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Volume IV, No. 1/November 2001
A Cuban Odyssey
by Jaime Rodriguez
A day before Three Kings Day in January I left for Cuba as a member of the Cuban Library Book Donation Project, sponsored by Massachusetts State Rep. Jarret T. Barrios and Oxfam America. The objective was to distribute 5,000 new books to libraries and schools throughout Cuba. The books came from donations from publishers and writers across the United States.
I decided to go because of the William Joiner Center’s involvement in writing workshops for years and because I wanted to see with my own eyes the consequences of the revolution on Cuba’s people. I especially wanted to go to the Bay of Pigs and stand on the sand that marked a historic event that changed the relation of two countries and has divided the people of that country in two.
It was a memorable trip. Memorable for two major reasons. The first for the people who came on the trip. The second for the people I met in Cuba.
I met so many good people: librarians, educators, politicians, old friends.
It was gratifying to see old friends after more that twenty years – people from the old movement with so much energy and so much love for justice and for the struggle necessary to obtain it. It was nice to be with some of the people who used to be part of the organized effort to bring famous Cuban groups of the mid-seventies to Boston.
To be with Phil Johnson, who was so helpful as Secretary of Human Services with the Dukakis Administration, someone who truly understood and assisted in the readjustment processes of those who struggled to return from the jungle and rice paddies of Vietnam, was an honor. On the trip I met Nancy Ryan, the wife of another helpful person who, as a senatorial aide in the 70's, provided leadership to overcome inequality in the justice system to incarcerated Vietnam veterans. I am always grateful to people who have been helpful to me or to others.
To see Sal DiMasi, the dean of North End politics, interacting as just one of us was important, as was seeing other state representatives and senators on the trip. These politicians have no ideological commitment and stand ready to bring down the fences of isolation between Cuba and the United States.
It was gratifying to see the former Mayor of Cambridge, Kenneth Reeves, and Frank Clifford, the fifteen-year-old son of a Vietnam Veteran, and Lam My, a new generation of Vietnamese in the United States, Jovita Fontanez, a grandmother of the Hispanic community and Rick Giordano, an aide to State Rep. Kevin Fitzgerald, celebrating Mary Jo Marion’s birthday at the hangout of that great American writer, Ernest Hemingway, Bodequita del Medio.
To see the future of our Hispanic leadership in action in the great energies of State Rep. Jarret Barrios makes me realize that one day Hispanics not only will have the numbers but also power in the political arena of Massachusetts.
Patience is a great virtue when flying from the United States to Cuba. The flight was postponed so many times during just one period that it was comforting to know that the people waiting for us at the Jose Marti Airport were still there, although it was so late in the evening.
Also memorable about this trip to Cuba were the people and the land, the faces of the Cuban people, the human aspect of a society looking forward to enhance their people, their country.
I walked the streets of Havana, the streets that so many Cubans in Boston nostalgically mention. The streets of dictators and freedom fighters. The streets that took me to old buildings: the cathedral, monuments, colonial housing developments, the business district, and inner city parks with beautiful landscaping. The streets led to new buildings and new development. The street to Plaza de la Revolution and the streets that so many hard-working Cubans travel to and from work every day, trying to make a better society. Some are narrow streets, some are wide streets, some are dead end streets, but all of them are safe and clean streets, any time, day or night.
I was surprised to see the harmonious relations between religious organizations – religious philosophies working together not only to fulfill spiritual needs, but also to eradicate social illness. Priests and pastors are working with common objectives.
We drove an almost empty highway and saw a countryside with mango trees standing in a straight line, and millions of citrus trees waiting for their fruit, sugar cane ready to be harvested, and bananas and vegetables mathematically arranged for maximum production.
We enjoyed Cien Fuegos (100 Fires), the pearl of the South and the land of Benny Moret, a city of European flavor and Parisian style boulevards – a city with a nice library which welcomed us with open arms. In this library we had a ceremony in which we donated hundreds of new books.
I walked the streets of Trinidad. This city is a living museum. It is the jewel of a colonial era. The street is of cobbled stone with a neoclassical and baroque architecture. Trinidad is a World Heritage site.
The Bay of Pigs has always been in my mind because of what happened there in April, 1961 when anti-government guerrillas tried to infiltrate the island and link up with local government enemies and overthrow the revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro. This event of 72 hours has been an important one in the life of the Cuban people on the island and abroad. Being there on that historical land fulfilled my psychological needs of the trip.
I came back from Cuba knowing that I met great people: Americans and Cubans. Also I was proud to be with the UMass Boston provost, Charles Cnudde, Dean Ismael Ramirez-Soto and other professionals who are so committed to bringing both countries, both people together and end the division and the distance between them.
Jaime Rodríguez is a research associate at the William Joiner Center.
