BY LAURA GARZA
On August 5 thousands of youth will gather in Havana for
a rally against the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Among those
marching will be students, workers, and other opponents of
U.S. policy who traveled from the United States to join
with youth from around the world in standing with the
people of Cuba to defend their sovereignty. The rally will
include all those gathered for the August 1-7 Cuba Lives
International Youth Festival. Some 1,400 people from 65
countries had registered to attend by mid-July.
The number of people planning to make the trip has shot up in the last few weeks. The U.S. delegation to the festival will include some 130 people who applied to participate through the Cuba Information Project, about a dozen organized by Global Exchange, more than 80 participants in the Venceremos Brigade, and a group of 22 traveling from Boston, including many high school students. Across Canada about 30 people had registered by July 14 to attend the festival, including youth and others from Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Rosemary Garcia, a student in Los Angeles, found out about the trip a few days before the deadline for applications and put down a deposit the next day. "I believe that if in Latin America we could free ourselves from the oppressive U.S. government and authoritarian governments like in Mexico, if we had a more socialist, fair, and just government in Latin America, we would be better off," Garcia said. "I want to go to Cuba because I want to see what it's like to live in a socialist society firsthand."
As they learn more about the Cuban revolution, participants in the festival will also bring their experiences and struggles in the United States and other countries to workers and youth in Cuba.
Young people planning to make the trip to Cuba have been organizing fund-raising raffles, setting up speaking engagements at campuses for when they return, and making banners.
The Washington, D.C., Hands Off Cuba Coalition plans to raise money for those going to the festival with proceeds from a dinner on July 26. The event will feature presentations by Hugo Yedra, Cuba's consul in Washington; Adjoa Aiyetoro of the National Conference of Black Lawyers; and Sarah Park, who recently returned from a trip to Cuba organized by the Freedom to Travel Campaign. Groups in many cities have planned activities around July 26 to coincide with the anniversary of the 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks organized by Fidel Castro and others who later helped lead the Cuban revolution.
Participants are pulling out all the stops to get to the event. Dougie Larson, a member of International Association of Machinists Local 289 in Seattle, said he would sell his car to come up with the last $400 to make the trip. "What I hear about Cuba sounds good," he explained, "but I want to go there and see for myself so I can come back and tell my coworkers the truth about what I saw with my own eyes.
Many of the participants from Los Angeles are planning to read the Second Declaration of Havana, presented by Fidel Castro in the early years of the revolution, before the trip to learn more about the goals of the Cuban revolution.
In New York, festival participants are visiting campuses to speak with students groups, professors, and student governments to line up speaking engagements with honoraria when they return. They have also planned a fund-raising picnic.
Many of those making the trip are on editorial assignment and will be reporting on the festival and on the situation in Cuba today, as well as speaking at events planned in many cities to hear report backs from the festival. Participants will spend several days visiting Havana or another province and staying with Cuban families.
Participants on the U.S. delegation will be filing reports for radio and newspapers throughout the country including the Greene County Democrat in Alabama, the Merritt Reporter at Merritt College in northern California, Mexico Lindo in Florida, and the Baltimore Times.
In the last days before the trip festival participants also stepped up efforts to gather up material aid donations to bring with them including asking others to donate pencils, notebooks, work boots, medical supplies, and other necessities.