CUBAN TRANSITIONS

Spring Break is generally a time of relaxing; sun, surf, and sand are the three cliches that everyone looks for during the two weeks in March we have off. For almost 50 members of Vassar community, those three components of a successful Spring Break came with two weeks of cross-cultural interaction. I am talking of course about this year’s study trip, which, for the first time in a decade, returned to the quaint and historic city of Havana in that forbidden fruit of American travel: the Republic of Cuba. After six weeks of preparation (a three-hour class once a week), we all left for a two-week long adventure through a country of most of us had little experience beyond the classroom, but one we are all dying to get to know better. While we did indeed have time for sun and sandy beaches, most of our days were taken up with lectures from all parts of Cuban society—Cuban professors talking about women’s rights and the Revolution, hip-hop artists talking about the nature of having a dual identity as an artist and a Cuban within a revolutionary society, and environmentalists talking about the challenges and rewards of ecotourism coming to the island were just a few of the talks we had while in the country.

One of the larger themes that we heard over and over again during our trip was the embargo between the United States and Cuba—which is known over there as the more militaristic-sounding bloqueo(blockade)—and how by ending the embargo Cuba could truly take off. While the vast majority of Vassar students aren’t affected by the embargo in the slightest, in Cuba it means severe restrictions on what Cubans are and aren’t able to do. With so much produced in the United States, Cubans have had to learn how to make do without certain creature comforts (such as most electronic goods), or have had to come up with domestic alternatives. This economic reality became all the harsher starting in the early 1990s in what is known as the Periodo Especial en Tiempos de Paz (Special Period in the Times of Peace, or just Special Period) where after the USSR collapsed almost all trade including food imports stopped arriving in Cuba. At that time, Cuban society was able to pull itself up by its bootstraps (an image not generally associated with Communism) and ensure that the government’s promises of health care and education for all were not compromised; however, it meant an extreme scarcity of almost everything else throughout the island, to the point where basic products like salt are still hard to come by today. Even with our relatively privileged status as tourists and students, certain food was almost impossible to obtain and our ability to access the Internet was severely restricted. As Cuba looks to finally pull itself out of the quagmire of the Special Period, it also looks towards finally reestablishing relations with the United States. We were told time and time again how great it would be for Cubans to come to the United States and finally begin an exchange of goods and, more importantly, information.

Which isn’t to say that the United States could not benefit from lowering the wall between itself and Cuba, either. Cuba, by virtue of its health care system, has ready access to not only a large amount of doctors who would love to work here but also pharmaceuticals which could reach many patients in desperate need of medicine. With some of the best universities in Latin America, Cuba would surely be a popular destination for students willing to learn Spanish or of the many social innovations coming out of the region. Increased trade would surely bring in jobs. And it goes without saying that its destination as a tourist hotspot isn’t a tempting enough reason to end the embargo itself. Although our lives are not as negatively affected by the embargo, it would still be to the benefit of everyone if the United States and Cuba could come to an agreement and finally, two decades after the end of the Cold War that made them enemies, allow for free passage of goods and people once again.

Two problems prevent this scenario from happening: inertia and the ability of a tiny special interest group to block any debate on ending the embargo. With most of the top-level policy makers being brought up in the Cold War, they still see Cuba as an enemy. They are either unwilling or unable to look at Cuba through a 21st-century lens and more accurately assess the consequences of ending an embargo on such a small country. This myopic and anachronistic attitude is helped along by the dinosaurs of the Cuban-American expat community, who lost their fortunes in the Revolution, view Fidel Castro as a sort of demon and have poured lots of money into the coffers of legislators to ensure that a Cuba with a Castro in power is one that does not do business with the United States. However, these problems are not capable of going on indefinitely: younger people are slowly finding out about our neighbor south of Florida, and even young Cuban-Americans are joining in the call for ending the embargo, not seeing the reason for it in a world without the USSR. I recommend you join these voices. Begin educating yourself on Cuba the way our class did. You might be surprised how far a cry it is from the totalitarian Communist hellhole it is made out to be.

This article was originally published on March 28th, 2012 in the Opinions section of the Miscellany News as ”End of Cuban Embargo Mutually Beneficial” http://www.miscellanynews.com/2.1577/end-of-cuban-embargo-mutually-beneficial-1.2721215#.T3PUojH2YR8