• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Upon returning to the United States from Cuba, Representative Barbara Lee of Oakland will be exploring medical, biotech and student exchanges between the two countries. Earlier this week, Lee headed a delegation of Congressional Black Caucus members to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro. Afterwards, Lee and two other House members visited the private home of Fidel Castro in what was described by the former President as a “magnificent meeting.” As the Congressional Black Caucus delegation met with the Castro brothers, they primarily discussed improving long-strained relations between the two governments. The Obama administration is currently reviewing U.S. policy towards Cuba and might announce changes in family travel and remittances policies ahead of a scheduled summit in Trinidad and Tobago next week. Members of Congress introduced a bill earlier this month that would lift the travel ban placed on Cuba since 1962. A similar bill is also in the Senate as well. However, changes in relations between the two countries fall short on the issue of the economic embargo on Cuba. Vice President Joe Biden said during a summit in Chile last month that his nation’s government has no immediate plans to end the decades-long policy against the island nation.

GUESTS: Sujatha Fernandes, Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, author of “Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures”