Transitioning from isolation to what President Barack Obama described as normalization of ties with Cuba means Cuban-Americans will have the opportunity to visit loved ones.View this story.For some Iowans, that means reconnecting with family they haven’t seen in decades.“The government is hard,” said Papito Marrero, a Cuban-American who spent his childhood dreaming of a better life in America.“Because I want to be free. I don’t want to stay in Cuba no more. If I go back to Cuba, I’m a dead man,” Marrero said.After Cuban authorities jailed him for three years for trying to escape, Marrero fled the country by boat in 1996. He has been an electrician in Iowa ever since.“It’s wonderful, beautiful, nice people,” Marrero said. “I like Iowa. I can’t complain. Iowa opened the door for more. Happy to be in Iowa.”Local Cuban-Americans like Marrero are praising Obama’s policy shift with Cuba. They now have a chance to visit family members they haven’t seen in years.Marcia Lyons has been traveling to Cuba for the past 25 years. Her most recent trips have been to see the love of her life, Pavel Torres.“I’ve been trying so long and so hard to get my husband here from Cuba, from Havana, and there’s been so many hurdles to go through,” Lyons said.Carlos Portes, of Marshalltown, was appointed special ambassador of Latin American Affairs in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Bill Clinton called on him to craft a Cuban policy in the 1990s.Portes said the past 24 hours have been a whirlwind, seeing years of his efforts surface on an international stage.            “This is a historic moment,” he said. “It is a moment that, I think, has been long in the making. The Cuban people are people that obviously have suffered a great deal throughout the years by virtue of being cut off, by all intents and purposes, from the whole world.”Portes helped lead the Marshalltown Chamber of Commerce on a trip to Cuba in November. The trip marked his first time in his native country since fleeing as a child.