Emily Chow

Regarding a recent attempt by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL 21st) to restrict Cuban-American family travel to Cuba, it is reported that Rep. Diaz-Balart maintains that an overwhelming 90% of the Cuban-American community supports his amendment.

Studying abroad in Cuba was an experience that is impossible to forget. People’s eyes bulge whenever I mention that I lived in Cuba for five months. A torpedo of questions always follow; “Did you feel safe? How did you survive? Isn’t Cuba communist?” While I love to discuss my time spent in Cuba, it’s questions like these that make my mind race and my blood boil.

This past March in the Rayburn Foyer Room, here on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, images and stories of Haitians were exhibited as a “commemorative piece that captures the ongoing plight of Haitians, their spirit of perseverance, and how grassroots and other civil society leaders are striving to create a more equitable Haiti." 

By Ezra Millstein

As Church World Service reported, this exhibit was promoted in conjunction with “Haiti Advocacy Days” in which 50 civil society leaders from Haiti, the Haitian diaspora and U.S. humanitarian agencies came to DC to meet with officials in the U.S. State Department, Obama Administration and U.S. Congress.

By Ben Depp

This exhibit was sponsored by the Haiti Advocacy Working Group (HAWG) which was formed shortly after the devastating January 12th, 2010 earthquake to coordinate advocacy efforts for effective and just disaster relief, reconstruction and long term U.S. development policy toward Haiti.

By Elizabeth Whelan

View more photos and read stories from the catalogue here.

When you think of Cuba, the first things that come to your mind may be the “three C’s”: Caribbean climate, the Castro brothers, and Cohiba cigars; but that is by far not all that Cuba has to offer. Because of the United States’ foreign policy aimed at isolating Cuba (and therefore isolating us from Cuba), broad knowledge about the island and its people is limited. Many rely on exotic and stereotypical images of beautiful women on pristine beaches, Fidel Castro giving long-winded, animated speeches in front of the masses, and fine cigars to describe Cuba’s identity.

One year after Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake, Haiti is far from recovered and Haitian families are still struggling to survive.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, many countries and international organizations were quick to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti. Despite the outpouring of aid, recovery is painfully slow; and health care is a particular problem. Poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water and crowded conditions in camps have added to the strain on the nation’s limited healthcare system. The nation has been further devastated by a massive cholera outbreak that has claimed over 3,400 lives.

Cultural exchanges have always been an important element of expanding one’s knowledge about countries throughout the world. While certain countries may possess different political ideologies, religious beliefs, or speak different languages from the United States, “intercambios” allow citizens to become familiar with everyday people from cultures that are different from ours. And knowing the people encourages understanding and peaceful co-existence. For countries that are polar opposites on the political and/or social spectrum—like Cuba and the United States, for  example—exchanges  between students, artists, faith groups, farmers, sports teams (fill in your own community here) help humanize the “other.” And in more cases than not, these exchanges assist all parties to find common ground and shared experiences, despite outward differences.

Speaking recently before a university audience in Kentucky, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared her thoughts about the future of U.S.-Cuban relations. She touched on many headline-grabbing issues, but her comment that it's her “personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would then lose all of their excuses for what hasn’t happened in Cuba in the last 50 years" is what got Cuba's, and the international media's, attention.

On Monday, April 5th, two Cuban medical students spoke about contemporary Cuba in an open forum at American University in Washington, DC. The students, Yenaivis Fuentes Ascencio and Aníbal Ramos Socarrás*, are the first students to receive visas from the United States since 2002 after President Bush severely curtailed academic exchanges between the United States and Cuba. In fact, in one positive advancement under the Obama Administration, visas for Cubans to travel to the United States are up approximately 65 percent overall, according to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

A United States delegation led by Craig Kelly, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, met with Cuban officials led by Dagoberto Rodríguez, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, in Havana on Friday, February  19th, to discuss migration issues.  This meeting marked the second round of migration talks since their suspension in 2004 by President George W. Bush.