PITTSBURGH — Cuban architect Wendy Perez Lora spoke at several events here on a tour initiated by the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister City Partnership March 10-14. She discussed their collaboration on restoration of a museum and creation of a community center called “Triunvirato” in Matanzas, one of the “most sacred places in Cuba for African descendants,” the tour publicity explained. Her talk at the Duquesne University Center for African Studies was titled, “Discover Africa — from experience to form.”
Gerald Boodoo, director of the center, introduced her. Several years ago he led a group of students to Cuba to learn about their health care system.
“Triunvirato” is the name of the sugar mill where the first slave rebellion in Cuba was organized in 1843. The uprising was led by Carlota, a young slave. “Operation Carlota” was the name the Cubans gave their internationalist mission to aid Angola’s fight against apartheid South Africa’s invasions beginning in 1975.
Perez Lora said they seek to involve the whole community in the design and construction. “All people are coming together, including kids and teenagers, to have a more beautiful city,” she said.
She explained that in Cuba they take advantage of what they have, since they all face the effects of Washington’s punishing economic war on their revolution. This includes teaching young people to make paint from natural substances. This way of working is “taking hold with teachers and doctors, all of us,” she said.
Perez Lora also spoke at Carnegie Mellon University. “The students seemed to appreciate Wendy’s visionary work that is preserving respect for Afro-Cuban culture,” Professor William Bates told the Militant.
Perez Lora described her work on projects in Guinea-Conakry and Equatorial Guinea, both countries in western Africa. She described working within the cultures of those countries, for example, building a place for Muslims to pray with a view of the sky.
She also spoke at the Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center at Penn State where she described the role of Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. “They involve the people in looking out for each other, central to what Cuba is today.” At the end of the discussion, Lisa Valanti, vice president of the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister City Partnership, called for a March 21 rally against the U.S. blockade of Cuba.
Perez Lora spoke about the blackouts taking place in Cuba, a result of the U.S. oil blockade. “If you live near a hospital, you have electricity because the hospitals get top priority. But others have three hours with electricity and then six without, some even less.”
In her last couple of days in Pittsburgh, many residents lost electricity from a strong storm, including at an evening reception held for her. “My husband couldn’t believe it when I told him, ‘I’m in a blackout in the United States!’” Perez Lora told those gathered outside by a fire pit. “For me, I’m used to this.”