Oral history interview with Ileana Rosa Yarza Paneque, 2022
Abstract
Ileana Yarza Paneque speaks broadly about her life and career in Cuba, and discusses the series of letters she sent to Barack Obama and the letter she received from President Obama in 2016, which was the first piece of direct mail sent between the United States and Cuba in 62 years. Yarza shares memories of her upbringing and education in Havana, and of her experiences during the 1959 revolution, i ncluding Fidel Castro's discussions about current affairs and Cuban history with American guests in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel. Yarza describes her involvement with Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas (ORI) and Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba (PURSC), recounts her training as an economist, and reflects on her service as an economist and financial advisor for the Cuban government. She outlines the effects of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and describes her participation in international diplomatic meetings on economic and political issues, with particular emphasis on the U.S. embargo. Yarza also remembers her impressions of Obama around the time of the 2008 election, her motivations for writing to the president on numerous occasions, and her thoughts on the administration's effort to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba. Also discussed are Cubans' experience of the normalization process, Yarza's interpretation of Obama's political motivations for replying to her letters, U.S. media coverage of their correspondence, and her disappointment with the limits of the Obama administration's policy toward Cuba
Presidents--Correspondence.--United States; Economic sanctions, American--Cuba; Cuba Foreign economic relations United States; United States Foreign economic relations Cuba; Cuba History; Yarza Paneque, Ileana; Obama, Barack; Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas; Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
40 pages
Note (Biographical)
Ileana Yarza Paneque is a Cuban retired economist, financial advisor, and public servant, who worked on intergovernmental agreements over the course of her career. Yarza wrote several letters to President Obama throughout his presidency, and Obama res ponded in March 2016. That letter was the first piece of direct mail sent between Cuba and the United States in sixty-two years. At the time of the interview, Yarza was a freelance cultural promoter
Note
Interviewed by Mary Marshall Clark on May 21, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Ileana Rosa Yarza Paneque, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023