I began travelling and researching in Cuba more than 12 years ago, before Barack Obama’s historic opening and normalisation of relations from 2014 to 2016 – a period of economic effervescence and great hope, of young people making plans, ideas flourishing, US tourism surging and private businesses popping up everywhere. Cuba during the Obama administration felt like a very different place than it does at this moment, where desperation is setting in – as I saw first-hand on my latest trip.