Gloria Caballero’s Clear Position on Cuba: “Sanctions Hit Black Cubans Hardest” (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, May 18, 2026 – 19:28 min.)
Dr. Gloria Caballero Roque grew up in a single room in Old Havana with four siblings, no running water, and a mother who sold things on the street to feed them. Free education, universal healthcare and also a strong mother who pushed through, she says, are the reasons she made it to university. She went on to earn two PhDs, teach for 35 years and run for political office in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
In this interview she speaks about her childhood, her transition to life in the United States and U.S.–Cuba relations.
She says Cuban-American politicians like Marco Rubio pushing for harder sanctions do not speak on her behalf. Their hostility toward Cuba, she argues, comes from people who can't accept losing control of the island. "They have become monsters against their own people," she says.
Discussing what's happening inside Cuba without discussing the blockade, she says, is treating the symptom while ignoring the disease. "Close the door of this house for 60 years and let's see how you survive."
She says sanctions hit Black Cubans hardest, a legacy of colonialism. The blockade reinforces a structure that was already there.
