There are good and bad points on both sides of this issue. This is the real world, shades of gray, equally valid perspectives and interpretations on both sides. Some factions of the Cuban exile community have very strong feelings, particularly the older ones who remember the old Cuba, what a great place it was to live, and its vibrant and sophisticated culture.

That's all gone now, under the boot-heel of a corrupt gangster state. Of course, these folks were young, and for the most part, relatively prosperous during the days before the Revolution. They were forced into a bitter exile which required they spend decades re-establishing their prosperity and position in a new country, a place where they were safe and free and offered economic opportunity, but which was cold and alien to them. They lost a great deal, but their nostalgia for what they lost far exceeds even that. For decades, the embargo was the only way for them to punish Castro, and giving that up is a bitter pill. The fact that the economic sanctions did little to hurt the dictatorship, and punished the people seemed a small price to pay for even the slightest inconvenience it might cost the regime.

It is difficult to overestimate the hatred the Miami emigre community has for the Castro regime, or Communism, which they conflated with it. Life under the butcher Batista was harsh on the poor, but for the upper, middle and even working classes, it was tolerable. They opposed Batista too, and were not responsible for his crimes. Cuba was one of the strongest economies in Latin America, second only to Argentina, there was a strong and growing middle class. I know, I visited family there in the late 50s and I saw for myself. If you came from a good family and stayed out of politics the Government left you alone, and you could do all right.

Fascism is the dictatorship of the middle class, and fascist states treat their middle classes well.
Communists, on the other hand, are remarkably democratic in their oppression.
For a while in Miami, even the slightest questioning or attempt to criticize the US Castro policy was immediately silenced with "Ese es comunista". (That one's a Communist.). Ostracism, and even violence, was employed to ensure a united front. I know this for a fact, my stepfather was part of these tribal conflicts (on the anti-Castro side). The exile community was welcomed and subsidized by the American government as a Cold War strategy, and later, for domestic political reasons. The shameful, last minute JFK betrayal of the Bay of Pigs fighters pushed the exiles into Republican hands, although as a rule, Cubans are relatively liberal in their political and social views. (Free government medical care and education wasn't invented by Castro, Cuba has had them since they kicked the Spaniards out and abortion and divorce were easily available in spite of the protests of the RC Church). The exiles were the cream of Cuban society, from an urban European culture with a strong work-ethic and respect for education and self-improvement. I know this, my family was working class (skilled industrial workers), but we brought these values with us to America when my grandparents came here as young men and women in the early decades of the 20th century, long before the Castro era.

However, it slowly became obvious that el embargo simply wasn't working as intended, in fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Before long, more and more in the exile community came to question its effectiveness, and even its fairness. And even those Cubans who supported it publicly violated it routinely sending money and care packages to their relatives on the island. This foreign exchange was instrumental in keeping Castro's gang in power, a contradiction that seemed obvious to everyone except those most vocal in their support of the economic blockade. Today, the Cuban American community is split about 50-50 on this issue, with support of the embargo strongly correlated with age. The younger generation, born here, is more likely to oppose it than their parents.

In my opinion, Obama's move to liberalize relations is long overdue, and is for the best. However, I respect the views of those of the opposite persuasion, particularly if they have earned the right to speak on it, as have the exiles. The American Conservatives, of course, have no business speaking on this, which they see as yet another excuse for Obama-bashing. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking, where were they when Nixon and Kissinger opened up China? And if we have relations with Vietnam, why not Cuba?

But I can understand, and sympathize with, the passion around this issue. Here is an excerpt from my memoirs, which I have posted here before, and which I feel explains a great deal.

But as time passed it soon became clear that something was going terribly wrong with the Revolution, not only was the evidence in the press accumulating, we started getting veiled references in the censored mail coming out of the island. We could read between the lines, our family was suffering, and the oppression wasn't just economic due to the Yankee embargo. A grim apparatus of totalitarian rule was being unleashed on the people of Cuba, block Party committees that brought government surveillance down to the apartment building floor level, 'voluntary' labor in the sugar cane fields, forced conscription of the young and participation in the militia for everyone else. Then came the loss of employment for those who refused to cooperate, the ostracism of even the families of suspected critics of the regime, then beatings, imprisonment, and eventually, el paredón (firing squad). Family businesses were not expropriated outright by the government, but were forced to operate at a loss under restrictive regulation until the owners begged the State to take them over. This was then refused until the proprietors went bankrupt. Requesting an exit visa began an expensive year-long nightmare of red tape beginning with the immediate loss of one's job, home, property, legal rights, and the expulsion of children from school. At any time the process could be terminated by the whim of an official and it had to be started again from the beginning while the friends or relatives who sheltered you were subjected to constant harassment. You could take no cash away from the island, and only what property you could carry or wear on your back. At the airport, your baggage was ransacked of everything of value; jewelry and even clothing were often confiscated. I decided then and there that the simplest way to identify a dictatorship was if a state restricted the right of its citizens to travel abroad freely. Cuba was a government of corrupt officials, informers and bullies. My grandfather traced the whole sad business with the French Revolution of his youthful reading as a guide, the Terror had begun. In spite of all their troubles, the Cubans were always a happy people, both on the island and in exile, but they are no more. That is the Revolution's most remarkable achievement and its greatest crime.