Tell me what brings you to new york. Maria well, i am here with the cuban delegation recited by the provided by the minister of Public Health to participate in a highlevel meeting called by the human agency, created for the pandemic of hivaids. In order to salvage agreements amongst the governments for their internal, national policies, in order to accelerate the end of the pandemic of hivaids. Charlie are we making serious progress . Maria 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 of the hiv epidemic. Which is not just a health problem, it is a human Rights Problem and a very complex social program. So we need programs that are very engaged, policies that are engaged, Public Health policies, attention to health and reproductive rights, and no discrimination and no stigma against anybody. Charlie how did you come to be the advocate the you have become . Maria something in my past, my mother was a political director and social activist in cuba. She had started some work in favor of lgbt people, but she was not able to advance as much as she wanted. When i did some research on her life when she got sick, i found out it that even in 1974 she proposed in the new family code that was approved in 1975, marriage was considered a legal union of among two people without taking into consideration their sex. It was very advanced for that time, but it was not the best moment for her ideas to be well received. But she left some kind of seed, because when she realized she was sick and not going to be able to continue, and i was already 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 had a gay rights parade in havana. Is cuba changing . Maria yes, we started organizing the educational activity since 1997. Now we have just celebrated the ninth version of these parades. This has contributed a lot from the political point of view, in expression in the law, the impact of the awareness change in our population, our population is not violent, it is not a characteristic of hours. Ours. So it is very rare to have hate crimes, but there is a psychological and social exclusion, rejection, not accepting lgbt people. With our work we are helping the population as a whole to think about it. Particularly at the level of political discourse, the subjects are in a good position. Charlie Marriage Equality, is there a strong push for Marriage Equality in cuba as there has been here in the United States . Maria no. No pressure from the population. We, the center for sexual education, are promoting the political and legislative changes that we are having in equalityry, including 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 to include that option in marriage the same as heterosexual couples. Charlie what is your role in the government . My role as the director of the National Center of sexual education at the legislative level, also in social activism, social practice, and i could say even in the judicial system in cuba in general so there are important changes in relation to understanding sexual rights as human rights. We have advanced, but we still have challenges. Charlie we have witnessed a remarkable change in the relationship between the United States and cuba. Secretary kerry, president obama have met with your father in havana. How would you characterize the developing relationship . Maria the most important thing is that there is now a clear will from both governments to start a normalization of relations. But this process to normalize relations is very difficult. It is going to be a long process, because there are many obstacles that will make it difficult. The first one being economic, financial and commercial blockade, which is a kind of hostility within the international law. How can two countries want to normalize relations when there rulesme enormous roles . And particularly such an , aggression that makes it difficult even to put in place 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. I think there are good wishes from both parts, but 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 end. What steps can be taken lifting the embargo to make this relationship be on a track . The u. S. People can have an important role. Putting pressure on their representatives at the highest level of decisionmaking in the u. S. Government. And the Media Journalists and celebrity public personalities can contribute to have eliminated a unilateral decision from the u. S. Government, which is also the main obstacle for the Economic Development of cuba. And to create problems with relationships, and they also violate the rights of the american people. They cannot travel to cuba, invest in cuba, they cannot export their products to cuba. Many problems of that this law generates. Know,re the people will the more the politicians will know. The more probability there will be for a positive influence to eliminate it. Charlie if it is in fact eliminated, it will open the gates to an exchange culturally and every other way. Economically, politically between these two countries. Maria yes, of course. That is our wish, the wish of the people and the government of cuba since the triumph of the revolution in 1959. But the response has been hostility and we have to negotiate. The United States is not going to come out and appropriate cuba for itself. We have to negotiate for our sovereignty, for our respect, for reciprocity. Which has been the case 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 cuban people resonates with them about the good intentions he felt to make this leap forward. Do they feel enthusiastic about the step by the president . In cuba i can tell you that first there was a great reception for president obama. Close to him and his policy 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 in the negotiation with the cuban president so that the five cuban heroes that were unfairly imprisoned in the United States went back to cuba, which was one of the main wishes of the cuban people, and we were also surprised that relations were reestablished. I think obama has very good intentions. And, 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 him. He made his speech and then he left. So i hope we can have another meeting with president obama. You are that is why here, and you can tell us. What would they want to hear if he had stayed longer . What do 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. Cuba is changing economically, and that will have an impact. Mariela i heard a lot of people at the meeting saying i wish i had many to say to obama. Activiststhings the ngos said, the first thing is to eliminate the embargo, to ask the european banks to trust us. And financial activities such as what they are doing with iran do the same for cuba. It is difficult to develop a country when every little piece of bread has to be divided among so many people with such few resources. We are a country under siege, and we also need to get the territory of guantanamo back. Charlie it is the principal request of the cuban government to get guantanamo back. Mariela and the government represents the people. No people want to have a piece of their territory taken from them. It has a it is an important part value economically and tourist value. It is an important part of our geography. No country wants to be humiliated by having a piece of its land occupied. That is another request. We 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. Charlie it is helpful if you tell us. Guantanamo is one. And the americans have asked for things, as well. Because we have had a Political Campaign with different opinions about foreign policy, and some american politicians would say i would like to see more human rights from cuba. I would like to see less political prisoners. I would like to see cuba exercise more respect for the freedom of expression. Mariela well i have to tell you, of all the things you just enumerated, it has been shown with enough evidence, enough proof that cuba applies the human rights conventions at a higher level than the United States does. This was said to the american journalists by the cuban president , along with the american president when he was in cuba. All governments have a special agenda that they havent achieved yet on human rights. Nobody has reached it 100 . 