"They were walking toward me on the street, then they pulled up their locks, shook them back in, and smiled," she recalled, with a laugh. "I shook my locks at them, too. They would go, 'Yo!' And I'd say, 'Yo!' It was fun to get that type of acknowledgement. It showed how we are connected as Africans. There's nothing that can make that go away." [Russo], she added, also discussed now Cubans might benefit from a more open relationship with the U.S.A., even though it may change Cuba's moral character. While [Linda Jennings] hopes better communication is achieved through the blockade's elimination, she is worried that America's dominant influence would alter Cuba's innocence. It seems like today, in our communities, the lack of material items makes Black people feel inferior. Cubans don't, seem to have that problem, Jennings said. Black people have propelled themselves to a more material, individualistic society, which has made too many of them forget who they truly are to themselves. Having seen Cuba's society in person I don't understand why a Cuban would want to defect here."
