Excerpt below:

Political and natural storms dominated the discussion at the Feb. 22 day-long seminar, “Cuba and the Caribbean: What Now?” The seminar, hosted by Sarasota-based Cumberland Advisors, USF-Sarasota-Manatee, the Global Interdependence Center, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Research One and USF World, brought together regional and national experts to discuss the complex web of Cuban-American relationships, economic and travel opportunities in Cuba and the effects of the hurricanes that battered the Caribbean last summer.

Keynote speaker Vicki Huddleston, whose diplomatic career included serving as director of U.S. Policy toward Cuba at the Department of State and chief of Diplomatic Mission in Havana, recalled meeting Castro, who first asked her if she was the spouse of an official (“I told him I was the director of Cuban affairs and he paused for a moment and said with a smile, “I thought I was”) and then offered his arm to walk her into dinner.

Read the full article at Sarasota Magazine.