Cuban Alabama Irony.

  

  While a new Gallup poll shows a majority of Americans now having a favorable view of Cuba, that positive view is much more evident in Democrats than in Republicans.

     And the irony is this: The very first American company winning the right to open a factory in Cuba is...from Alabama, the 5th most Republican State in America....and the state that was home to the Air National Guard/CIA Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

The company will make a small, red tractor it calls the "Oggún" in homage to the Afro-Cuban Santeria spirit of metal work. American workers initially will build the pieces in Paint Rock, Ala., and assemble them in a facility at the port of Mariel, a special economic zone about 30 miles west of Havana. Berenthal said the goal is to have American workers train Cubans to do the work and manage the operation in Cuba.

Read the full USA Today story about the two Alabama engineers who had never built tractors before, and their quixotic plan to embrace the new Cuba.

ALSO: regular air service between the U.S. and Cuba is beginning.