Will allow us to advance faster. Rose and we conclude this evening with adam neumann, the founder of wework. Wework helps create a world where people make a life, not just a living, and we think thats very important. Technically speaking, we have 80 locations around the world, were in 30 cities, were in 12 countries. We had between 5 to 10 locations each month, we have 60,000 members and those members have companies and families and friends and theyre all taking part of this great new of working. Rose Mariela Castro espin and adam neumann when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the following and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose Mariela Castro espin is here. She is the director of the Cuban National center for Sex Education in havana, and she is also a gay rights activist. Her havanabased organization campaigns for aids protection and lgbt rights. Last month she held the largest gay pride parade ever held in cuba. She is the niece to have the former president fidel castro and daughter of rauul castro. I had dinner with her in havana and am pleased to welcome her for the first time to my table. Wwelcome. Tell me what brings you to new york. Well, im here with the cuban delegation presided by the minister for Public Health to participate in the highlevel meeting called by the u. N. Agency created for the pandemic of hiv aids in order to establish an agreement amongst the governments for their internal National Policies in order to accelerate the end of the pandemic of hiv aids. Rose are we making serious progress . I think so. We have to recognize efforts have been made particularly since the first meeting the first high level meeting in 2001, there have been programs of action and a better understanding of the complexity of h. I. V. Epidemic, which is not just a health problem, its a human rights problem, and its a very complex social program and, so, we need programs that are very engaged, policies that are engaged, Public Health policies, attention to health and reproductive right and no discrimination and no stigma against anybody. Rose how did you come to be the advocate that you have become . There is something in my past. My mother as a political director and social activist in cuba had started some work in favor of lgbt people at a political level, 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 that, even in 1974, she proposed that, in the new family call approved in 1975, marriage was considered a legal union among two people without taking into consideration their sex. It was very advanced for that time, but that was not the best moment for her ideas to be well received. But she left us some kind of seed because, when she realized she was sick and she was not going to be able to continue with the subject, and i was already a director of the center for sexual education, which gave eme some credibility to gave me some credibility to take care of the subject, then i started taking care of these subjects. Rose you sponsored a gay rights parade in havana. Is cuba changing . Yes, we started organizing the activities for education, communication, since 1977, and now we have just celebrated the ninth version of these parades. This ha has contributed a lot fm the political point of view, the expression in the law, in the impact of the awareness change in our population. Our population is not violent, its not a characteristic of ours, so its very rare to have hate crimes, but there is a psychological violence and social exclusion, rejection, not accepting lgbt people, and with our work we are helping the population as a whole to think about it, and particularly at the level of the political discourse, these subjects being a good position. Rose Marriage Equality. Is there a strong push for Marriage Equality in cuba as there has been here in the United States . No, not no pressure from the population. We at the center for sexual education are promoting the political and legislative changes that were having if our country, including equality for couples of the same sex, the same as heterosexual couples. When we speak for all the rights for all the people, we also have to include that option, marriage as the same as heterosexual couples. Rose you are also in the government. What is your role there . My role as a director in the National Center for Sex Education at the legislative level, our proposals should be reflected in the decisions that are made but also in social activism, social practice, and i could say even in the judicial system in cuba in general so that there are important changes in relation to understanding sexual rights as human rights, we have advanced, but we still have challenges. Rose we have witnessed a remarkable change in the relationship between the United States and cuba. Secretary of state kerry, president obama have visited and met with your father in havana. How would you characterize the developing relationship . 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, and it is going to be a long process because there are many obstacles that will make it difficult, the first one being the economic, financial and commercial blockade which is a type of hostility within the international law. How can two countries want to normalize relations when there are some norms, rules and particularly such a big aggression that makes it difficult even to put in place the actions that would be needed to normalize relations. So the hardest bit is the best thing is to see that there is good will, that a Bilateral Commission has been created in order to advance in the proposal, and i think there is good wishes from both parts, but we have to find the road that will allow us to advance faster. Rose clearly, the embargo is a part of congress, and the president has often said he would like to see the embargo end. What steps can be taken other than lifting of 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, celebrities, public personalities can contribute to have a law eliminated and a unilateral decision from the u. S. Government, which is also the main obstacle for the Development Economic development of cuba and who creates problems with relationships with other countries, and they also violate the rights of the american people. They cannot travel to cuba, they cannot invest in cuba, they cannot export their products to cuba. There is many problems that this law generates. So i believe that the more the people will know, the more the politicians will know in this country, the more probability there will be for a positive influence to eliminate it. Rose if, in fact, it is eliminated, it will open gates to an exchange culturally and every other way, economically, politically between these two countries. Yes, of course. That is our wish. Its the wish of the people and the government of cuba since the triumph of the revolutions of 1959 but the response has been hostility and we have to negotiate. The United States is not going to come now and appropriate cuba for itself. No, we have to negotiate for our sovereignty, for the respect and reciprocity which has been the case since the beginning of the normalization process, and if this continues this way, i trust it will happen. Rose did president obama, in his speech to cuba and to the cuban people, resonate with them about the Good Intentions that he felt to make this leap forward . Did 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. We feel very close to him in his policies because hes the first president that has facilitated this encounter, hes the the first one to go and visit cuba since the triumph of the revolution. He was the one who participated in the negotiation with the cuban president so that the five cuban heros that were unfairly imprisoned in the United States would go back to cuba which was one of the main wishes of the cuban people, and we wanted relations reestablished. Obama has a Good Intention and i think he has made Great Strides but not all the ones that he could