HAVANA – The Catholic Church in Cuba is positioning itself as the official mediator with the Castro government on the issue of political prisoners.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega told a press conference this afternoon that he met Wednesday with Raul Castro for more than four hours.

He described the talks as a "magnificent beginning."

He said they spoke about the opposition group Damas de Blanco/Women in White and about political prisoners on the island.

While Ortega admitted that "nothing conclusive" was decided at the meeting, he said that "the issues are being dealt with seriously" and that he expects that the two dozen or so political prisoners said to be ill will be released soon.

He noted though that the church is petitioning for the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners, not just the ones in poor health.

Ortega called the dialogue with Castro "very positive."  He said that it wasn't a discussion of a list of church requests but that they discussed broader social and economic problems on the island.

"The meeting proved that the church can play the role of mediator and resolve old conflicts," said Ortega.

At the end of Wednesday night's encounter, Ortega said, Raul Castro told him he wanted to continue the meetings. Ortega said he accepted that offer.

Earlier Thursday, the head of the Cuban Conference of Bishops, Santiago Bishop Dionisio Garcia, who attended Wednesday's meeting, voiced confidence that the Castro government would begin releasing political prisoners.

"I believe it will be a process that begins with small steps ... Good intentions (on the part of Raul Castro) are there ... to resolve the situation." Garcia said that the church's concern for the island's political prisoners heightened after jailed opposition figure Orlando Zapata died Feb. 23 in the 85th day of a hunger strike.

If Castro does release political prisoners, that will be the Cuban Catholic Church's second recent victory. Earlier this month, Ortega intervened and defused tensions between the Damas de Blanco/Women in White and Cuban state security.

For the past seven years, the women had marched every week to demand that their relatives be released from prison. In March, state security agents began using force against the women to prevent protests, which increased international condemnation of the island's human rights record. Ortega brokered a deal that allowed the women to continue protesting without police interference or harassment.

All day today, the Cuban state-run media has played up the Castro-Ortega meeting -- making it the top news story of the day. That's surprised Cuba watchers, because Ortega last month issued statements sharply critical of the country's economic policies and human rights record. After those remarks, published in a local Catholic magazine, no one would have guessed that Castro would sit down with him.

HAVANA -- Members of Cuba's 'Ladies in White,' a group primarily made up of wives, mothers and daughters of imprisoned dissidents, were shouted down and shoved by a group of government supporters after leaving mass in Havana Sunday. This was the third week in a row that their weekly march was blocked.

Watch the video link to see the sights and sounds from the confrontation.

VIDEO: Cuba's 'Ladies in White' march blocked again

HAVANA, Cuba -- Ten years ago today, the streets of Miami's Little Havana erupted in riots while Cubans toasted with rum just 90 miles away.

The spark for these contrasting reactions was a raid in the pre-dawn hours, when more than 100 armed federal agents stormed a small house in Miami and seized 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez from relatives who were refusing to send the boy back to Cuba to live with his father.

At the time, Elian had been making daily headlines around the world for over five months after two Florida fishermen found the small child floating alone in the ocean. He and his mother had been passengers on a makeshift boat that capsized a day after illegally leaving the Cuban coast for Florida.

From the moment the US Coast Guard released photographs of a shell-shocked Elian being air-lifted on a stretcher, he became an enormous political symbol that overshadowed his personal tragedy of having watched his mother drown at sea.

The boy was placed with relatives in Miami who stood firmly with South Florida's powerful and vocal Cuban exile community, which fought to honor the mother's memory by keeping Elian in the United States.

AP

Top: Elian Gonzalez is held in a closet by Donato Dalrymple, one of the two men who rescued the Cuban boy from the ocean, as government officials search the home of Lazaro Gonzalez for the boy in Miami on April 22, 2000. Bottom: Elian Gonzalez holds a Cuban flag during the Union of Young Communists congress in Havana Sunday April 4, 2010. (/Alan Diaz / AP File, Ismael Francisco / Prensa Latina via AP)

Back home, his father charged that the mother had essentially kidnapped Elian by violating their joint-custody agreement. As the father pleaded that his son be returned to his care, Cuban leader Fidel Castro mobilized a nation in that custody fight.

