After meetings on campuses in the Chicago area, Martínez and Javier Dueñas Oquendo began the New England leg of their tour here April 1. Martínez is a fifth-year law student at the University of Havana and a member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of University Students. Dueñas, 28, is a professor of journalism at the University of Havana and a member of the National Bureau of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in Cuba.

After visiting the Mark Twain House museum and the New England Air Museum in Hartford, Martínez and Dueñas had dinner with several Puerto Rican activists, where they discussed the movement to demand the U.S. Navy end the bombing and occupation of the island of Vieques. The "Todo Connecticut con Vieques" (All of Connecticut with Vieques) Committee is organizing a rally in Hartford April 19 in commemoration of more than 50 people who have died as a result of the U.S. occupation. Later, the two Cuban leaders were interviewed for the Spanish-English National Public Radio program "Tertúlia" by WFCR radio journalist Luis Meléndez in Amherst, Massachusetts.

The following day, Martínez and Dueñas had lunch with student activists from the Progressive Student Alliance, a University of Hartford student group that was organizing a teach-in to support the demand of cafeteria workers to receive tuition benefits for themselves and their families, which the university administrators deny them on the basis that they are "subcontracted" workers.

The University of Hartford meeting was sponsored by the Department of Politics and Government, the African American Studies Program, the Progressive Students Alliance, and the Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba. Harald Sandstrom, professor of Politics and Government and director of African American Studies, chaired the event. Tim Craine, a leader of the Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba, invited those present to participate in an April 16 commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the defeat of the U.S.-backed mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs by Cuban revolutionary forces, which the coalition is sponsoring.

"The beginning of the discussion at tonight's meeting has to be 1959, which is the year the revolution took political power in Cuba," said Dueñas in his opening remarks. In 1961, the Year of Education, a mass literacy campaign involving more than 100,000 young people teaching workers and peasants of all ages to read and write "wiped out illiteracy in the country," he said.

Cuban youth have made other important contributions to the revolution, Dueñas said, such as being the backbone of many internationalist missions throughout the world, from the defense of Angola from invasion by apartheid South Africa's military to the more than 3,000 Cuban doctors currently in some of the poorest areas in Latin America, Africa, and Central America providing medical services.

Over the past 12 years, facing the effects of the collapse of trade and aid with the fall of the regimes in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe and the intensified U.S. embargo, the Cubans have gone through what they call the "Special Period."

"We have gone through a difficult struggle to rebuild our economy and to instill in all of the citizens the optimism, confidence, and the strength of the revolution with encouraging results," stated Dueñas. "But a revolutionary is never satisfied with what has been accomplished, and that is why we are working on programs to increase social justice and raise the cultural level of every Cuban citizen," he explained.  
 
'A government to benefit the majority'
"We know information about Cuba is lacking here in the United States and that what you receive is far from the truth," said Martínez, in her opening presentation. "Our revolution is one that from the beginning tried to build a socialist government that would benefit the majority of the people," she said.

She described the radical transformations that have taken place in the countryside, the impact of the deep-going land reform, and the success of the Cuban Revolution in making health care and education available to all rather than profit-making private enterprises. The Cuban Revolution, Martínez said, not only carried out the literacy campaign, but has also made university education available to all who want it.

"It is our country and our people who are really forging the revolution today," said Martínez. "This was demonstrated in how we overcame the economic difficulties over the last 12 years. We organized workers parliaments in which the people were able to discuss the measures that were being taken. Decisions were not made by a dictatorship in the government," she said. She contrasted the revolutionary leadership with the governments of other countries that impose austerity measures on the population. "Not one university was closed during that time," Martínez noted, "and the stipends students receive were maintained."

"Our revolution is not a perfect one," she said, "and many problems in our society have gotten worse" during the Special Period. She gave the example of how programs aimed at solving the housing shortage were curtailed by the economic crisis. An example of initiatives and mass participation of young people to solve these problems, Martínez said, is that today, "university students are participating in brigades that visit places where the economic situation is most difficult. The students become friends of the families and help the children with school work. The revolution is, little by little, coming up with solutions to social problems."

During the discussion period, Martínez and Dueñas answered questions about the U.S.-backed mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Dueñas said Washington's plans were well-calculated. "The only thing that explains how we overcame the invasion and the difficulties of the terrain was the understanding of the people that the revolution was theirs and the fact that they knew they were defending it," he explained. "We saw incredible acts of heroism that people still talk about today."

The two youth are explaining at their speaking engagements the "University for All" (see articles on opposite page). Martínez mentioned how the program originally was aired in the mornings, but by popular demand they were expanded to nights and weekends.  
 
Bringing youth out of prisons
She also detailed the efforts led by the Union of Young Communist to release some youth currently in prison for petty crimes and reintegrate them back into society through participation in the youth-led social work projects. The youth receive six months training in social work and teaching skills and then they join the work of the UJC in the neighborhoods. After they graduate, they have the option to enter the university without any other requirement than a desire to study, Martínez explained.

During the discussion period a person in the audience suggested that Cuba's economic problems were a result of its communist economic system and government. He gave the example of how the city of Havana used to have its lights on 24 hours a day, seven days a week before the revolution. "Now," he said, "they have rotating blackouts like the ones in California," which caused some laughter in the audience. He also asked why Cuba has not been able to abolish poverty even after the redistribution of wealth that took place after the revolution, and why Cuba couldn't just carry out necessary trade with countries other than the United States.

Dueñas responded that before the revolution the figures on per capita income and cattle ownership in Cuba were impressive. "You might think Cuba was the Switzerland of the Caribbean based on those figures," he continued, adding that Cuba ranked just below Argentina in many economic indicators. "But the income and cattle were in a very few hands. Milk and meat were not accessible to the population," he said. Dueñas pointed to the collective accomplishments of the Cuban people despite the lack of access to credit and foreign investments and difficulty trading with countries that feel the economic pressures that the U.S. government imposes on those who want to trade with Cuba.

"We eliminated misery," Dueñas said, "but have not yet eliminated poverty. It is true we are a poor country, but we are not a miserable people," he stated. "If capitalism is willing to combat poverty by killing the poor, as [Latin American writer] Eduardo Galeano said," Dueñas emphasized, then "we are doing exactly the opposite."

The two youth also answered questions on freedom of religion in Cuba, the fight against racism, and the fight to preserve the environment. "Black or white, woman or man, believer or nonbeliever, homosexual or heterosexual, everyone has the same rights in Cuba," said Dueñas in response to a comment a participant made on the gains of the revolution on the fight against racism.

At the end of the program, Martínez extended an invitation to all youth present to participate in the Second Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange, which will be held in Cuba July 22–30. The conference "is open to people of diverse ways of thinking who want to learn about Cuba and exchange ideas," Martínez said.

After the meeting, Dueñas and Martínez had dinner with a group of youth to discuss the possibilities of building a contingent of students from Connecticut to the Exchange. Coming out of the discussion, the students organized a meeting April 11 for Hartford-area youth to start building the delegation.
 
 
Related articles:
Cuban youth leaders well received in Chicago
In Canada, Cubans describe 'University for All'
 
 
 
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