Vol. 72/No. 18      May 5, 2008

Our History Is Still Being Written, published by Pathfinder Press, contains interviews with three Chinese-Cuban generals—Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui, and Moisés Sío Wong—who as teenagers joined in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow Cuban military dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s and are active leaders of the revolution today.

At the invitation of Prof. Mariela Nuñez-James, Waters spoke to 45 students in an applied anthropology class on the book and her own involvement in social and political struggles in the United States, a portion of which is described in another Pathfinder book, Cuba and the Coming American Revolution.

Following the class, she was the featured speaker at an event sponsored by the UNT Division of Equity and Diversity, the Multicultural Center, the Registrar’s Office, and the Departments of Anthropology and Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Ignacio López-Calvo from the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department introduced Waters to the nearly 50 students and faculty present. He spoke about the history of Chinese immigration to Cuba and his research on Chinese culture in Cuba today.

After reading the stories told by Choy, Chui, and Sío Wong, López-Calvo said, he had decided to revise his soon-to-be published book on images of Chinese in Cuba. López-Calvo presented Waters with a certificate of appreciation from the campus Multicultural Center.

Before Waters spoke, an excerpt from the video Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies, Sailors, and Settlers was shown. Produced by documentary filmmaker Loni Ding, whose parents were born in China, it vividly depicts the trade in indentured laborers from China who were brought to work on the sugar plantations in Cuba in the 19th century.

Waters described how Choy, Chui, and Sío Wong “grew up in different parts of Cuba, in different circumstances, and like hundreds of thousands of young people threw themselves into the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

“With the fall of Batista on January 1, 1959, they set out to create a society with greater social equality and justice.

“They carried out a land reform, giving titles to more than 100,000 families. They carried out a literacy drive, mobilizing 100,000 young people to wipe out illiteracy in Cuba in less than a year.

“The revolutionary government made discrimination in hiring and social services based on the color of one’s skin illegal. And they enforced it. They opened the door to employment for women.”

In doing this, Waters said, the revolutionary leadership came into conflict with the economic interests of wealthy Cuban families and U.S. imperialism. Millions of acres of the best land in Cuba as well as the public utilities, railroads, refineries, and much more were owned by U.S. families.

When Washington mobilized to reverse these measures, the Cubans refused to back down. “To this day,” said Waters, “this remains the source of the U.S. government’s unabated hostility toward the Cuban Revolution.”  
 
‘Isn’t Cuba a dictatorship?’
“But how can you defend Cuba?” asked a student from Mexico. “Isn’t it a dictatorship?”

“No, it is not a dictatorship,” Waters answered. “Working people in Cuba exercise greater control over the most fundamental policies that determine their lives than here in ‘democratic’ America. This is expressed not only through elections but through workplace assemblies and many other forms.

“It is mass popular support that has enabled the Cuban Revolution to advance, under the most difficult circumstances, and to stand up to imperialism.”

“I don’t know much about Cuba,” said another student, who thanked Waters for the information she presented. “But I do know that the U.S. government and media lie about wars and spying on people and other questions. So I figure, why wouldn’t they lie about Cuba too?”

Taking up students’ questions about the degradation of the environment and world hunger, Waters explained, “These social conditions are a product of the capitalist system. Devastation of nature goes hand in hand with the devastation of working people.”

Waters contrasted capitalism’s exploitation of land and labor worldwide to Cuba’s revolutionary internationalism. The three generals fought in Angola, along with 300,000 other Cuban volunteers, to help the Angolan people drive out the army of apartheid South Africa.

“Cubans didn’t fight in Angola for oil or diamonds or ivory or wood,” she said. “And when the South African army was finally defeated, the Cubans left and took nothing with them but their dead.”  
 
Does capitalism work?
One student argued that the capitalist system offers the best opportunities for all. “Look at me,” she said. “I’ve had a comfortable life, can go to school, and have a good future.”

She was answered by other students who joined the debate. “I come from a working-class family in Texas,” said one. “What you describe is not true to my life or my family. Millions of us live in poverty, without good housing, adequate nutrition, or medical coverage.”

Another student pointed to Washington’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the destruction of the environment. “We have to get rid of capitalism or there will be no future for humanity,” he said.

Waters concluded by telling the students that Our History Is Still Being Written is a book that shows how ordinary people acted to change history. “It wasn’t published for Cuba,” she said. “Above all, it was published because we need this example here.”  
 
 
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