Such sentiments are music to the ears of activists like Al Fox from the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy, who has been complaining for years that Tampa is behind the curve in being prepared for trade to take place once the economic embargo is ultimately lifted.
"I give her enormous credit," Fox said on Monday, though he added that it would have been better if she had traveled with officials from Tampa, rather than going through the D.C. based Center for Democracy in the Americas.
Castor initially began talking about traveling to Cuba back in the fall of 2011, as did executive members of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. That group is now scheduled to travel there next month.
Castor is not the first Tampa politician to travel to Cuba, though such visits have been few and far between. In 2002, then-Mayor Dick Greco ended up having a lengthy conversation with Fidel Castro during his trip, but he reacted defensively from the get-go, leaving under clandestine conditions, which resulted in a fierce press conference when he returned.
On the other hand, former Tampa Congressman Jim Davis's 2004 trip barely made any news at all.
Castor said she expects to be criticized in some quarters for her trip, but said such criticism was not that significant when she thinks of some of her Cuban-American constituents who yearn to travel freely between Tampa and Havana.
"You've gotta think about those families and why we make it so difficult now in a time when Cuba is changing," she said. "It's very easy if you don't understand that they're changing to say 'Oh well, it's the same as ever.' It is not the same as ever. It is changing," she affirmed.
Last fall the Raoul Castro-led government decentralized industries, expanded private entrepreneurship and farming, and legalized home and car sales. They also have lifted exit visa requirements, which is one reason why blogger and Castro critic Yoani Sanchez has to be able to go on an extensive world tour in recent months.
Cuba has been on the state sponsors of terrorism list since 1982 due to its hostile acts and support of armed insurgency groups, such as the FARC in Columbia and members of the Basque separatist group ETA.
But the Tampa Congresswoman said that's now outdated thinking, referring to how peace negotiations between Columbian government and the FARC have actually been taking place on Cuba soil.
Meanwhile North Korea, currently in the headlines thanks to threats by their leader to start a nuclear war, was taken off that list in 2008.
Over the weekend one of pop music's hippest couples, Jay-Z and Beyonce, traveled to Cuba, a story that received huge play on the conservative Drudge Report. Two South Florida congressional Republicans, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, have written a to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to understand what type of license the couple was granted to travel.
"The restrictions on tourism travel are common-sense measures meant to prevent U.S. dollars from supporting a murderous regime that opposes U.S. security interests at every turn and which ruthlessly suppresses the most basic liberties of speech, assembly, and belief," they wrote. "We support the Cuban people by refusing to sustain their jailers."
Although Americans with no family connections are banned from traveling to Cuba, exceptions are made for journalists, academics and others who qualify for a special license.
Reacting to the criticism, Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake tweeted on Sunday "So, @Beyonce and Jay-Z @S_C_ are in Cuba? Fine by me. Every American should have the right to travel there."
When asked by CL about Flake's comment, Castor said she agreed.
"Every American should be able to travel. Including Beyonce and Jay-Z," she said, adding, "Including people from the Tampa Bay area."