In Miami, Elian became an overnight celebrity. Dozens of TV satellite trucks and scores of reporters camped out in front of his house. The grieving child was showered with toys and adoration. Politicians had their picture taken with him as he was draped in the American flag. He even got a special tour of Disney World.

In Cuba, hundreds of thousands demonstrated in front of the American Mission every week, shouting for his return. Cuban TV aired every piece of footage gathered by news networks around the world. Political billboards with the child's face went up around the island and millions of people here wore "Free Elian" t-shirts.

With this political circus as a backdrop, lawyers for both sides of the family argued the custody case in various U.S. courts – even petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court. After the courts ruled on the side of the father, the Miami family defiantly refused to turn the boy over to his father, Juan Miguel González, who had traveled to the United States to re-claim his son.

Timeline: Key dates in the case

That's when then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the now-famous raid, and within hours Elian was reunited with his father. A short time later, father and son returned to Cuba, where they were given a hero's welcome.

Even today, Castro opponents in Miami continue to worry about Elian's future. When the boy first returned home, there was a lot of talk that Fidel Castro would not be able to resist making the boy his political puppet. It's a topic that's still discussed on all of Miami's Spanish-language TV and radio stations.

In the beginning, Juan Miguel did drag Elian to political rallies. Once, Fidel Castro even gave the father a medal and the son a birthday party where he helped the boy blow out his candles.

But after those early public celebrations, Juan Miguel fought hard to return his family to normal life and keep his son out of the limelight.

The González family still lives in their small home town of Cardenas, some 120 miles east of Havana. It is a humble fishing town where residents travel in horse-drawn carts and many houses stand in need of a good coat of paint.

Elian has attended his neighborhood schools and today the high school student is in a military boarding school, like thousands of other kids on the island. He sits on his student council and his father says he studies hard.

Elian may follow his grandfather's footsteps and become a policeman, but a few years back, his father said he toyed with the idea of becoming an actor or even an astronaut.

Whatever happens, it's likely the world will be watching.

HAVANA – No record store here has ever sold their music, and before Sunday, no one in the country had ever seen the band live. Yet for decades Cubans have loved Kool and the Gang, seemingly unconditionally.

Cuba filmmaker Gloria Rolando said the band's funky sound provided the soundtrack for her generation's coming of age in the late 1960s and 1970s. And even though there was a brief period in the 1960s when the communist government outright banned American music and frowned on it during the subsequent decade when it was rarely heard on government airwaves, Rolando remembers K&G's music "playing everywhere."

"It was a period of time that we didn't listen openly, in public, but the people never stopped listening to good American music. There were always underground ways."  

VIDEO: Kool and the Gang celebrate good times in Cuba

She recalls exercising at home to K&G and dancing to the music at teen parties. "The music made you happy when you were down, told you to celebrate life," Rolando said.

Sunday afternoon, Kool and the Gang played in an open-air concert to a crowd of 100,000 jamming Havana's iconic seawall drive, proving to fans like Teresa Contreras that good things come to those who wait.

Decades ago, then-16 year old Contreras started a Kool and the Gang fan club. Over the years she's done more than hold the club together. Today, her club has 148 members – one requirement is that you have to be at least 35 years old to join. 

"Just imagine how much we love them. We meet on the last Saturday of every month at my house to dance to their music," said Contreras.

Many of the fans at Sunday's one-time concert were like Contreras – middle-aged with their children and even grandchildren in tow. Spectators not only packed the plaza and public roads; they danced and gyrated on nearby balconies and rooftops.

High-school reunion
Some fans transformed the concert into a high-school reunion.

Repairman Frank Gonzalez and his buddies opted for an all-guy's outing, leaving the wives and kids at home. Waving a couple of hand-made signs that read "Kool – Finally Ur Here," the friends spent two hours singing along with the music. One fellow even drove 18 hours to be there.

