WGBH Morning Edition anchor Joe Mathieu will be reporting from Cuba, highlighting connections between Massachusetts and the island. He spoke with WGBH News’ Aaron Schachter about the trip. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Aaron Schachter: WGBH’s Joe Mathieu is taking Morning Edition on the road this weekend — to Cuba, of all places. I had a chance to talk to Joe yesterday before he left and he explained what the trip is all about.
Joe Mathieu: Well, we have a lot to do in Cuba; as a matter of fact, we decided to take Morning Edition on the road to explore a couple of different storylines that we’re going to be telling you about once we get back on Monday. One of them is the long connection between Massachusetts and Cuba, between Boston and Havana.
Schachter: That’s something I don’t think people know about.
Mathieu: Well, that’s very true because of the embargo. A lot of these things have been forgotten, or in many cases, challenged, and we’ve seen a real warming of relations since President Obama was in office. That’s been turned back a little bit — which we can discuss in a moment — but from investment, to biotechnology, to politics, there are a lot of lines between the two countries.
In front of those lines right now is a guy named Jim McGovern, a congressman from Worcester who is a Democrat in the U.S. House, and has been for several decades of his life dedicated to improving relations between Cuba and the U.S. He happens to be a Massachusetts guy. So we’re following him there this weekend to talk about the politics and the economic relationship between the two countries. There’s a major educational partnership between our two cities as well.
I’ll also give you a sneak peek of the re-dedication of Ernest Hemingway’s house in Cuba, which, amazingly, was conducted by a massive group of people from right here in Boston. Underscoring those ties I talked about, Ernest Hemingway’s papers are housed at the JFK Presidential Library, so all this stuff is coming full circle this weekend, and it should be pretty fascinating thing to witness.
Schachter: And it sounds like it’ll be a great trip. How hard is it to get to Cuba these days? As you said we had good relations and bad relations.
Mathieu: Actually, it’s a really interesting question. I’ll answer it two ways. Just as an American, it’s easier than it once was. There are ways to get you there, but there’s no such thing as just a tourist visa. You have to have a reason to do business there. And in my case, that’s as a journalist, but since Donald Trump has taken office, there’s been a little bit of a chill in our relationship. Maybe not a freeze, but it’s made things more difficult for Americans to do business with Cuba. And in our case as journalists, my gosh, I haven’t filled out so much paperwork, I think, since I was applying for colleges. But we’re finally with visas in hand, journalist visas in hand, and our equipment has been cleared into the country, and we’re going to do our work in Havana, which is pretty cool to think about.
Schachter: You had to provide a list of everything you were bringing, what you were doing there, that kind of thing?
Mathieu: Absolutely. Mother’s maiden name, dog’s name so forth. Yes.
Schachter: They’ll want to know what they’re going to do with the dog’s name. That’s the big question everyone wants to know.
Mathieu: We’ll get back to you on that.
Schachter: Joe Mathieu is traveling this weekend to Cuba. Thanks for joining us.
‘“Morning Edition on the Road” in Cuba is made possible with support from the Museum of Science.
