What’s next for artists in the new Cuba?

What’s next for artists in the new Cuba?

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People shop at the El Egido food market in Havana, Cuba. Cubans with businesses have been buoyed by the prospect of better relations with the U.S. Hotels, private bed-and-breakfasts and elegant restaurants have been packed, with hundreds more expected to open.; Credit: Desmond Boylan/AP

The Cuban people have a long history of producing great artists – poets, painters, musicians and legendary singers. So with big changes ahead for the island nation, how could the role of the Cuban artist change in the future? “I think what Cuba really desperately needs – for its soul, for its people – is a system where people aren’t afraid to speak and where people discover what they have to say,” said Achy Obejas, author of the novel Ruins, Days of Awe, and translator for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

“Because just about everybody believes that change is imperative,” she said. Obejas was born in Havana and came to the U.S. at the age of six, before returning as an adult.