Band leader Robert "Kool" Bell dedicated the concert to the "fraternity and unity" of the people of Cuba and the United States, emphasizing that the band did not come as politicians but as musicians. The inspiration for this visit, he said, was his father, who visited Cuba in the 1950s as a boxer and admired the island's music.

The admiration flows the other way too, said American musician Pablo Menendez, who made Cuba his home after attending one of the island's prestigious music academies.

"Ordinary Cubans know that the U.S. government restricts Americans from traveling here, so people from the U.S. are given more of a welcome 'cause they're seen as people who have to jump through hoops to get here," Menendez said.

HAVANA, Cuba – Cuban diva Omara Portuondo will heat up the stage at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards during a rare U.S. appearance this Thursday.

Dubbed the queen of Cuban vocals, Portuondo will be presenting an award during the televised show and her latest CD, "Gracias," has been nominated in the Best Contemporary Tropical Album category.  

VIDEO: Cuban musicians get U.S. encore

Her appearance at the Las Vegas awards show demonstrates the slow loosening of restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Cuba. 

Portuondo's visit is her first to the United States in five years. Back in 2004, she had to cancel a tour after the Bush administration cracked down on cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba. Under that policy, thousands of Cuban artists and musicians were denied visas to perform in the U.S.

That now seems to be changing. After the Obama administration loosened some travel restrictions for Cuban Americans this past spring, U.S. music promoters quietly began applying for permission to bring Cuban artists stateside.  

During the first 10 months of this year, the State Department issued 5,500 more visas for Cubans to visit the United States than it did during the same period in 2008.  

Now Portuondo's sultry voice, which has entertained audiences in Cuba for over six decades, has another chance to win over American audiences.  Since first performing at Havana's famous Tropicana cabaret back in the 1950s with greats like Nat King Cole, she has accompanied some of the island's most beloved bands from Cuarteto d'Aida and Orquesta Aragon to the Buena Vista Social Club, which introduced her to international audiences.

In addition to Omara, famed conductor Zenaida Romeu is appearing in North Dakota, troubadour Pablo Milanes is in Puerto Rico and band Septeto Nacional is bringing its Cuban rumba to the New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. Watch the video of the performers in Cuba and look out for their performances in a town near you.

HAVANA, Cuba – Dancers from London's Royal Ballet were not the only stars who made history this summer when they became the first international company to perform in Cuba in more than 30 years.

So did their distinguished orchestra conductor Martin Yates, described by critics as one of Britain's "most exciting and versatile" conductors.

Yates led Cuba's National Symphony for two nights in Havana's Karl Marx Theater for the company's production of the three-act ballet "Manon."

VIDEO VIDEO: Hoo-ray! Brit ballet wows Cubans

The excitement began when he managed to pry open the theater's orchestra pit, which had been sealed 15 years ago when Cuba's strapped economy forced everyone in the arts to downsize. The use of the pit was such a novelty that during intermission members of the audience crowded the front of the auditorium just for a look.

The space was far from ideal and took some creative maneuvering to accommodate over 70 musicians in the old-fashioned pit.

"The string players couldn't even extend their bows because somebody was sitting right next to them but they would not quit," said Yates. "That extraordinary sort of fortitude was extremely uplifting."

The Cuban National Symphony, founded in 1960, has had little international exposure but more than rose to the occasion, said Yates. Prior to this engagement, the orchestra was generally unfamiliar with the ballet's 18 century music composed by Jules Massenetto.

A few months back, the Royal Ballet shipped a copy of their music book to the island and, after Yates arrived last week, the orchestra held four full rehearsals, which led to a "very accomplished execution of very complicated arrangements," said Yates.

Speaking very little Spanish, Yates was undaunted by the language barrier. "Music is such an international language. You sing a phrase or you speak the Italian in music. But you also had to speak with your hands, your eyes, your body. It was an interesting experience," said Yates who has conducted widely throughout Europe.

