Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Ada Ferrer on Cuba's Crisis, U.S. Sanctions and Family Separation

The Trump administration five months ago launched an energy blockade against Cuba, coming on top of the over six-decade-long embargo, the longest in U.S. history. The expanded U.S. sanctions have exacerbated the island’s economic crisis, forcing Cubans to live with rolling blackouts, inflation and shortages of basic goods.

“The situation there is dire,” says Cuban American historian Ada Ferrer. “It has been for quite some time, and it’s gotten worse and worse over the last five months.”

Acknowledging the devastating effects the U.S. embargo has on the island, Ferrer says the Cuban government’s priority “is not the well-being of the Cuban people.” She points out that despite the current deterioration of the industry, Cuba continues to invest in tourism, “ignoring sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, education, health — all of which are in horrible decline.”

Ferrer also discusses her new book, Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter.