Carcaño, who is also a member of the national leadership of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), was on a panel with three other FMC leaders: Maritzel González, Tamara Columbié, and Ana Milagros Martínez. The four were in New York as part of the Cuban delegation to the annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The public meeting, sponsored by a number of local organizations, took place at the Martin Luther King Auditorium of the health-care workers union, Service Employees International Union Local 1199. It was chaired by Frank Velgara and Arrin Hawkins, members of the coalition that organized the event.

Following introductory remarks by Carcaño and Columbié about the work of the FMC, there was a lively exchange of questions and answers. Responding to a question about the FMC’s participation in what is known in Cuba as the Battle of Ideas, González gave an example of their efforts. “We are working with young people who for one or another reason have dropped out of school and are not working. FMC members go to neighborhoods and meet one-on-one with these young people. We want to give them an opportunity to continue their studies.”

The Battle of Ideas is a political offensive by the Cuban leadership aimed at deepening the involvement of working people and youth in the revolution, central to which is broadening the educational and cultural opportunities available to the Cuban people today.

The speakers also addressed questions about Cuba’s record of internationalist solidarity. “In Angola, Cubans offered our military cooperation and shed our blood,” said Columbié, who herself was one of the 300,000 Cuban volunteers who went to Angola to help defeat the U.S.-backed invasions of that country by South African troops of the apartheid regime between 1975 and 1991. “The FMC had the privilege of working with Angolan women, and we did so until the moment came when they told us, ‘Thank you, we can take it from here on our own.’”

González said that while the U.S. government rejected Cuba’s offer to send some 1,600 doctors to the U.S. Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, many of these volunteers have since lent their services in other countries, including Pakistan in wake of the deadly October 2005 earthquake. “They’re working under very harsh conditions, visiting people’s homes in remote areas that sometimes take hours to get to. They always act in a respectful manner toward the culture and traditions of the people. Cuban women doctors are there too, and we are proud of their work.”  
 
 
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