BY LAURA GARZA
NEW YORK-"Cuba has recently been in the news a lot more.
But it's hard to know what's really happening on the island
and what life is like for Cubans. The best way to find out
is to go to Cuba and see for yourself!" reads a flyer
distributed by the Cuba Information Project building the
U.S. delegation to the Cuba Lives International Youth
Festival August 1-7.
At a June 11 northeast regional meeting of the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) attended by about 30 people, Leslie Cagan, one of the national coordinators of the NNOC, explained that a mailing with information on the festival was sent out to 3,500 people nationwide.
Festival participants will spend four days in Havana and three days in a different province,`where they will stay with Cuban families. The Cuba Information Project is helping to arrange travel for the U.S. delegation. From Cancún, Mexico, or Nassau, Bahamas, the cost of the festival is $550, including transportation, housing, and two meals a day. Organizers are also looking into arranging travel from Montreal. The deadline for applying to join the U.S. delegation, and for sending in full payment, is July 15.
In Boston, representatives of the July 26 Coalition report they have signed up 27 people to participate in the festival, including several from Maine. Many are students from high school and colleges. The coalition sponsored a dance, which raised $800 towards the cost of the trip, and plan other fund-raising activities.
In Philadelphia the Cuba Support Coalition has seven people signed up so far. The New Jersey Network on Cuba reported that three people recently called in response to a flyer the group put out publicizing the festival. In New York City students active in opposing cuts in education funding are among those planning to go, and several activists set up an information table at the Puerto Rican Day Parade, signing up 15 more people who wanted more information about the festival.
Bob Guild of the New Jersey Network on Cuba encouraged those planning to go to the festival to get editorial assignments from local media outlets to report on Cuba. Such assignments will be especially valuable in getting out the truth about Cuba upon return from the festival.
Many of the 70 or so groups affiliated with the National Network on Cuba are stepping up their efforts to build the U.S. delegation to the festival. Members of the Atlanta Network on Cuba gave a presentation on the festival to the Latin American Students Association (LASA) at Georgia State University and after some debate several decided to participate in the event. "Most important is that people should have the right to travel to Cuba," said Paul Scigliano, president of LASA. "The exchange of ideas at an international student and youth get-together is very exciting."
The Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba is organizing a meeting on June 24 for 35 youth who have signed up to attend the festival, which includes students from colleges and universities in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. An educational forum on the Cuban revolution is being planned as well as a July 26 event featuring a speaker from the Cuban Interests Section.
The groups gathered at the NNOC northeast regional meeting also firmed up plans for regional demonstrations on October 14. Four demonstrations are planned for that day in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. They will demand: End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba, Lift the U.S. Travel Ban, Normalize Relations, and Respect Cuba's Sovereignty. An initial flyer is being produced along with T-shirts with the four demands in English and Spanish.
Miguel Zárate and Arlene Rubenstein from Atlanta and Bill Estrada from Los Angeles contributed to this article.