The orchestra should be "fiercely proud" of their performance, said Yates. The music heightened the emotions on stage, helping the audience to become absorbed by the drama. The truth of that was in the applause.

"The audience exploded with cheers before I even finished the last few measures of music," said Yates. "Normally, the public is quite respectful. You play the last chord and it's only on the last bang when the audience explodes. They couldn't contain themselves on the last five bars when they knew it was the end…The public just erupted into an explosion of unbelievable proportions. The musicians should be proud of that accomplishment."

And so is he.

"It's extraordinary to work with local talent," Yates said, especially when a conductor allows a different playing technique to flourish. "It's their individual style…and it worked. I was fiercely proud of by what we created together."

HAVANA – From the moment London's Royal Ballet came to town, observers dubbed it a "diplomatic dance" and predicted the tour would generate the same ground-breaking excitement as the grand old cultural exchanges during the Cold War. This would be, after all, the first visit by an international dance company to the communist island in over 30 years.

Maybe true, but ballet lovers here see no political subtext to the tour except the experience of some exceptional summer entertainment at prices everyone can afford.

At less than a dollar for admission, box offices ran out of tickets in lightning speed.

Crowds packed Havana's faded, but still majestic, Gran Teatro to watch the company's both classical and avant-garde productions, some of which the likes have never been seen on a Cuban stage. 

VIDEO: Diplomatic dance: U.K.'s Royal Ballet, including Carlos Acosta, dazzels Cuba

And on Friday, the 5,000-seat Karl Marx Theater will be filled for the week's final performance: Kenneth Macmillan's dramatic rendition of "Manon." London is well-known for its passionate and daring interpretation of that part full-length ballet.

And those disappointed Cuban fans who weren't fast enough to score tickets?

Thousands spent their evenings watching the performances projected live on gigantic TV screens from the steps of Havana's "El Capitolio," a domed building that served as the seat of the legislature in Cuba's pre-Revolution days.

'The Flying Cuban'
Many strained to catch a glimpse of native son Carlos Acosta, today one of the world's top male ballet artists.

Six years ago, the Cuban-trained dancer earned himself a place as a principal with London's Royal Ballet. Celebrated for his combined strength and grace, Acosta's true power lies in his astonishing leaps that have led critics to compare the 36-year-old to legendary ballet stars Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Watching him soar this week in a rehearsal studio and on stage, one could see how he earned the nicknames "The Flying Cuban" and "Air Acosta."

The son of a truck driver who grew up in one of Havana's poorer barrios, Acosta's talent and international fame have made him "the pride of the nation," said acclaimed Cuban writer Miguel Barnet. "This is a great event for the Cuban people because we have an expertise in ballet. When we applaud, we know what we're applauding."

And, applaud they did.

From the first moment Acosta walked onto the stage for a pas de deux performance of "El Corsario," the audience leapt to its feet as the auditorium exploded in cheers.

"The ovation was deafening. I couldn't even hear the music," Acosta told NBC News. "It was a state of ecstasy."

Acosta compared the praise he received this week to "the kind when you score a goal in the World Cup. It's fantastic that a ballet performance receives that kind of welcome."

Diplomatic dance
Perhaps Acosta deserves the adulation as much for his skillful brokering as for his dancing. For more than two years, he negotiated to bring to life what he describes as "the most important dance event in Cuba in 50 years."

Acosta admits it was exhausting parleying between Havana and London, carrying proposals between the Royal Ballet, Cuba's National Ballet Company and the government's Culture Ministry.

Dame Monica Mason, the Royal Ballet's director, said "Carlos was very keen that we managed to make it work before he felt he was perhaps past his prime and he is still so much in his prime."

In light of the cash-strapped times ballet, like all arts, is facing, it is all the more miraculous that the trip worked out. "It was clearly not going to be a money-making venture, so it was up to us to find ways to make it work," Mason said.

The company not only performed for no-fee, but incurred heavy out-of-pocket expenses. While the Cuban hosts covered local expenses for the 150-member troupe of dancers and crew, the endeavor cost the company over $1 million, paid for in part by the company's own resources and by private donations.

