After tighter regulations in 2004 nearly eliminated study abroad programs to Cuba, many higher educators are pushing to have the country reinstated as a destination for American students.
“Cuba has been out of bounds for America and American products, I am not sure there is another place in the Western Hemisphere that is untouched by American consumer capitalism,” said Robin Derby, associate professor of history. “There are a number of pedagogical reasons why it could be very interesting experiencing a place that is not at our beck and call, where America does not implicitly rule.”
For Derby, the region’s importance lies in its extraordinary musical culture and its literary archive. The nation’s history and relations to the U.S. also create a great atmosphere for study, she said.
Even with the national push, there are currently no plans to add Cuba to UCLA’s Education Abroad Program roster, which currently includes such countries as Israel, Ghana, Argentina, Italy and Korea.
To satisfy the increasing student demand to study in Cuba, some UCLA students have been using the Intercampus Visitor Program to attend a quarter at UC Davis, which is currently one of only 10 American universities offering programs in the island nation.
“We had a unique reason (to start the Cuba exchange program)” said Robin Ducatillon, program coordinator at the UC Davis Education Abroad Center. “We had a comparative literature professor who had strong ties to Cuba, his research had involved him researching Cuban literature and working with people in Havana. His connection really developed, and he realized that it was an area of the world that students did not have access to.”
Originally, the program took place over a few weeks in the summer, with comparative literature professor Marc Blanchard working alongside UC Davis music professors and special Cuban lecturers provided by Casa de las Américas, an institution created after the Cuban Revolution to promote and publish the work of artists and authors to encourage “cultural integration and exchanges with institutions and individuals worldwide.”
The program eventually grew to take place over the full spring quarter.
Following Blanchard’s cancer diagnosis and recent death, last year the UC Davis program shifted its focus away from comparative literature to Cuban, African and female identity in Cuba.
This spring’s program will take 20-some UC students to the nation to focus on the Cuban education system, a model that has produced one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
According to Raul Fernandez, social science professor at UC Irvine, and chair of the UC Cuba Academic Initiative, there is a huge demand on almost every UC campus for a Cuban exchange program, yet UC Davis is the only campus that offers students the opportunity to travel to the nation and create important international friendships and contacts.
Through the UC Cuba Academic Initiative, Fernandez represents a growing number of students and faculty who hope to increase activity, study and contact between Cuba and the United States.
“Contacts are very important in order for people to understand each other across governmental and cultural information barriers,” Fernandez said.
According to Derby, UC Cuba Academic Initiative is a consortium of UC faculty and graduate students who are interested in enabling research in and around Cuba and Cuban issues. By sponsoring talks and conferences across campuses and sending select students to Cuba, the initiative attempts to bridge the gap between the UC campuses and education centers in Cuba.
“Every UC campus was doing a lot about Cuba, but it was all independent,” Fernandez said. “(UC Cuba) is a consortium to bring everyone together.”
Over the past four years, UC Cuba has also provided more than 30 graduate students with fellowships and grants allowing them to travel to the country in order to complete their research.