Since 2002 I have had the privilege of visiting Cuba three times, once with the Illinois Council of Churches, once with the Presbyterian Mission and once with the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield.

Cuba is an intriguing country, having a hate-love relationship with the USA. After the revolution in 1959, Cuba nationalized the land holdings of large multinational corporations. Until 1990, it was an ally of Russia. Our country imposed an embargo upon trading with Cuba. In 1990, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its sponsorship, Cuba endured very real hardships.

Prior to 1999, Cuba was an atheist country. When Pope Benedict XVI visited in 1999, Cuba’s constitution was changed from an atheist to an agnostic country and the churches started coming out of the basements.

It is a country that time left alone after 1960. It is a country of contrasts. Cuba has beautiful Spanish buildings dating from the 1500s, many of which are in disrepair. Its ancient cars from the 1950s are still running. It has a picturesque countryside.

World Affairs Council is holding a program Sept. 10, 2015, at Brookens Auditorium UIS at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the changes in Cuban- American relations. The speaker is Dr. Frank Argote-Freyre, a professor at Kean University in New Jersey, where he teaches courses on the history of Cuba and other Caribbean nations and is a noted and prolific author and journalist on these topics. The public is invited.

Despite its poverty, it has a universal health care system with a physician assigned to certain districts. Its infant mortality rate is less than that of the United States. Doctors earn $30 per month and the average wage is $20 per month. But farmers cut sugar cane with machetes and plow fields with horses and ancient tractors.

Havana boasts a large medical school, having 6,000 students. Cuba has shipped its doctors throughout Africa and other poor nations. The country is relatively drug-free and is innovative in producing medicine. In fact it has a diabetes medicine (Heberprot-P) that saves limbs. The U.S. does not have that medicine. Its literacy rate is 97 percent, higher than in our country.

More recently, the U.S. embargo has been eased and person-to-person visits or cultural visits are permitted. (The U.S. is the only country having an embargo on Cuba.) In the last 15 years, after the pope’s visit in 1999, religious visits have been allowed. Cuba started developing a thriving tourist market. Europeans, Canadians and other tourists have been flocking to the country. Small restaurants are now permitted in homes and, to some extent, free enterprise is allowed to limited degrees. Farmers who used to work on collective farms are now allowed to own small plots of farmland. There are farmers markets where they sell products they grow in excess of their quotas.

It is an intriguing country that the world has left behind. After 50 years, the U.S. has established its embassy in Havana. How will this change Cuba? Will the embargo be lifted entirely? Will the U.S. companies be allowed to trade with Cuba? Will free speech and political dissident be allowed? What is the impact of the Internet? Will the change, if any, be peaceful ?

Edward J. Cunningham of Springfield graduated from Yale in 1957 and the University of Chicago law school in 1960. He is a lawyer with Brown, Hay and Stephens. He is a member of the board of directors of the World Affairs Council of Central Illinois.