American youth witness ‘greening’ of Cuba
Author: Docia Buffington
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/05/08 13:21
HAVANA — July 14 — A group of 41 tired Americans walked across the International Peace Bridge connecting Canada and Buffalo, NY. These were not your everyday Niagara Falls tourists — when they arrived in Buffalo, banners, people and cheers awaited them. These Americans had just traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, against US travel restrictions. This year was the Brigade’s 39th solidarity delegation to the Island, a challenge not only to U.S. travel restrictions but also to the U.S. imposed economic blockade of Cuba.
The Venceremos Brigade worked side-by-side with Cuban workers in yucca fields and in the largest publishing house in the country. However, their most important job was learning about Cuba, the effects of the blockade, and the struggle of the Cuban 5 so that we could bring what we learned back to the U.S. where information from Cuba is largely restricted. Brigadistas traveled from Havana to Santa Clara and into the mountains to a community called Jibacoa, along the way meeting with Cuban students, professionals, workers, politicians, soldiers, farmers and doctors.
Youth in Cuba
Ashley Wolford, a 22 year-old Brigadista from Chicago, was surprised by the treatment of young people in Cuba. “Coming from Chicago where youth are criminalized, seeing junior highs with full security teams, police and metal detectors and everything, I found Cuba totally different. When we visited a school for children that had committed crimes, we found out that criminalizing young people is illegal in Cuba. The school even had students that had committed serious crimes, but the school had no bars on windows, no people in uniform, no high fences, no handcuffs, no metal detectors, and students went home to their families on the weekends!”
The Brigade also toured a home for children without parents, a tour that Ashley found very moving. “Again I was shocked to see that children were not institutionalized. The home was not given any name because when the children go to school their friend’s homes don’t have a name. The home was a home not an institution. Growing up in the foster care system here in the U.S. where there is no space that feels like a home, and where you get kicked out as soon as you’re ‘too old,’ it was amazing to see that the children are given homes after they leave, have access to college, and continue to visit their family for advise and celebrations.”
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/13495/
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