On March 25, two Cuban youth will begin speaking engagements that will take them to universities in the United States. Luis Ernesto Morejón Rodríguez and Itamys Caridad García Villar have been invited here by U.S. professors and educators at campuses in California and in several other cities. They have been informed by U.S. government officials that they will receive visas for their U.S. visit by the end of this week.
Morejón, 23, is a professor at the Foreign Language School of the Enrique José Varona Teacher Training Institute. García, 27, is a doctor of veterinary medicine and she is a graduate from the Higher Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Havana.
The two youth will exchange ideas and experiences with young people in the U.S. from the point of view of youth who live and work in Cuba. They will talk about the effects of the U.S. economic embargo and discuss the advances made by the Cuban people since the 1959 revolution there.
The Committee on Cuban Youth and Education, which is based at the University of California at Los Angeles, is chaired by professor Peter McLaren. The committee has prepared an itinerary that includes campus meetings in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, New York and Washington State, as well as California.
Stacy Lee, president of the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association said that "it is critical for students in the U.S. to understand the Cuban situation from the perspective of the Cuban people. Cuba has developed many alternative forms of education, agriculture, and other public systems which this country could definitely learn from."
The two Cubans will be in the U.S. for five weeks. They will visit Atlanta and Birmingham March 25-30; New York April 6-9; Des Moines April 11-13; Los Angeles April 15-21; San Francisco Bay Area April 22-26; and Seattle April 28-30.
For more information contact the Committee on Cuban Youth and Education, c/o Prof. Peter McLaren, P.O. Box 951521, 3022C Moore Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095- 1521; Tel: (310) 825-8348; Fax: (310) 206-6293.