According to Mason, it is money well spent. "It's about the art, dance and it's about being able to visit places that you've never visited before. And places, particularly here in Cuba, [that] have not had the chance of seeing international companies. Dance crosses all barriers."

Mason may also have been motivated by a sense of historic symmetry.

"We always hoped that we might be able to go back to Russia with Nureyev, but we were never able to do that," she said. "I think it's a mark of the times that we're able to come to Cuba with Carlos. I think it's very special." (Nureyev began his decade-long career with the Royal Ballet in 1962, shortly after he defected from the former Soviet Union).

One dance that made Cuban audiences sit up and take notice was the avant-garde production, "Chroma." Performed on their first night in Havana, the modern, minimalist piece had dancers moving in parallel on a set comprised of one stark white cube.

"We weren't sure the Cubans would accept it. They've never seen anything as modern as that," confessed Royal Ballet principal Sarah Lamb, originally from Boston and a 1998 recipient of a Presidential Gold Medal. At first, the audience sat in silence but, by the finale, most were entranced by both the music and the movement.

Lamb believed it proved that, "Culture is universal and dance speaks to everyone. You don't need language or a common culture or the same political system. If people see something done well they are going to appreciate it."

HAVANA – As news of the death of the "King of Pop" spread last Thursday night, a group of fans and Jackson impersonators gathered in a tiny Havana living room in disbelief. They huddled around a shortwave radio and tuned to Florida stations, hoping someone would say it was all a hoax.

"We're stunned and heartsick. For us, Michael was the sun," said Nestor Hernandez. "All of a sudden, the skies darkened."

VIDEO: Cubans pay tribute to Jackson

For the most part, Michael Jackson's controversies didn't tarnish his fame in Cuba. As Cuba's state-run media is devoid of celebrity gossip, many fans know all about his talent but nothing about his troubles.

After his death on Thursday, Cuban radio and TV hosts paid tribute to the American pop star and his musical creations with scant references to his excesses with drugs, spending or sexual molestation charges.

The daily Granma, published by Cuba's ruling Communist Party, reported on Jackson's death, describing him as a "magnificent talent with a strange personal life," without providing any further explanation.

"Radio Rebelde," the island's main radio station, abandoned regular rush-hour programming Friday morning to run news of Jackson's death and play some of his most popular hits from decades ago while fans called in with accolades and requests.

Several successful recording artists remembered Jackson in interviews with NBC News as a brilliant and iconic performer whose music helped shape the creativity of others.

"Michael Jackson was one of the top musicians of the century, comparable to a Mozart, a genius in everything he touched," said Edesio Alejandro, a prolific songwriter who has composed the scores of more than 36 films.

Cuban percussionist Amadito Valdes, best known for his playing with the Buena Vista Social Club, compared Jackson to Elvis Presley. "Both great performers broke the mold. With Michael, you can talk about the 'before' and the 'after' he came on the pop music scene."

X Alfonso, singer and composer of Afro-Cuban fusion music, said he grew up listening to Jackson. "Every birthday and New Year's Eve party we ever had ended with Michael Jackson's music. Today, it's the same. Everyone in this house danced to Michael's music – from my 4-year-old and 10-year-old kids to my parents and grandparents. And, even though he's gone, we're going to keep on dancing."

SLIDESHOW: Michael Jackson: 1958-2009

New generation puts on red jacket
Hernandez, one of the fans who gathered to mourn Jackson last Thursday, said he's been enamored with the pop star for most of his life. Now 21, Hernandez was just 5 years old when a neighbor introduced him to the "Thriller" video. Instead of being frightened by the dancing zombies, the child began imitating the dancers. "I wanted to become a monster, too," remembered Hernandez.

And he did. When he was 15 years old, Hernandez and some friends formed "Evolución Jackson." What began on a whim has evolved into a dance company that performs Jackson's iconic moonwalk and other trademark dance sequences in community theaters. They buy Jackson's music and videos on the Cuban black market and spend hours going over bootleg copies of old Jackson video tapes to learn his moves.