have. So being with the cuban people, he spoke, but he didnt hear many things that the cuban people would have wanted to present to him, to tell him. He gave his speech, and then he left. So i hope we can have another meeting with president obama. Rose but thats i mean, youre 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. I heard a lot of people who were at that meeting, and they will say, i really felt the wish to say many things to obama and, among the things, the activists from n. G. O. S said the first thing is to eliminate the embargo, to ask the european banks to trust us and do financial activities with us such as theyre now doing with iran. Do the same for cuba. Its very difficult to develop a country where every little piece of bread has to be divided amongst so many people with such few resources. Were like a country under siege, and we also need to get the territory of guantanamo back. Rose the principle request of the cuban government to get guantanamo back . And the government represents the people. No people want to have a piece of their territory taken from them. It has value, economic and tourist value. Its 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. Rose its helpful if you tell us. Ganguantanamo is one. And the americans ask for things, as well. As you know, because weve had a political campaign, different opinions about foreign policy, and some american politicians say, id like to see more human rights in cuba, i would like to see less political prisoners. I would like to see cuba exercise more respect for the freedom of expression. Well, i have to tell you that, of all these things that you just enumerated, it has been been shown with enough evidence, with enough proof, that cuba applies the human rights conventions at a higher level than the United States does, and 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 good will to advance in that direction, and the cuban government has an objective to advance as much as possible towards 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 not, perhaps, recognized in a certain sense in these documents, but they are recognized as rights, and we want these things to be included. The freedom of expression is a big cliche that has been created. Rose is what, a cliche . Yes, its a great a big cliche. The cuban people have to always give an opinion of even what they love the most, even their engagement, they always question everything, they always doubt about everything. This is something i really like about being a cuban and the cuban people, we always question everything. We have freedom of expression. The media response to those who pay them, and that happens everywhere, here and everywhere else. So go to cuba, go and look at all the blogs that are written in cuba, all he social networks. We question everything, and that is very good. It makes the society move and transform. What else . Rose but there are others who suggest thats not the case. Yes, you question everything. You can have lots of questions about america and its own standards, its values, its institutions, and you have a perfect right, and we hope that you will ask questions about america and institutions, but america in terms of healing a long rift between two countries is asking about the nature of cuba today, and there are those who say that there is not the level of freedom of expression and protection of individual liberty that they would like to see. To those who dont believe there is freedom of expression, i invite you to come to cuba and to talk with the cuban people. Come, meet us, touch us. You can not categorize a country and give it a judgment from prejudice and from slogans at the have been used from the seat of power so that we do or say what is the best for the most powerful groups that want the revolution to fail. And why do they want it to fail . So they can dominate us. This country has been in resistance all the time, in revolution, in movement, constant criticism, constant creativity. The ones who know our difficulties the best are ourselves and we talk about them constantly and we do not agree with each decision. I myself dont always agree with all the things that my father decides within the government because hes not the president of cuba, hes the president of the state council and the ministers council. So he doesnt decide. Its a collective decision. Its a big structure. But i do not always agree, and i always discuss it, and many people do, and they write, and they publish, and dialogue spaces are created, and this is important because we constantly are the in front of a challenge to create a new society, a new economic and social system. In the caribbean, some other countries tried a different way to have more fair societies. We are trying to create our own social fair society. We have to 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, so one has to be courageous and 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 the peoples decision. Nobody has achieved it yet, and we are doing our best is that two points. Clearly, many, many people in america many journalists, citizens, religious groups want to come to cuba, and i think they all would welcome your ideas, which is to say we invite you to come see for yourself what cuba is like, and 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 s 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 . Really . The everyday news shows that the United States wants to dominate the world, not just cuba. They intervene in countries with low blows in order to have a monopoly of Material Resources from certain areas in the world. Im not saying its the United States, but it is a very powerful group who develop these policies. They never get enough with what they have. They want to have a monopoly of resources in this world. That is not right. They do everything in order to achieve. They destabilize governments, they put governments in trouble so that they can then come in and give humanitarian aid, and then they dominate them. So 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, because of economic interests, have to keep cuba in difficulties until cuba says, i give up, and then they will have a policy that will be convenient for their dominating interests. I think this idea of they do not want to dominate us, i dont think even the mosti most ignort person would accept this. I think they want to dominate us in this geopolitical space. Rose do you think there is anything cuba can do to influence the congress to lift the embargo . I dont think cuba can do anything. I think only the americans can do that. Rose its been a long team since 1959. 56 years. There are new generations of americans, of cuban americans, 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 . One important thing that id like to point out is that fidel as the highest leader of the revolutionary process, in his political discourse, never generated hate towards the United States. His political discourse was always very clear, that was helping us, the people, to understand what was going on and why it was going on, but there were always they were looking for a way out on the diplomatic field, and he always said the p best solutions will be the ones in the diplomatic field. Confrontation and particularly armed confrontation had to be avoided, so he never transmitted shape. The cuban people are not even asking that you ask forgiveness. We could, but we dont. We will ask certain compensation for the cuban people, for harm that has happened with the state aggression. We had more than 5,000 victims wounded and dead, material damages. I think it was very valuable to see that, in the mido midst of l this situation, hate was never generated. It was just a question of understanding properly what was going on. Rose whats the role of the Catholic Church in cuba today . The Catholic Church is not a majority in cuba. The african religions are dominant, but there is more than 60 different types of congregations and