american officials say the deal reinforces president obama s objective of forging economic ties with the caribbean island after the two countries began normalizing relations this year. joining us now to talk further about the agreement, ross kenneth urken, personal finance editor of the street, and cynthia carris alonso, author of passage to cuba. both have been there. welcome to you both. good to have you. good morning. the significance of this, from your perspective flights, commercial flights to cuba what s it mean? i think cuba has been this forbidden fruit for the american traveler, and now that it s all the more accessible and easier to go there, people are really going to get a taste of the authenticity of life there. mm-hmm. and there s a thirst there, is there not? cynthia, you were just there a few weeks ago, right? i just got back a couple weeks ago, and there is such a hunger from americans who have not been able to see it or even know about it for
we continue our celebration of black history month with a look at the schomburg center for research in black culture where historical artifacts have chronicled the black experience for nearly a century. the latest exhibit, digging up the past: a history of the schomburg center, marks its 90th anniversary. and joining us today is dr. khalil gibran muhammad, the director of the schomburg. so nice to see you again. thank you so much for having me. so tell us about this this newest exhibit. it s sort of a continuation of sure. so every now and then we have founder arturo alfonso schomburg, an afro-puerto rican, arrives in new york in 1891. this year happened to be extra special because it is our 90th anniversary. people often forget, too, that our 90th is also the 90th of the annual celebration of black history began in 1926 under the leadership of carter g. woodson. origin story, to look at some of the early artifacts and books that arturo schomburg collected is
the final panel from this year s national black writers conference. thank you for coming out this afternoon. we really, really, really are glad to see you here and glad you stayed over these four days. when i founded the center for black literature in 2003, one of the major goals was to host the national black writer withs conference, and it was a vision of john oliver kilns who was poet and writer in residence at that time, and he would have been 100 years in january. he wanted to support the work of black writers by hosting programs and holding a conference every year. and we did this through the center for black literature where we have literary readings, workshops, symposia and youth programs for our students. it s called, our youth program is called reenvisioning our lives through literature. we ve continued to do this. and as i think over these last four days, i know john oliver killens would be smiling. i thank him for his visioning, and i thank all of you for com
the star of a new comic book, and he has boricua roots, if you will. we ll tell you how the comic book s creator is trying to pass on old world culture to young latino comic-book readers. more on that coming up in just a few minutes. right now, though, with the presidential general election just a few months away, we focus today not just on the 2016 latino vote but, more specifically, latinos and the republican party. now, through his actions and his words and his proposals, g.o.p. front-runner donald trump has infuriated many latinos. that s just one of many sort of interesting backdrops leading in to the annual new york city republican gala. it takes place here in manhattan in the next few days, and, of course, many latino republicans will be in attendance, as well as all three g.o.p. presidential candidates. joining us now is arcadio casillas. he is the finance chairperson of the new york state republican party. j.c. polanco is a republican strategist. welcome to you both.
preventing heart disease in the black community. later, a new play that uses humor to tackle the serious subject of caring for a parent with dementia. we re gonna hear from some of the stars of dot. and three-time grammy award-winning jazz artist terri lyne carrington on her new album, featuring the late natalie cole s last recording of duke ellington s come sunday. that s all ahead on here and now. alright guys. i want to show you some cutting edge technology. push that tape in and hit play. this is a flip phone. have you seen these before? it s called a compact disc. oh. looks like we re getting a facsimile. what year is it to you? it s old. you d rather use newer technology? definitely. well, i ve got something to show you. this is the 2016 chevy volt. it uses extended range electric technology. the prius hybrid uses battery technology developed 15 years ago. chevy expects volt drivers to get over a thousand miles between fill ups. it s got every technology there is.