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 also coherent with the social revolutionary project that has been defended since 1959. That is part of my job to defend the sex rights which are perhaps not recognized by these documents. But they are recognized as a rights, and we want these things to be included. And freedom of expression is a bit cliched. The cuban people always have to give an opinion, even what they love the most, they always question everything, doubt everything. And this is something i really like about being a cuban. People, wehe cuban always question everything. We have freedom of expression. The media response to those who pay them, and that happens everywhere, here and everywhere else. Go to cuba, go and look at all the blogs that are written in cuba, all the social networks. We question everything. That is very good. It makes the society move and transform. What else . Charlie i have a list. There are others who suggest that is not the case. Yes you question everything, you , can have lots of questions about america and its own standards and values and institutions. You have a perfect right, and we hope you will, ask questions about 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 of expression and protection of individual liberties that they would like to see. 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. Touch us. You cannot categorize a country and give it a judgment from prejudice and from slogans that have been used from the seat of power so that we do or say what is best for the most powerful groups that want the revolution to fail. Why do they wanted to fail . So they can dominate us. This country is in resistance all the time. Constant criticism, constant creativity. The ones who know our difficulties the best are ourselves. And we talk about them constantly, and we do not always agree with every decision. I dont always agree with all the things that my father decides within the government, because he is not the president of cuba, he is the president of the state council. And the ministers council. So he does not decide it is a , collective decision. I do not always agree but i , always discuss it. And many people do, and they write and they publish. A lot of spaces are created. We are constantly in front of a challenge to create a new society, a new economic and social system. In the caribbean, some other countries tried different ways. We are trying to create our own social, fairer society. We have be very brave in order to go against these big countries. But they distort what we say, they try not to show what happens in cuba. Courageous andbe get in the face of government. And this has to be done constantly. The process is to invent our socialism, invent our democracy as our decision, a people decision. Nobody has achieved it yet. And we are doing our best. Charlie two points. Many people in america, journalists, citizens, religious groups, want to come to cuba. I think they would all welcome yourself what cuba is like. That is helpful and positive and encouraging. The other thing, is also to eliminate 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 . The everyday news shows that the United States wants to dominate the world, not just cuba. They intervene in countries in order to have a monopoly of Material Resources from certain areas in the world. I am not saying it is the United States, but it is a very powerful group who develops these policies. They never get enough of what they want to have. They want to have a monopoly of resources in this world. That is just not right. They do everything in order to achieve this, they stabilize destabilize governments, they get governments in trouble so they can then come in and give humanitarian aid, and then they dominate them. What happens is chaos violations , of human rights, why 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, that interests,economic have to keep cuba in difficulties until cuba says, i give up. Then they will have a policy that will be convenient for their dominating interests. I think this idea of, they dont want to dominate us, even the most ignorant person would accept this. I think they want dominate us in this geopolitical space. Charlie do you feel there is anything cuba can do to influence the congress to lift the embargo . Mariela i dont 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 americans, of cubanamericans, of cubans. Has history done anything to heal some of the wounds that came from the bay of pigs . And other acts in cuba . Has history and time softened hostility . Mariela 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 always that said, the best solutions would be the ones in the diplomatic field. Armed confrontation had to be avoided. So he never transmitted hate. Not even people are asking that you ask for forgiveness. We could, but we dont. We will ask a certain compensation for the cuban people, 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 . Mariela the Catholic Church is not the majority in cuba. The african religions are dominant. 60 kinds is more than of congregations with a Good Relationship between the communist party and the state. They all have constitutional rights, and the Catholic Church is one of those churches that is part of the cuban reality. Of course, the church has had a role in the relationship between the United States and cuba, particularly since pope francis, who is an exceptional man, and because coincidence of circumstances, there has been a strengthening of the relationship between the communist party and all the religious congregations. But today, the main role belongs to the pope. That your assume information is solid, reliable, and comes from the top. Mariela no, i have the same information as the person who reads every day. Charlie beyond the fight of the youre making for human rights, community, on behalf of the struggle against aids and disease, what are your aspirations . Want for heriela own participation in the future of cuba . Mariela 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 so that that way i can clearer,way much more what are my ideas, what i want. I am working as a citizen but also as a representative in the assembly on all of the changes that are happening in the social and economic models. We have identified we have wide consultations with the people in order to define the policies for very concrete policies and objectives that include in support legislative but we have not advanced as much as possible because it 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. That is what i want, progress within the context of respect ourour sovereignty, independence, our idea of democracy, our socialism, and prosperity. A palpablet there is sense if you go to cuba, as i have been several times, of change. That cuba is in the midst of change. Yes . 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. Mariela yes. Quite honestly come on road the aspects959 with that one could criticize, and just as any social you look at it in hindsight and say we could have done this at her. When i look back on to history, so many things i would have done differently. But it is part of the social processes and complexities. Charlie but is it the constant since 1959 that the communist party is the most powerful institution in cuba . The com