Boston, November 10 (RHC) – In the U.S., two prominent figures have joined their voices in advocating expanded relation between the state of Massachusetts and Cuba.

In an opinion piece in the newspaper The Boston Globe, Representative James McGovern, of Massachusetts, and Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabañas, Cuba's top diplomat in the U.S., point to the beginning this weekend of direct flights by JetBlue connecting Boston Logan and Havana José Martí airports as ushering in “new opportunities for increased collaboration and cooperation between the people of Massachusetts and Cuba.”

In their jointly signed article, McGovern and Cabañas also take note of U.S-Cuba relations still being “hamstrung by a decades-old embargo that has outlived its original purpose and impedes progress in both our homelands.”

The article, titled Cuba-Massachusetts relations — the journey continues, charges that the majority of Americans,particularly Cuban-Americans, and Cubans, and nearly every other country in the world, believe the US blockade should end. We believe, they write, that now is the time for “bold, decisive action” to end that policy “once and for all.”

“We think the longstanding relationship between Massachusetts and Cuba can serve as a blueprint for our two countries to rediscover each other and learn from the mistakes of the past,” argue Representative McGovern and Ambassador Cabañas.

They call the relationship between the people of Cuba and Massachusetts deep and sincere. “One specific initiative each of us has been deeply engaged in is the effort to conserve and restore the Cuban home of American author and icon Ernest Hemingway” at Havana's Finca Vigia, they note, adding that American scholars, conservators, architects, and other experts worked with their Cuban peers “inside and outside government — to save this precious piece of shared history.”

We must continue working for better bilateral relations, with mutual goodwill and respect, for the benefit of our countries and peoples, they write. We hope this new JetBlue flight is one more step toward rebuilding relations and continuing the journey of discovery between Massachusetts and Cuba, conclude U.S. Representative James McGovern and Cuban Ambassador Jose Ramon Cabañas in their opinion piece in the Boston Globe.