Her to my table for the first time. Welcome. Tell me what brings you to new york. Well, i am here with the recited by then minister of Public Health to participate in a high level meeting called i the u. N. Pandemicreated for the of hivaids. For their internal National Policies in order to accelerate the end of the pandemic of hivaids. Charlie are we making serious progress . I think so. We have to recognize that efforts have been made, particularly since the first highlevel meeting in 2001, there has been much progress, programs of action and better understanding of the complexity which is not just a health problem, it is a human Rights Problem and a very. Omplex social program so we need programs that are very engaged, policies that are policies,ublic Health Attention to health and reproductive rights, and no discrimination and no stigma against anybody. Charlie how did you come to be the advocate that you had become . Guest something in my past, my mother was a political director and social activist in cuba. In had started some work favor of lg bt people, but she was not able to advance as much as she wanted. When i did some research on her life i found out that even in the newproposed family code that was approved in considered ae was legal union between two people without taking into consideration their sex. It was very advance for that time, but it was not the best moment for her ideas to be well received. Realized she was sick and not going to be able to was alreadyd i director of the center for sexual education, which gave me some credibility to take care of the subject, then i started taking care of these. Charlie you sponsored a gayrights parade in havana. Is cuba changing . Cast yes, we started organizing the educational activity for artistic since 1997. Just celebrated the ninth version of these parades. This has contributed a lot from the political point of view, in the law, the impact of the awareness change in our isulation, our population not violent, it is not a characteristic of hours. So it is very rare to have hate crimes, but there is a and socialal exclusion, rejection, not accepting lg bt people. With our work we are helping the as a whole to think about it. Particularly at the level of political discourse, the subjects are in a good position. Charlie is very strong push for Marriage Equality in cuba as there has been here in the United States . Gast no pressure from the population. We are promoting the political and legislative changes we have in our country, including the equality for couples of the same sex, the same as heterosexual couples. When we speak of all the rights for all the people, we also have as samede that option as heterosexual couples. What is your role in the government . Guest my role as the director of the National Director director of the National Center but also education in social activism, social evenice, and i could say in the judicial system in cuba in general so there are toortant changes in relation understanding sexual rights as human rights. We still have challenges. Charlie we have witnessed a remarkable change between the relationship change in the relationship between the United States and cuba. Kerry, president obama have met with your father in havana. How would you characterize the developing relationship . Guest the most important thing is that there is now a clear tol from both governments start a normalization of relationships. This process is very difficult. It is going to be a long process, because there are many will make itt difficult. The first one being economic, whichial, and commercial, is a kind of hostility within the international law. How can two countries want to normalize relations when there are some enormous rules, such an aggression that makes it difficult even to the actions that would be needed to normalize relations. The best thing is to see there is goodwill and the Bilateral Commission has been created in order to advance in the proposal. We have to find the road that will allow us to advance faster. Charlie clearly the embargo is a product of congress. The president has often said he would like to see the embargo and. What steps can be taken lifting the embargo to make this relationship be on a track . Guest the u. S. People can have an important role. Theirg pressure on representatives at the highest level of decisionmaking in the u. S. Government. Journalists and celebrity public personalities haveontribute to decisiond a unilateral from the u. S. Government, which is also the main obstacle for economicent development of cuba. And to create problems with relationships, and they also violate the rights of the american people. Cuba, they invest in cannot export their products to cuba. There are many problems this lot generates. The more the people will know the more the politicians will. Now the more probability there will a positive influence to eliminate it. Charlie it will open the gates to an exchange culturally and economically, politically between these two countries. Guest yes, of course. Is our wish, the wish of the people and the government of triumph of the revolution since 1959. We have to negotiate. We have to negotiate for our sovereignty, for our respect, for reciprocity. Since the beginning of the normalization process, if it continues this way i trust it will happen. Charlie president obama in his speech to cuba and the cuba with them about the good intentions he felt to make this leap forward. Do they feel enthusiastic about the step by the president . Guest in cuba i can tell you that first there was a great reception for president obama. Him andl very close to his policies because he is the first president that has facilitated this encounter. He is the first one to visit cuba since the triumph of the revolution. He participated so that the five cuban heroes that were unfairly imprisoned and did the United States, which was one of the Main Missions of the cuban people, and we were also surprised that relations were reestablished. I think obama has very good intentions. I think he has made great strides, but not all the ones that he could have. That meeting