Obama listing all the great things Cubans have contributed to the world MSNBC now

[DFW]

95. I've been to Cuba. "No es fácil" describes it perfectly.

I was there as a guest of the government, and when I asked about the mechanics of getting my visa, the Cubans told me, "hey, man, WE don't have a problem with you coming." Actually no one did. The whole bureaucratic acrobatics exercise was a farce.

The Russians (Soviets in those days) paraded around like colonial masters. It was kinda ugly to watch. One of the funniest incidents was when I was in the hard currency shop in my hotel buying some post cards. There was an Aeroflot crew trying to buy some electronics to take home, and they were having a difficult time communicating with the poor sales girl who spoke only Spanish and rudimentary English. Since I speak both Russian and Spanish, and didn't feel like waiting an extra half hour for five post cards, I offered to interpret for them. The Soviets were gone in less than 5 minutes, and both parties thanked me, the Russians assuming I was a Cuban who had learned Russian from them, and the sales girl assuming I was a Russian who was there in some official capacity and had learned Spanish "back in the USSR." You have to present your passport when you buy in a hard currency shop in Cuba, and the look on her face when she saw my American passport almost made me break out laughing. I just went back and forth between Russian and Spanish in Cuba and had a US passport. You could see the letters "C I A" written in her widening eyes (I wasn't).