"We've been studying Michael's dances for six years, and there are still some steps I can't perfect," said Jackson impersonator Omar Ramos. "He was a genius, and now he's gone."

Dressed in a threadbare version of the singer's trademark red jacket, Ramos held a rehearsal of the song "Billy Jean" just hours after learning that the pop star had passed away.  Describing Jackson as "the world's best entertainer," Ramos said, "It's an honor to play him."

The performers plan a memorial concert this Wednesday in Mariano, one of Havana's larger working-class neighborhoods. "No tears will be allowed. Just laughter and dancing," said Ramos.

Click here for more on Michael Jackson

HAVANA – General Motors may be losing ground to foreign competition at home, but in Cuba the American automaker remains king. 

HAVANA – Washington and Havana must travel a long road in order to re-establish relations broken almost 50 years ago, but both governments seem ready to take the first cautious steps.

At the suggestion of the Obama White House, the two sides plan to sit down to talk about immigration issues and restoring direct mail service.

The Cuban government not only agreed to the talks, but also suggested taking further steps. Havana believes the two adversaries could cooperate in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and hurricane disasters.

While just the tip of the iceberg in the U.S.-Cuba cold war, this warming trend helped a group of American athletes to travel to the island this past weekend for the first time in 12 years.  

Team USA came here to compete with 240 athletes from 15 countries in a two-day track and field meet for the America's Cup in combined events. 

Chris Boyles, who has been ranked as a U.S. top 10 decathlon champion on three occasions, wasn't sure how the logistics were worked out. "But I got the call about the trip and I couldn't turn down this opportunity," he said.

Watch this video of the U.S. track and field team's returns to Cuba. 

Ashley Wilhelm Andres saw the trip as an opportunity to pit herself against Cuban athletes as part of her preparation for the June 25 USA Track and Field meet in Eugene, Ore. "The Cubans are tough competitors," she said.

Doug Logan, the Chief Executive Officer of USA Track & Field, the national governing body for the sport, is in talks with Cuban sports officials to increase track and field events between the two countries.

"As an organization, we had an obligation to re-establish friendships in the Caribbean and re-establish the people-to-people tradition we had with the Cuban people," Logan said.

Cuban national sports commissioner Esteban Brice welcomed the American participation while U.S. team manager John Turk stressed the sportsmanship of the event. "It always seems like sports transcends political boundaries," Turk said. "We are not here to play politics. We just want to compete."

And at the end of the day, both Cuba and the Team USA walked away with one gold medal from the tournament – but Cuba won more medals overall: four to two for the U.S.

HAVANA – President Barack Obama may have charmed audiences all around the world and been all smiles with strongmen such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez – but don't count Fidel Castro as one of his fans.

In his latest blog, posted last evening, the former Cuban president took issue with a number of remarks Obama made during a Sunday news conference at the close of the Summit of the Americas.

Castro accused the president of "arrogance" and "superficiality" while also criticizing his support of Washington's trade embargo on the island, stating Obama has now made the "failed" policy "his own."

The 82-year-old Castro also said that Obama had "interpreted badly" statements and supposed signals of conciliation from his brother Raúl, now president, who recently remarked that his government was willing to discuss "everything" with the Obama administration, including "human rights, press freedoms and political prisoners."

Javier Galeano / AP

An employee of the Defense of the Revolution Committee reads an issue of the Cuban newspaper Granma next to an image of Fidel Castro in Havana on Wednesday.Â

The apparent openness of that statement, made last Thursday during a meeting of leftist leaders in Venezuela, sparked speculation both in the United States and here in Cuba that the two adversaries could be heading to the negotiating table.  

Obama even characterized Raúl Castro's remarks as an "advance" and underscored that he was encouraged by them.

But he then called on Havana to free political prisoners and to slash the official exchange rate of the U.S. dollar on family remittances.

And that clearly riled Fidel Castro.

