2015: Cuba's 'Renaissance' Year

For most people, it would be an ordinary call -- she was just checking in on him. But Maxwell's daughter was in Miami and he was in Cuba -- an island with no access to U.S. cell service just a year ago.

Maxwell realized right away the call epitomized how much Cuba has changed in just a year.

Then he cried.

"I was in Havana and my phone worked. It was beautiful," says Maxwell, a Cuban-American lawyer at Akerman, a law firm in Miami.

Maxwell's moment represents just one of many big changes in Cuba in 2015 -- a year some call a "renaissance" for the island….

…Another hurdle is that some of the investments Cuba wants, such as oil drilling, are barred under the embargo. And some of the businesses most eager to get to Havana, such as hotel chains, are not at the top of the government's priorities, says Alana Tummino, a policy director at the Council of the Americas who has led U.S. companies on trips to Cuba.

After decades of not talking and drastically different approaches to business, Corporate America and the Cuban government are still just trying to build trust, says Tummino.

"There's no lack of excitement" from U.S. firms, says Tummino. But compared to initial hopes,"they realize that this is going to be a longer process."

The Obama administration has chipped away at the embargo by amending some business restrictions. In September, new regulations paved the way for a U.S. business to establish a brick-and-mortar store on the island. But ultimately, Congress will have to lift the embargo to truly pave the way….

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