By Bob Tis From St Augustine Record

It is super easy to ignore it, but we are citizens of the bigger world. And this world of ours, even this far north in Florida, is part of the Caribbean. Currently, there is an elephant in the living room in the Caribbean. Fortunately for us, I think Cuba will eventually turn out to be an interesting elephant in our collective circus.

Our ties in St. Augustine to this still currently Marxist-Leninist island nation are deep. In 1763 after the first Treaty of Paris was signed, a large trade went down, similar to what major league baseball teams do today. England had invaded Cuba but they wanted Florida, so when this Seven Year War was over they cut a deal in France with Spain called the Treaty of Paris. It carved up most of the world at the time and involved a lot of players but the upshot for the locals was that it ceded St. Augustine and what we know to be Florida to Great Britain. Spain got Cuba back. Almost everybody in St. Augustine, including a growing population of free blacks, were relocated to Havana. It made sense — they were Spanish and the Brits were unfriendly.

The Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami has tracked the hundreds of St. Augustine transplants that went to Cuba and partly populated the island nation. The history is fascinating.

These folks from the real early days of St. Augustine, before the Minorcans, Greeks and Italians arrived, were not excited about the Brits running the show in our Spanish-built city. According to the local Historical Society, most everybody that could got on the boats and moved to Cuba.

These families built Cuba and it is not a coincidence that the malecon in Havana and the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana that guards the harbor, which was completed in 1774, look a little like St. Augustine.

In 2000, then-St. Augustine Mayor Len Weeks, proposed forging a sister city bond with Baracoa, the oldest city in Cuba, settled in 1512. Havana was too politically hot at the time and it turned out the whole idea was still too raw with local Cuban-Americans who mostly still hate Castro.

Frail and in poor health Fidel is a shadow of his former self. He gave up his dictatorship to his brother in 2006. He made his 88th birthday this summer and has been watching his great experiment decline rapidly.

But he still plays the media like a piano. This past week he invited a little kid from the barrio who dresses like him in revolutionary garb over to dinner. The world media picked it up and ran with it but the U.S. media pretty much ignores Cuba these days. Likewise Russia and China do not pick up the phone the phone like they used to for El Jefe.

In my life and most of your lives, the Castro brothers will be gone and the experiment will likely be over. This could be a game changer for the tourist industry here for a while. Why visit St. Augustine when a quick plane flight will be like getting into a time machine where it is still 1959? There will be pristine beaches to explore, mountains to hike, buried treasure from Spanish galleons to dive for, fishing like Hemingway experienced and a music scene in Havana that will rival Austin.

Florida is bigger than Cuba but not by much. Cuba is about the size of Tennessee. Florida has a little over 18 million people and Cuba has just over 11 million.

While the Castro regime fades, the socialist country is promoting tourism. In 2010, Wikipedia suggested that they had 3 million visitors. Last year, Florida had nearly 98 million visitors according to the Tampa Tribune.

Mr. Logic says the scales will start to balance out in the future. I am not suggesting that Mickey Mouse will relocate, but there will be a giant sucking sound in the tourist industry at one point.

We have some interesting sister cities. Aviles, Spain, Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, Cartegena de Indias in Columbia and the island of Menorca, Spain. But a contact in Cuba could be vital.

I know that both candidates for Mayor of St. Augustine are in their sixties. I don’t think Cuba is on their radar. They are politicians and positioning this small city to embrace a socialist nation because it might be very important in 10 or 20 years might not attract voters. Except the ones that see the bigger picture with the elephant in it.

For more on this story go to: http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2014-08-31/smooth-sailin-time-marches-revolutions-fade-and-politics-bloom-new-day#.VASS_kt-RIc