with the cuban people, he spoke, but he didnt hear the many things the cuban people would have wanted to present to him to tell them to tell him. Hope we can have another meeting with president obama. Andlie thats why am here you can tell us. What would they want to hear if he had stayed longer . You want to tell us about cuba and the future of cuba and the United States . Your father said dont expect the politics of cuba to change, thats not part of the bargain. Economically,ng and that will have an impact. Guest i heard a lot of people at the meeting saying i wish i had many to say to obama. Among the things, activists from ngos sent the first thing is to eliminate the embargo, to ask the european banks to trust us. Activities such as what they are doing with iran do the same for cuba. Every little piece of bread has to be divided among so many with such few resources. Get theneed to territory of guantanamo back. Charlie it is the principal request of the cuban government to get guantanamo back. Guest and the government represents the people. Have a piecet to of their territory taken from them. It is an important part of our geography. Becountry wants to humiliated by having a piece of its land occupied. Also want more efforts for world peace. We could have asked for many things but im not sure this is the right moment to tell you. The americans ask for things as well. Because we have had a Political Campaign with different opinions some foreign policy, and american politicians would say i would like to see more human rights from cuba. I would like to see less political prisoners. To see cuba exercise more respect for the freedom of expression. Guest of all the things you just enumerated, it has been shown with enough evidence, appliesroof that cuba the human rights conventions at a higher level than the United States does. To the american journalists by the cuban with the, along american president when he was in cuba. All governments have a special agenda that they havent achieved yet on human rights. The important thing is to have the will to advance in that direction and the cuban government has an objective to advance as much as possible toward these goals. It is coherent with the social revolutionary project. Job to defendf my the rights which are perhaps not recognized by these documents. We want these things to be included. Freedom of expression is a bit cliched. The cuban people always has to. Ive an opinion even their engagement, they always question everything. Beings what i like about a cuban. We have freedom of expression. Response to those who pay them, that happens everywhere. Go to cuba, go to all the blogs that are written in cuba, all the social networks. We question everything. It makes the society move and transform. Charlie there are others who suggest that is not the case. Everything, you can have lots of questions about america and its own standards and values and institutions. A perfect right, and we hope you will, ask questions. Bout America America in terms of healing a long rift between two countries is asking about the nature of cuba today. There are those who say there is not the level of freedom and protection of individual liberties. To those who dont believe there is freedom of expression, i invite you to come to cuba and talk with the cuban people. Come, meet us. You cannot categorize a country and give it a judgment from prejudice and from slogans that have been used from the seat of so that we do or say what is best for the most powerful groups that want the revolution to fail. Why did they wanted to fail . So they can dominate us. Constant criticism, constant creativity. The ones who know our get the call tease the best know our difficulties the best are ourselves. I dont always agree with all the things that my father decides within the government, because he is not the president ofcuba, he is the president the state council. It is a collective decision. To do notys always agree but i always discuss it. The analog spaces are created. We are constantly in front of a challenge to create a new society, a new economic and social system. Triedther countries different ways. We are trying to create our own social society. We have to be very brave to go these big countries. They try not to show what happens in cuba. This has to be done constantly. The process is to invent our democracy as a people decision. Nobody has achieved it yet. Charlie daily many people in america, journalists, citizens, religious groups, want to come to cuba. Think they would all welcome your ideas, which is to say we invite you to come see for yourself what cuba is like. That is helpful and positive and encouraging. Eliminatething is to misconceptions about two countries, of which steps are being taken to do that with facetoface meetings between the president of the respective countries. Does your government believe that america wants to dominate cuba . Or is that part of a history that is no longer here . Do you accept the idea that america does not want to dominate cuba . Guest the everyday news shows that the United States lost to dominate the world, not just cuba. Iny intervene in countries order to have a monopoly of Material Resources from certain areas in the world. Group whory powerful develops these policies. Enough of what they dot to have. Everything in order to achieve this, they stabilize governments, they get governments in trouble so they can then come in and give humanitarian aid. Rights, whyf human are we embargoed . Why does the United States continue with the embargo . At least this government is trying to eliminate it, but there are some groups because of economic interests have to keep cuba difficulties until cuba says i give up. Then they will have a policy that will be convenient for their dominating interests. Think this idea of they dont want to dominate us, even the most ignorant person would accept this. They want dominate us in this political space. Charlie to you feel there is anything cuba can do to influence the congress to lift the embargo . Think cuba can do anything. I think only the americans can do that. Charlie it has been a long time since 1959. 