 years in South Florida. "The first thing I'm going to do when I get there is cry, and then give everyone hugs," she said Monday, as she leaned against her cart of bags secured in the festive, neon green airport plastic wrap.

MIAMI - Agustin Roman, the first Cuban to be appointed bishop in the United States, has died in Miami. He was 83. The Archdiocese of Miami said that Bishop Roman went into cardiac arrest and died Wednesday evening. He had suffered from heart disease for several years. Archbishop Thomas Wenski called Bishop Roman a "great patriot" to the Cuban nation. Officials said Bishop Roman and 132 other priests were expelled from Cuba in 1961. He arrived in Miami, where he became a spiritual leader and advocate first for Cuban exiles and later for many other immigrants, including Haitian...

Natalia Martinez speaks with a clinical distance when discussing her family's decision to leave Cuba two decades ago. But the graduate student's cool demeanor falls away when she speaks of returning to her homeland for the first time this week during Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit. "I am excited. I am nervous, and I'm anticipating confusion," Martinez, 25, said with an anxious laugh. She could be speaking for many of the more than 300 Cuban-Americans who will form a delegation to Cuba led by Miami's Roman Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

A group of students and young professionals is looking to strengthen relations between Cuban youth and those in the U.S. Miami-based Roots of Hope has changed since its 2003 founding as a group of idealistic Cuban-American teens. Today its alumnae have access to some of the nation's top elected leaders, including Sen. Marco Rubio and President Barack Obama. Still, its leaders maintain the group is apolitical, with members holding very different views on U.S. policy toward Cuban.

MIAMI - Agustin Roman, the first Cuban to be appointed bishop in the United States, has died in Miami. He was 83. The Archdiocese of Miami said that Bishop Roman went into cardiac arrest and died Wednesday evening. He had suffered from heart disease for several years. Archbishop Thomas Wenski called Bishop Roman a "great patriot" to the Cuban nation. Officials said Bishop Roman and 132 other priests were expelled from Cuba in 1961. He arrived in Miami, where he became a spiritual leader and advocate first for Cuban exiles and later for...

MIAMI -- Joyous celebration in Miami over news that an ailing Fidel Castro had temporarily ceded power gave way yesterday to rampant speculation among Cuban exiles: Is Castro already dead? What will happen in Cuba after he is gone? Is this just a trick? "Basically, we are seeing what the Cuban government is saying, but we don't know if that is true," said Ninoska Perez of the Cuban Liberty Council, an anti-Castro exile group. "I think they are just gaining time. For all we know, Castro may already be dead or critically ill. " Talk radio stations devoted nearly all...

HAVANA — Cuba is offering a series of small but specific steps the administration of President Obama can take to soften the United States’ 48-year-old trade embargo, including expanding flights and establishing ferry service between both countries and dropping bank bans that keep US credit cards from working on the island. The 19 suggestions are a new and perhaps conciliatory addition to the communist government’s annual report criticizing Washington’s trade sanctions. Cuba produces the report every year ahead of an annual United Nations vote in which the world...

A blaze last month that scorched the offices of a Cuba travel agency in Miami was deliberately set, fire investigators say, one of the first acts of violence in years against a company arranging visits to the island. The Coral Gables Fire Department said in a report that investigators found a disposable lighter, the remains of a green bottle, and a piece of asphalt after the April 27 fire at the Airline Brokers Co. Those items indicate the "potential use of a projectile to breach the building window, and the use of a liquid accelerant incendiary...

MIAMI - A contrite Ozzie Guillen sat in the heart of Little Havana seeking forgiveness for what the Miami Marlins manager called the biggest mistake of his life - saying he admired Fidel Castro. This wasn't some offhanded insult about a sportswriter, the type of thing that got the outspoken Guillen in trouble in Chicago. This was personal to the fan base that the Marlins rely on so much that they built their new stadium in the middle of the city's Cuban-American neighborhood.

Cecilia Dalmau's mother made only one request of her before she flew to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's visit: "I would love to see pictures from my childhood home. " When the 29-year-old pediatric dietitian from Miami and her Cuban-exile father, Sergio, located the address in an upscale part of Havana on Tuesday they found a decaying, two-story building with a priest of Cuba's Afro-Cuban Yoruba faith living inside — and a wellspring of powerful emotions. "It looks like it could fall down at any minute," Dalmau said.

Natalia Martinez speaks with a clinical distance when discussing her family's decision to leave Cuba two decades ago. But the graduate student's cool demeanor falls away when she speaks of returning to her homeland for the first time this week during Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit. "I am excited. I am nervous, and I'm anticipating confusion," Martinez, 25, said with an anxious laugh. She could be speaking for many of the more than 300 Cuban-Americans who will form a delegation to Cuba led by Miami's Roman Catholic Archbishop Thomas...

If Mitt Romney wins Tuesday's primary, a sliver of the GOP electorate in Florida may be one of the big reasons. Cuban-Americans are deeply committed voters who can have an impact in competitive races, and Romney has strong support among the influential Cuban-American establishment. Older exiles also tend to vote heavily through absentee ballots, where the former Massachusetts governor all but certainly has an edge. And the candidate's emphasis on fixing the economy is resonating with backers like Jesus Ovidez, who cares more about jobs than...

DORAL, Fla. - Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich vied for the votes of Hispanics yesterday with tokens such as supporting statehood for Puerto Rico - if its residents approve it - while also defending immigration views that have caused Hispanics discomfort. "We are not anti-immigrant. We are not anti-immigration," Romney told a convention of the Hispanic Leadership Network after a lengthy recitation of his views. "We are the pro-immigration, pro-legality, pro-citizenship party.

Deborah Labrada was giddy as she stood in line at Miami-Dade International Airport, waiting to fly to the town of Guantanamo, Cuba. It is the place she visits roughly once a year to see her grandfather, aunts and uncles and cousins. She still considers it a second home, even though she has lived nearly all her 17 years in South Florida. "The first thing I'm going to do when I get there is cry, and then give everyone hugs," she said Monday, as she leaned against her cart of bags secured in the festive, neon green airport plastic wrap.

MIAMI - A contrite Ozzie Guillen sat in the heart of Little Havana seeking forgiveness for what the Miami Marlins manager called the biggest mistake of his life - saying he admired Fidel Castro. This wasn't some offhanded insult about a sportswriter, the type of thing that got the outspoken Guillen in trouble in Chicago. This was personal to the fan base that the Marlins rely on so much that they built their new stadium in the middle of the city's Cuban-American neighborhood.