Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic

A surprising name came up in conversation earlier this year in Miami. Just before President Obama visited Cuba in March, I headed down to Florida to see how Cuban Americans felt about the normalizing relations between the two countries. For some, it was impossible for them to move on from the traumatic experience of fleeing their home country, forced to relocate to the U.S. after a new communist government seized their parents’ businesses and threatened their families. But for others, they are ready to look ahead to a new era.

One of those Cuban-Americans was Mike Fernandez, a billionaire who has become a leading national voice in ending the embargo, frequently meeting with Washington lawmakers. Fernandez, speaking to me at his home in Coral Gables, said that one of the people who inspired him to forgive Fidel and Raul Castro and move forward with peace was Shimon Peres, the Israeli president and Nobel Prize winner.