56 years. There are new generations of ,mericans, of cubanamericans of cubans. To history done anything thatsome of the wounds came from the bay of pigs . And other acts in cuba . Has history and time softened hostility . Guest one important thing that i would like to point out is that fidel asked the highest leader of the revolutionary process in his political discourse never generated hate toward the United States. His political discourse was always very clear, that was helping the people to understand what was going on and why it was going on. They were always looking for a way out on the diplomatic field. He only said the best solutions would be the ones in the diplomatic field. Armed confrontation had to be avoided. The cuban people is not even asking that you ask for forgiveness. We will ask a certain compensation for the cuban for harm that has happened with the state aggression. We had more than 5000 wounded and dead, material damages. I think it was valuable to see in the midst of this situation hate was never generated. It was a question of understanding properly what was going on. Charlie what is the role of the Catholic Church in cuba today . Guest the Catholic Church is not the majority in cuba. The african religions hard religions are dominant. There are 60 kinds of congregations with a Good Relationship between the communist party in the state. The Catholic Church is one of those churches that is part of the cuban reality. Of course the church has had a in the relationship between the United States and cuba, particularly since pope francis, ands an exceptional man because coincidence of circumstances there has been a strengthening between the relationship strengthening in the relationship between the the unitedparty and states. Charlie your information is solid and for libelant comes from the top. Guest i have the same information as the person who reads every day. Beyond what you are doing for human rights, on the lg bt community, on behalf of the struggle , atnst aids and disease are your aspirations . What do you want for your own participation in the future of cuba . Guest i want to participate in the cuban future as a citizen, with all the rights that being a citizen gives me. That is why i wanted all the mechanisms of participation that way i can say much more clearer what are my ideas, what do i want to . A citizen buts also as a representative in the assembly on all of the changes that are happening in the social and economic models. We have wide consultations with order to define the policies for very concrete policies and object is that include and support legislative but we have not advanced as much as possible because it is a lot more complicated than what we expected. Is a lot more complicated than what we expected. I do have a lot of hope that we are on the right road toward progress. Progresshat i want, with the context of sovereignty, of socialism, and prosperity. Charlie there is a powerful sense if you go to cuba, as i have been several times, of change. That cuba is in the midst of change. That this is a moment of change just beginning. It will not happen tomorrow or the next day or the next day. But the journey has begun. Guest the road started in 1959 with the aspects just as any social you look at the hindsight and say we could have done this better. History,ok back on to so many things i would have done differently. But it is part of the social processes and complexities. Isnt it the constant that the communist party is the most powerful institution in cuba . Guest i think since 1965, when the communist party of cuba was created, uniting the leftist when hend inspiration the Cuban Revolutionary party in order to unite all the and achieve independence from the spanish government, that is the inspiration. And uniting all the leftist forces in a communist party in cuba, with a revolutionary idea that has evolved and has the party that has been at the forefront for the transformation gives it a that moral, historic, and political authority. We can say it is the strongest trying tohough we are develop spaces for decisions that will also have strength, that sense ofsing change, consensus or that the communist party brings in with the debates of ideas that happened within the party. I am militant in that party and also critical of that party. Our conversation charlie bank our conversation began in havana, continues in new york, charlie our conversation continues inn and new york. I hope to see you there. Thank you for coming. Back in a moment, stay with us. Charlie adam newman is here. The committee provides shared office space to lunch banners and independent workers, it serves now 50,000 members and is valued at 16 billion. Live,he launch of we first location opened in new yorks financial district this april. I am pleased to have adam newman at this table for the first time. Adam thank you. Charlie take me through the origin and development of we work. Want to know what you discovered about the people who come to we work. Adam born in israel. Had a slightly challenging child hood. One of the things i noticed early on, it is hard to be the new kid. Charlie that is exactly the reason president obama says he doesnt want to live in takengton, he does want to his daughter out of the school to introduce her. She wants to introduce that she was to stay there until she finishes this level of schooling. He wants to stay there until she finishes this level of schooling. Looking back, i dont think we worked without all these experiences i have gotten. Think the difficulty is important. Charlie how did that experience of moving around in form you . Form youve . Some would call you a notch or no real call you and entrepreneurial guest one of the places i lived in was cuba. Cuba is a version of a social experiment. Today there are less than 10 in israel. 10 ss than charlie up in northern israel. Adam there were a lot more 15 years ago. Some aspects didnt work. What did work was being a child in that community, having friends i ate breakfast lunch and dinner with, being part of something greater than my