Manolo De Los Santos, 21, was 16 when he first went to Cuba with the Pastors for Peace Caravan. On this his fifth trip, he is now a project coordinator. Fluent in Spanish, De Los Santos says that as a young person growing up in New York City, he was always concerned about U.S. foreign policy.
“The more you learn about Cuba, the more you get excited about everything they are doing, like the right to education and health care and the way they defend their basic human rights,” he says. “And being that we are still fighting for those things here in the U.S., Cuba is offering an inspiration.”
De Los Santos and four others, including two Canadians, one German and a Philippino, are traveling in one of 14 buses that will meet up in Texas before crossing into Mexico on their way to taking supplies to the island south of Florida.
Unlike U.S. Citizens, Canadians Can Travel Legally to Cuba
“This year the caravan is dedicated to the children of Cuba, so there’s a lot of sports equipment, computers, bicycles, medicines, books, those kind of things,” explains Sarah Alwell of Vancouver, Canada.
This is Alwell's first time on the caravan, but her fourth trip to Cuba. Alwell explains that since Canada does not have a travel ban like the U.S., Canadians can travel to Cuba easily.
“So it’s really important for us to be able to come and be a part of this caravan and join with people in the United States who are fighting against the blockade,” says Alwell.
Wednesday they stopped at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice in this, the 21st year of the caravan.
Recruiting Medical Students and Finding Love on the Pastors for Peace Caravan
Albuquerque resident Arnold Trujillo went on the 15th caravan to Cuba in 2005 and produced the 30-minute video he presented at the peace center. On that trip Trujillo met Kathryn Hall, a woman who ran a nonprofit clinic for women in Sacramento, CA, and was involved with the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM in Spanish) in Havana.
“I first heard about the school when Fidel made the offer in New York City in the year 2000,” Trujillo says. “I was there in the audience and I could not believe that he offered 500 scholarships to his worst enemy, the United States of America.”
Trujillo started recruiting students from New Mexico. Three of his recruits graduated with no student loan debts and will soon fulfill their commitment by serving in medically under-served areas in New Mexico.
Trujillo and Hall also went on the 16th caravan, but this time they returned as husband and wife. Married in Cuba, they continue to work with the medical school.
“It’s a hard sell because of the negative publicity that Cuba has and the negative view that people in this country have about Cuba,” Trujillo says of his recruitment efforts. “But the reason Pastors for Peace goes to Cuba and takes the caravan is to give Americans the opportunity to see Cuba for themselves. Everyone who goes comes back amazed and they also realize that they’ve been lied to.”
Gloria Williams - Freelance journalist and activist Gloria Williams is convinced that using alternative media and the Internet are the best ways to meet the ...
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