Sending another volley back
Justifying the 2003 jailing of 75 opposition figures, the retired leader repeated the charge made during their trials: that the dissidents were agents paid by the U.S. to destabilize his government. He wrote that they were "at the service of a foreign power that threatens and blockades our country."

He also defended the 10 percent tax that Cuban government banks charge to process family remittances in U.S. dollars, saying "not all Cubans have family living abroad who can send remittances. It's absolutely just to redistribute a relatively small part to those who are in the most need of food, medicines and other necessities."

Cuban banks started charging the fee in January 2007 as a response to stepped-up U.S. sanctions. After the U.S. Federal Reserve levied a $100 million fine on a Swiss bank charged with violating American sanctions by handling U.S. dollars from Cuba, Havana decided to stop accepting U.S. dollars and moved to discourage the dollar's circulation on the island. Now there is the 10 percent penalty on the dollar, but all other foreign currencies circulate freely.

Castro also blasted Obama's support for the 47-year old embargo. "He did not invent it, but he made it his own" wrote Castro, " just like ten other U.S. presidents. As he goes down that road, you can predict his certain failure, just like that of all his predecessors."

'Kills any hope I have of change'
Castro's stance doesn't surprise young Cubans, such as Miguelito Levy, who peddles art and antiques to tourists in Old Havana.

"What will this government do when the hostilities end, when there's no one left to blame and there's still no money to buy anything?" said Levy.

Hitch hiking a ride to an early morning physics class at Havana University, Leonid Morales heard a radio announcer read Fidel Castro's blog. "Well," he shrugged, "that kills any hope I have of change."

But Castro supporter Juan González believes that despite today's harsh words, he is convinced that the government will work towards achieving a thaw in relations with the U.S. González, who shared the trenches with Castro's rebels in the late 1950s, says it's time to be pragmatic.

"I used to think any type of concession on our part equaled surrender to the Americans. But both sides will have to give up something," said González.

"We can't pretend anymore. With American companies and tourists coming here, life would be easier for us. And won't trade help the U.S. economy at a time when you need a boost?"

Cuba's southern Isle of Youth was battered by two powerful hurricanes last summer, including Gustav, the worst storm to hit here in 50 years.  

Gustav, a Category 4 hurricane, packed 140 mph winds that turned 95 percent of the homes on the Isle of Youth into rubble and decimated the entire power grid.

A week later Hurricane Ike swept through and washed away the few buildings that had been left standing.

VIDEO: Get a rare glimpse below the surface near Cuba's Isle of Youth

The army chief on the ground accessing the damage, Maj. Gen. Alvaro Lopez, described the island as looking like the "remnants of a nuclear blast."

But in what seems to be nothing short of a miracle, the fast-moving storms only minimally impacted the coast and natural wildlife.  

While the hurricanes did cause some beach erosion, especially along the southern coast, the small island's protected coral reefs remain untouched and the wide range of underwater life continues to thrive.   

Underwater treasure trove
And now tourists are slowly returning to the island, drawn by its reputation as one of the best diving areas in the world.  

Some divers come looking for buried treasure. After all, this piece of land is said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel "Treasure Island." There are a few dive sites that feature shipwrecks, but all the Spanish galleons were picked over years ago.  

The real underwater treasure lies in the beauty of the seascapes. Hidden in the shallow reefs, tunnels and caverns are schools of colorful Atlantic stingrays, spadefish, jacks, tuna, barracudas and dozens more species, visible only a few feet below the surface.  

Divers are especially enamored with the reef itself that stretches for almost 20 miles and includes the rare and protected black coral wall, reputed to be the tallest in the world. Last year some 25,000 international divers explored these waters and this year the number is expected to rise.  

The island offers 56 different diving sites concentrated along La Siguanea Inlet, also known as Cuba's Pirate Coast. This stretch of sand and water has been declared a Marine Reserve so diving is only permitted with a guide.  

This past weekend Cuban divers took cameras below and photographed the unique beauty of Cuba's underwater world. See the video link above to see a sample of what they saw.