This idea of “ruining,” or really, “changing” Cuba, felt condescending and arrogant, erasing the Cuban people from their own narrative. Since the founding of the United States, when Thomas Jefferson’s “candidly confessed[ed]” his desire to colonize the island nation to the moment when Americans “celebrated” Cuba’s independence from Spain—and then proceeded to exploit the country’s natural wealth for half a century—we’ve treated Cubans as minor players in their own story.