With over 5,000 members, LASA is the largest professional association for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America. It brings together academics from all over the hemisphere, and from a variety of fields such as literature, history, sociology, political science, biology, and medicine, to discuss their academic work and present new research. LASA's Congress, held once every eighteen months, is an event for the exchange of ideas and information that helps maintain a rich intellectual dialogue and debate on the Americas, and connects academic institutions with their international colleagues.

Cubans have been valuable contributing members of LASA for years and in the past have even attended LASA congresses, in the United States. In 2000, the LASA Congress was held in Miami and 100 Cuban scholars attended. However, this year's visa denial is a sad continuation of a trend that restricts academic freedom not only in our country, but also throughout the Americas. In 2003 only 60 of the 105 Cuban scholars scheduled to participate in the LASA Congress (held in Dallas) received visas. Then, in 2004, one week before participants were scheduled to attend the congress in Las Vegas, all 65 participants were denied visas.

This resulted in an unprecedented loss of academic exchange and created unnecessary uncertainties, delays, and the financial losses associated with not being able to plan visits by Cuban academics to LASA and to U.S. universities.

At a time when our government is doing everything within their ability to close down communication and exchange between the people of the United States and Cuba, academic exchange could not be more important. Even during the most difficult years of the Cold War, academics in the United States still remained in contact with their academic colleagues in the Soviet Union. The Cuban scholars should be allowed to attend the LASA meeting!

Take Action! It is especially important that academics throughout this nation make their voices heard! Log onto www.lawg.org/docs/CubaSectionLetter.doc or scroll to the bottom of this e-mail to find an adaptable form to fax to Mr. Stephen McFarland, Director of the Office of Cuban Affairs at the State Department. Tell State Department officials how this breakdown in academic communication harms everyone, not just Cuba. Faxes are welcomed from others, too, but scholars' responses are critical!

An immediate fax is important, as the LASA meeting is just eight days away!

To learn more about LASA log onto: http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/index.html

Sample Letter:

March XX, 2006

Mr. Stephen McFarland
Director, Office of Cuban Affairs
WHA/CCA, Room 3234
2201 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20520
FAX: (202) 647-7095

Dear Mr. McFarland:

I am writing as a scholar with academic interests in the study of Cuba and U.S.-Cuban relations, to urge the State Department to reconsider the visa requests of the 55 Cuban scholars whose visas were denied as of March 7, 2006. I teach XXX in the Department of XXXX at XXXX University.

(XXXX personalized comment on Cuban scholar whom you had hoped to host)

We in the academic community believe that contact between academics and scholars from different countries in diverse fields – literature, history, sociology, political science, biology, and medicine – is vital to intellectual inquiry and advances in knowledge. U.S. scholars and researchers are regularly in contact with colleagues all over the world, sharing information with them and learning from them. This has been true for decades; even during the worst years of the Cold War, U.S. scholars stayed in touch with, visited with, and had visits from, colleagues in the Soviet Union.

The record of academic exchanges with Cuban scholars in the 1990s and early 2000s was similarly strong. In particular, the presence of many Cuban academics and researchers at our Latin American Studies Association Congresses reflected increasing engagement. Every 18 months the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America, holds an International Congress. Cuban scholars have been attending LASA conferences for many years, along with scholars throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2000, when LASA held its conference in Miami, over 100 Cuban scholars attended.

I am hopeful that the current disruption of these important academic exchanges with Cuba can be remedied. In 2003, only 60 of the 105 Cuban scholars scheduled to participate in LASA Congress in Dallas received visas, and in 2004, the State Department denied all 65 visas for scholars who were scheduled to participate in the conference only one week later. There are costs to the U.S. academy, including the loss of our academic freedom and more material costs of seemingly unnecessary uncertainties, delays, and the financial losses associated with not being able to plan visits by Cuban academics to LASA and our universities. Travel is indispensable in our line of work as it is essential to the exchange of ideas and information between academic institutions in different countries.

The State Department's respect for U.S. academic institutions and support for academic freedom can be demonstrated by a reversal of the denial of the 55 visa requests from Cuban scholars to participate in LASA's XXVI International Congress, scheduled to take place March 15-18 in Puerto Rico. I believe it is important that the Cuban scholars be granted their visas to attend the conference, present the papers they have prepared, and help to sustain the dialogue and debate that have characterized their past participation in LASA and other educational settings in the U.S.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXX

CC: Representative XXXXX (from your district)