Cubans look fondly to U.S. as talks to resume relations start

HAVANA (Reuters) - Miguel Barnet, one of Cuba's most prominent Communist Party intellectuals, fondly recalls his teenage years in the 1950s, attending one of Havana's elite private schools, singing in the Episcopal church choir and performing in American musicals.

"I love North American culture, I was shaped by it," Barnet, a 74-year-old noted poet and anthropologist who is also a member of Cuba's powerful Council of State, said at his office in Havana, where images of Cuba's revolutionary leaders, Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, adorn the walls.