The gatekeepers of a new Cuba.

A house in Havana displays the flags of the United States and Cuba. (Photo: Orlando Barria/EPA)

Just moments before Air Force One touched down in Havana, a heavy rain arrived as well, dampening what was already a curiously subdued city.

Havana is normally an exuberant place. The day before, Cubans could be seen scrubbing their homes, painting storefronts and singing what is probably the country’s best-known song, “Guantanamera,” barely able to contain their excitement at the rapprochement between neighbors estranged for 57 years. Work crews were everywhere in the city, laying fresh asphalt on the potholed streets of Old Havana. One crew, manning a sputtering, apparently Soviet-built contraption for painting fresh white lines on the streets, burst into cheers as they passed the National Theater where President Obama will address the nation on Tuesday morning. Looking at the scrubbed and prepped streets, the new asphalt and trash-free gutters, one elderly woman noted, “Obama is the best mayor Havana ever had. He should come back every three months.”

But by the time Obama arrived on Sunday, the festive atmosphere was gone. Police inspectors visited guest houses popular with foreigners, urging the owners to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior, including anyone “inquiring about the economic situation, leaders or military objectives.” A rumor — one that proved to be false — spread among Cubans that much of the city would be shut down, keeping many people at home. Muscular men in guayabera shirts did appear in the afternoon at intersections near the ancient Cathedral Square in Old Havana, directing away traffic and pedestrians, leaving this boisterous core of Cuba’s tourism economy oddly empty as the fated hour approached.

The landing of Air Force One preempted all Cuban television shows, and Obama’s first appearance at the door of the plane raised a cheer that spilled out from living rooms into the streets. At dusk, in pouring rain that blotted out buildings across Havana Bay, the president visited the cobblestone square in front of Cuba’s landmark cathedral. Just minutes later, the tall figures of Michelle and Barack could be seen over the heads of their security at the adjacent Plaza de Armas, where they ducked back into a limousine, presumably as soaked as the small band of Cubans standing silently on the rain-lashed waterfront.

But the heavy rain and security dampened more than enthusiasm. The president faces sky-high expectations from both Cubans and Americans, expectations that will be difficult to meet. To do so, Obama and his American supporters will have to close the daunting gap between the hoped-for and the possible. They’ll need to know the gatekeepers of a new Cuban reality. Here are four people likely to shape the Cuban-American relationship for years to come.




Culled from Yahoo News.
Patrick Symmes for Yahoo News.