Among those in attendance were members of the diplomatic staffs of several Latin American countries, activists in the fight to get the U.S. Navy off the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Congressional staff members, leaders of Cuba solidarity committees in the area, and many individuals who had worked to make the speaking engagements a success in numerous cities.

The reception was held at the Cuban Interests Section. Introducing Dreke and Morales, Cuban ambassador Dagoberto Rodríguez noted that not since the 1959 revolution has any Cuban leader of Dreke’s stature had the opportunity to speak so widely in the United States. The tour showed the increasing possibilities to speak to people in this country about the Cuban Revolution, he remarked, underscoring the special interest in Cuba and its internationalism in Africa. The two Cubans spoke on university campuses in seven states and the District of Columbia, where their tour began.

Dreke, who spoke on "Cuba and Africa: From 1959 to Today," has been a leading cadre of the Cuban Revolution for five decades. He fought in the revolutionary war that overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. In the early 1960s he was a commander of the Cuban forces that crushed the CIA-backed counterrevolutionary bands that operated in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba. He was second in command under Ernesto Che Guevara of the unit of Cuban volunteer combatants that fought in the Congo alongside anti-imperialist forces there. He led Cuban volunteers in Guinea-Bissau during the independence struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Today he remains involved in Cuba’s solidarity work in Africa.

Ana Morales, a doctor who has led Cuban medical missions in Africa, shared the platform with Dreke during the tour.

Many of those who organized speaking engagements for Dreke and Morales in the Washington area attended the reception. Among them were Philip Brenner, a professor at American University; Leo Bowman, a teacher at Banneker High School; Tom Headley, an Amtrak engineer; Shawntel Hebert, a student leader at Howard University; Ken Morgan, a graduate student at Morgan State University; and Banbose Shango of the D.C.-Havana Sister City Project.

Also in attendance were Leslie Salgado and Frank Pratka, leaders of the Maryland Cuba Coalition, who organized a car caravan to come down from nearby Baltimore. Flavio Cumpiano, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, thanked Dreke for Cuba’s "consistent support" to the Puerto Rican struggle.

In the Washington area, the Cuban speakers addressed audiences at the College of Notre Dame, University of Maryland Baltimore County, American University, and Howard University. They also spoke to classes at Benjamin Banneker High School and met with a group of railroad workers.

In Georgia they spoke at Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College, and at a citywide meeting at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. They attended a luncheon with Black civil rights leaders hosted by Georgia legislator Tyronne Brooks, visited the lynching photography exhibit, and spent a day in Valdosta, Georgia, where they were hosted by local Black farmers and addressed a meeting of the People’s Tribunal.

In Alabama Dreke and Morales spoke at the University of Alabama campuses in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa and at Miles College. They also toured the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, where they were hosted by president emeritus Odessa Woolfolk and many civil rights leaders. They visited the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Epes.

In New York City they were introduced by Professor Manning Marable to speak to a conference at Columbia University entitled, "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Case for Black Reparations." The conference was sponsored by the university’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies and The Schom–burg Center for Research in Black Culture. Noted civil rights attorney Lennox Hinds hosted a reception for them in Harlem.

They also spoke at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

The highlight of the reception was Dreke’s enthusiastic, impromptu remarks about the meetings they had addressed in Tampa and Miami, Florida, just a few days earlier. His comments were marked by an appreciation of what had been accomplished, with fitting humor and a celebratory note.

For several days before the meetings, opponents of the Cuban Revolution attempted to get them called off. Failing to accomplish that, they attended the meetings in each city attempting to prevent a civil discussion from taking place.

Dreke gave a special thanks to the broad coalition of faculty and students that made successful meetings possible at the University of South Florida in Tampa and at Florida International University in Miami, noting that they showed that even in Miami "Cuba’s voice" can be heard.

He expressed his appreciation for the seriousness of the discussions on the tour, and even the "difficult" questions some asked.

"Sometimes people thought we were angry at them. Sometimes they were angry at us because they didn’t like the answer we gave. But we told everyone we are here to answer any question and they should not be afraid to ask anything," Dreke said.

Altogether, well over 3,000 people heard the Cuban revolutionaries speak, bringing their own firsthand experiences from Cuba and Africa to interested young people in the United States who rarely have the opportunity for such an exchange.  
 
 
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