(CNN) -- Growing up in the United States, my summers were filled with trips to Little Havana in Miami, where my family and I would watch anti-communist plays featuring popular Latino actors. Those trips would include hours-long pig roasts, where family members would animatedly discuss the big policy issues of the day, like the impact of the fall of the Soviet Union on Cuba's government. My parents were among the men and women who fled the country in the 1960s, and from them, I learned about human rights abuses, lack of political and press freedoms and other forms of repression, something that helped mold my opinions about U.S. policy towards Cuba. In fact, having grown up in this kind of environment, it should come as little surprise that I've been a hardliner on U.S.-Cuba policy issues.
@highlight
Carmen Cusido says she grew up taking a hard line on Cuba embargo
@highlight
Says that after visiting island for first time her opinion started to change
@highlight
Author says students she spoke with would like to see Cuba reform
This isn't to say that I wasn't exposed to things that troubled me, even during this short trip: I saw billboards filled with socialist propaganda, there was clearly a lack of press freedom, and there is the fact that even though they're highly educated, Cubans still don't earn a decent wage: the average @placeholder earns 20 Cuban dollars a month -- about $20 USD.