BY JACK WILLEY
LOS ANGELES - Félix Wilson, deputy chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., and Emilio Pérez, another officer of the Interests Section, ended a successful speaking tour here October 25. The Cuban diplomats spoke to more than 500 students and others at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and elsewhere. The events marked the 30th anniversary of the combat in Bolivia by Ernesto Che Guevara and his comrades.

The tour was sponsored by a number of professors and an array of student groups based at UCLA, including the African Student Union, La Gente de Aztlán, Latin American Students Association, MEChA, the Cultural Affairs and Academic Affairs commissions of the Undergraduate Students Association, and the Young Socialists.

On October 22, more than 200 students and others filled UCLA's Haines Hall to hear Wilson and Pérez speak on "Ernesto Che Guevara and Cuba: Past, Present and Future." The next day, the Cuban officials spoke to two university classes. In the morning, they addressed 35 students in David Kunzle's class on "Revolutionary Art." Kunzle, an art history professor at UCLA, explained at the beginning of the session that Harry Villegas, the featured speaker, was denied a visa to come to the United States by the State Department.

Villegas, also known by his nom-de-guerre Pombo, fought in Che Guevara's column during Cuba's 1956-58 revolutionary war in the Sierra Maestra and as part of internationalist missions in the Congo in 1965 and later in Bolivia. In the 1970s and '80s, Pombo was one of the thousands of Cubans who fought in Angola against the South African apartheid troops who invaded the country. He is today a brigadier general of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. Villegas was scheduled to address several university classes and a symposium at UCLA, titled "Thirty years later: A retrospective on Che Guevara, Twentieth-Century Utopias and Dystopias."

Kunzle read greetings sent by Villegas to the students and encouraged them to protest the denial of the visa for Pombo. "We will not take no for an answer from the State Department," Kunzle said. "We will continue the struggle to bring him into the United States." Pérez, 33, spoke about Guevara's impact on Cuban youth. "I don't like to talk about Che Guevara as a symbol because he is very much alive today," he said. "Many young people in Cuba want to follow his example. Che's biggest contribution was his internationalism. I was one of the many youth who went to Angola. Two thousand Cubans died in Angola. We are willing to give our lives to fight for the independence of the people of the world. This is the legacy of Che."

"The same conditions of oppression and exploitation of man by man Che fought to change 30 years ago exist throughout the world today," Wilson said.

Questions ranged from, "How is the U.S. embargo affecting the Cuban people?" to "During the 1960s and '70s, our government argued that Cuba was attempting to export revolution to justify the U.S. embargo. But why does the U.S. government remain so stubbornly against Cuba now?"

"The only reason for the U.S. government's aggression is the example Cuba offers to the people fighting oppression around the world," Wilson said. "We are not a military threat to the United States."

Many students stayed for about half an hour after the class to continue discussion with the Cuban officials. That afternoon, Pérez and Wilson spoke to a class of Enrique Ochoa, professor of Latin American Studies at California State University Los Angeles. Ochoa teaches a course on "Revolutions in Latin America." The class was open to other students and a standing room only crowd of 60 came. Leading up to the class, some student groups set up a 6-by-20-foot window display on campus announcing the event. The exhibit included poster-size pictures of Villegas and Che Guevara and several books by and about Guevara - including Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58, Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla' by Villegas, and John Lee Anderson's recently published biography on Guevara.

Ochoa opened the class, explaining the U.S. government denial of a visa for Villegas and introduced a 14-minute video interview with Villegas that aired on Cuban television last year. In the documentary, Villegas explained why he joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra and why he fought alongside Che in the Congo and Bolivia and later volunteered to go to Angola. "It's not possible to accept poverty, misery, destitution anywhere in the world," Villegas was heard saying in his concluding remarks. "There needs to be a response. And sooner or later the peoples of the world will look again to this kind of cooperation that is necessary among human beings. It's called internationalism."

One student said now that there are hard times, there may be unrest and people who want to overthrow the Cuban government in order to improve the quality of life.

"You have to compare the standard of living in Cuba with Mexico and other Latin American countries," Wilson responded. "Also compare it with the former Soviet Union or Bulgaria where the new regimes promised that the market will bring a better life, but instead people face lower life expectancy and misery. We are convinced that our system, socialism, is the road to follow."

Many students stayed for nearly an hour after the class for informal discussion.

The Cuban officials spoke to another 145 students at Eugene Ruehl's class on anthropology at California State University Long Beach October 24. The tour ended with a meeting of 50 at the hall of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, sponsored by the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba on October 25. Wilson and Pérez were also interviewed by the Daily Bruin, UCLA's main student newspaper, and other student publications on that campus.

Messages demanding Washington grant Villegas a visa can be sent to James Theis, Cuba Desk, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, D.C., 20250; Tel: (202) 647-9273; Fax: (202) 736-4475.  
 
 
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