Cuba has a new president – and for the first time in six decades, his last name is not Castro.

Cuba’s national assembly has elected Cuba’s first vice president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to replace 87-year-old Raúl Castro, who took over as Cuba’s leader in 2006 after his brother, Fidel Castro, fell ill.

Raúl Castro stepped down in observance of the two-term limit for senior government and party officials that he himself mandated in 2011.

In so doing, he opened the door not just for a new president but for a generational transition in Cuba.

This is one of the most important moments I’ve seen in 40 years of studying and writing on Cuba.

Díaz-Canel faces real challenges.

Cuba’s economy is weak; relations with Washington are deteriorating, and Internet expansion on the communist island has produced a growing chorus of domestic critics.

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