Fidel Castro

As relations with Cuba move toward normalization, the transformation of “people-to-people” travel into an element of U.S.-Cuba policy revives old racialized representations of the island and its people.

The first of a two-part essay exploring what has and will constitute “normal relations” between the U.S. and Cuba, one year after “D17.”

On July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro led an assault on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba, launching a popular movement that would topple the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. This week, NACLA spoke with Ike Nahem, one of the coordinators of the July 26 Coalition, to discuss the significance of the anniversary, and its relevance to American activists in the United States.