ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Franco Spain’s development of foreign policy toward Cuba from its inception through its transformation, from the second half of the 1960s to the first half of the 1970s, and how trade and the détente of the Cold War influenced the Spanish–Cuban–American relationship, considering also the role played by two other Galicians who had indispensable nongovernmental ties with Cuba.
The contentious issues that plagued Cuba–Spain relations could not have been resolved only by reference to the spiritual ties between the two countries, despite Franco’s view of Latin America. The Spaniards sometimes stressed the spiritual ties with Cubans in telegrams, which are official documents. Spain developed more emotional, naïve, and personalized ideas of foreign policy among its diplomats. Cubans were more pragmatic.
Being pragmatists and centered on economic profit, they could keep their “honor,” so Spain and Cuba could form the win-win relationship. Neither Spain nor Cuba mentioned clearly, however, that a common understanding of “anti-Americanism” existed between the two.
