By Julia Berkman
For so long, Cuba has existed as a mythical land, opposing the United States in all ways. Those ideologies are myths; Cuba is a real place with real people, and now you can experience that too! Western, along with American Cultural Studies professor Lawrence Estrada, is planning our first exchange trip to Cuba!
The whole idea for this trip started when Estrada himself visited Havana through a tour group called Cuba Education Tours. The experience made him think seriously about starting up an exchange program to Havana.
The exchange program is in its final stage of planning, and so far has an impressive itinerary. The students will spend the first few weeks of winter quarter at Western, learning about the culture and politics of Cuba. They will also be enrolled in an intensive functional Spanish class, as well as learn about the agriculture and sustainability in Cuba. These classes fulfill a number of requirements; the credits can go towards Fairhaven credits, an International Relations minor, as well as helping to complete a Spanish degree.
For the final three weeks of the Winter quarter, the participants will fly to Havana and spend time meeting with different notable representatives of the Cuban population. They will participate in seminars with Cuban Labor Activists, feminists, and actual government leaders. For some of their time, the students will work on a farm with agricultural experts. This trip is the first of its kind to look at sustainability through a Cuban lens. They’ll be working with farms and local businesses to study the effect Cuban agriculture can have on the environment.
Another highlight of the trip is a meeting with the Cuban Literacy Program. This program is the reason Cuba has a 99.8 percent literacy rate, the tenth-highest nationally. Started by Fidel Castro in 1959, the Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba brought the literacy rate up 25 percent in one year. The teachers of that program are still making strides in education today.
The planning for this trip was a long and arduous process for Estrada and the other supervisors. The Cuban Education Program was a huge component in the organization of their tours. The CEP was originally based out of Vancouver, and organized trips to bring Canadians south of the border to Cuba. Now, their program is totally based out of Havana, and focuses on giving tours to English speakers in order to spread Cuban culture. The events planned by the CEP are related directly to what the participants will learn in their on-campus classes before they arrive in Havana.
After planning all of the events and tours central to the exchange, Estrada and the other organizers met with representatives from Eastern Washington University and the University of Washington to see how their program, particularly the focus on sustainability, could influence theirs. The exchange is the first to Cuba from Washington that will focus on agriculture and sustainability. This puts Western in the unique position of advising other Washington universities on how to plan their particular exchanges with a focus in those areas as well. Hopefully Eastern and UW students will also be able to experience Cuba for themselves.
It wasn’t easy, however, to figure out how to ship multiple students to Cuba. With Cuba’s borders only recently opened to the United States, airlines are competing over who can fly to Havana the cheapest. Because of this, Estrada isn’t quite sure what airline will ferry Western’s program leaders and students to Havana yet.
Anyone interested in taking a comprehensive tour of Cuba, a country that was previously a mystery to Americans, is highly encouraged to apply. The application is still open, and you can apply online!
