Michael Bustamante, Washington Post
Photo Credit: Alejandro Ernesto/EPA

In the next few days, history will be made in Cuba. For the first time in almost 60 years, a Castro will not rule the island, as Fidel Castro’s 86-year-old brother Raúl steps down as Cuba’s head of state. While Fidel Castro’s death in 2016 inspired predictably polarized reactions across the globe, Raúl Castro’s legacy is harder to place.

In over a decade in the island’s top job, Raúl Castro put Cuba on a path to significant, though piecemeal, economic reform. The “younger” Castro also achieved something his brother never could: restoring diplomatic relations with the United States. But it is through the contradictions of his career that we can better understand his mark on Cuban history and the sizable challenges he leaves for his successors.