Cuban diplomats have been traveling across the United States so frequently since President Donald Trump took office that the slogan of the Cuban Embassy in Washington could be "See America First."
They've spoken at college campuses from Harvard University to Montana State and logged miles in Pennsylvania, Montana, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Louisiana, Florida, and the Washington suburbs. They've visited mayors, governors, and legislators along the way and collected proclamations in support of lifting the Cuban embargo from city councils and mayors.
So far this month, Jose Ramen Cabanas, the Cuban ambassador to the U.S., traveled to Baltimore to receive Cuban artists participating in a joint show with American artists called "Building Bridges: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race," spent four days filled with meetings in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area, and traveled to Kentucky where he met with Gov. Matt Bevin, the mayors of Lexington and Louisville and Kentucky business executives.
In Kentucky, Cabanas said in a Twitter post that he was the first Cuban representative to be invited to the Kentucky Derby. He also posed with Cuban Americans who had restored a monument to the 19th century Cuban patriot Jose Marti in Shively, Ky., and learned about making barrels for bourbon, beer, wine and rum at the Kelvin Cooperage.
At the end of April, he attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where Cuba was the featured foreign country and about 150 Cuban artists and musicians participated. A Cuban flag was among those that flew from the center flagpole at Jazz Fest.
The goal of the frenetic travel is to win friends and influence people, and to make sure the fledgling U.S.-Cuba relationship continues to improve under the new administration
"We are ready and open to work with the Trump administration, and we believe that we can build a future of cooperation with the United States in many subjects, although we recognize that there are many areas in which we will not agree," Cabanas said at a World Affairs Council luncheon at the University of Louisville.
It is a message that Cuban President Raul Castro has emphasized since shortly after Trump's inauguration.
"I want to express the willingness of Cuba to continue negotiating on pending bilateral matters with the United States on the basis of equality, reciprocity and respect for the sovereignty and independence of our country and to pursue a respectful dialogue and cooperation on topics of common interest," Castro said during the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in January.
But where the U.S.-Cuba relationship is heading is unclear.
The Trump administration is conducting a top-to-bottom review of all of President Barack Obama's executive orders on Cuba since the rapprochement began on Dec. 17, 2014, and it's expected to be completed soon. Trump has said that the previous administration made too many concessions to Cuba in negotiations that led to restoration of diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, and he wants a better deal for the United States.
"As we move forward with that review, I suspect that there will be important differences (with the Obama administration) in how this government plans to address the situation in Cuba," Francisco Palmieri, acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said at the Washington Conference on the Americas May 9. "One of the areas that is going to be a great priority will be to ensure that Cuba makes more substantive progress towards greater respect for human rights within the country."
In the meantime, Cuban diplomats, whose travel in the United States was once highly restricted, have been hitting the road.
"Cuban diplomats are getting their message out personally, trying to create new relationships and solidify the ones they already have," said Saul Cimbler, president of Cuba Business Advisory, who travels to the island frequently.
Rather than an overarching Cuban public relations strategy, the diplomatic travel "more than anything else responds to people knocking on the embassy's door _ cultural organizations, governors, educational institutions _ inviting them to visit," said James Williams, president of Engage Cuba, a coalition of companies and organizations that supports lifting the embargo.
It's normal for embassy personnel around the world to reach out to groups in their host countries. But before Cuba and the United States renewed diplomatic relations, the travel of Cuban diplomats in Washington and New York was limited to just 25 miles from their diplomatic missions without prior approval and permission wasn't always given. During the George W. Bush administration, Cuban diplomats weren't allowed to travel beyond the Washington Beltway.
U.S. diplomats in Havana faced similar travel restrictions.
During the Obama administration, Cuban diplomats began crisscrossing the United States with road shows on U.S.-Cuba relations, Cuban achievements in health care and literacy and "the desired future," which from Cuba's point of view means the end to the embargo and the return of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Now some senior diplomats have no restrictions on travel and other diplomatic personnel in both countries are required to notify their host governments of travel plans but don't have to ask permission, the State Department said.
"Cuban diplomats had to ask special permission for so long; now they're accepting invitations all over the country," said Bill Carlson, president of Tucker/Hall, a Tampa, Fla.-based public relations firm that has pushed for engagement with Cuba and has helped lead Tampa area delegations to the island.
It was St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor Rick Kriseman who invited Cabanas to the Tampa Bay area this month, Carlson said. Kriseman wants Cuba to put its first consulate in St. Petersburg. So far, the Cubans have been noncommittal.
Cabanas isn't the only Cuban diplomat traveling around the U.S.
So far this year, Miguel Fraga, a first secretary at the embassy, has visited Montana, Pennsylvania, and the Boston area, where he gave talks at Boston University, Harvard's Kennedy School, and Northeastern University. He also paid calls on Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons and met with Mayor Joe Curtatone of Somerville, Mass.
There is opposition to the Cuban diplomats' travels.
Before Fraga's Montana trip, Frank Calzon of the Center for a Free Cuba sent a letter to Cuban-American members of Congress objecting to Fraga's visit to Montana State University and a proclamation issued by the mayor of Bozeman urging residents to attend Fraga's public appearances to "exchange ideas and support additional ways such as citizen diplomacy to create mutually-beneficial relations between the people of our City and with the people of Cuba so that all from both nations can trade and travel freely."
"While Raul Castro's 'diplomat' is wined and dined at an American university where he will engage in an exercise of communist disinformation, no American diplomat is scheduled to speak at Cuban universities on U.S.-Cuba relations and President Trump's foreign policy," Calzon wrote. He pointed out that Trump had said relations with Havana should be based on reciprocity.
