Teach-In to Explore Myths, Realities About Cuba
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — To many Americans, Fidel Castro is a Cuban dictator. To Cubans, he is president, elected by a general assembly.
Such is the difference in perceptions of Cuba, says Barbara Blazej of the University of Maine, whose students in a special travel-study class are inviting the public to a presentation and discussion April 13 to learn about the real Cuba.
Blazej took a dozen of her students to Cuba over spring break to visit people, politicians, schools, farms, churches and hospitals in an effort to get a closer look at the nation the United States regards as a political adversary. The US has both a travel and trade boycott against Cuba, now in place more than 40 years.
Blazej and her students have a different view of Cuba, Blazej says, and they want to share it with the public.
“Cuba: Myths and Realities,” starts at 7 p.m. April 13 at 101 Neville Hall on the UMaine Orono campus. It is a “teach-in” on U.S.-Cuba relations and the effects of U.S. foreign policy on Cuban life, says Blazej. A panel of student speakers will share their first hand experiences in their specific areas of interest as a part of the course, PAX495, offered through the university Peace Studies Program.
The event is free.
After forming opinions about Cuba from reports by American news media, which Blazej says often has a bias against the small socialist country 90 miles south of Florida, students returned to Orono with a different point of view.
“It was a phenomenal trip. The students had a wonderful time. They came back different people,” says Blazej, who, in addition to being an instructor in the Peace Studies Program also is Youth Violence Prevention Project director at the university. She has been teaching a class this semester on Cuba, which she has personally visited three times.
Students “are very passionate about the whole situation of the U.S. and Cuba,” she says. “The public will get a different view, one that most of us don’t get in this country. We want to share what we saw and bring a little bit of balance to the conversation.”
The group spent nine days in Cuba, mostly in Havana with a three-day excursion to the countryside. “They met with government officials, they met with religious people, and every day regular Cuban people,” Blazej says.
Travel arrangements were made through the Witness for Peace organization.
Blazej says the group was able to travel freely in Cuba. “There’s absolutely nothing you can’t do or see,” she adds. “There are no restrictions.”
Another of the myths Blazej would like to dispel, she says, is the view that Cuba is a police state. “I think that’s a common perception we have in this country. It’s not at all true.”
“Part of what is so interesting about Cuba is you have this group of people who have been struggling to survive in the face of what they see as continued US aggression,” she says. And “they are so passionate about their country.”
Questions about the forum April 13 can be directed to the Peace Studies Program office, at 581-2625.