Benjamin Shors: Cuba visit instructive for students

Not long after landing in Havana last spring, my students and I gathered in a colonial home in one of the city’s wealthier districts. We were about to be lectured on the injustices visited upon the Cuban Five.

At the time, my students – 17 juniors and seniors from Washington State University – knew little of the five Cuban intelligence officers who had been convicted in the United States of conspiracy to commit espionage and murder.

By the end of our 12-day educational trip, my students knew the story all too well. That is not to say their minds were swayed. Cuba, a communist island just 90 miles from Florida, provides one of the greatest classrooms for American students to study news media, strategic communication and propaganda – and to learn firsthand the distinction.

These educational trips have been one of the few legal ways for Americans to travel to Cuba. But they also come with provisos – a steady diet of pro-government propaganda, an avoidance of controversial topics, and glowing tales of the heroics of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

About 100,000 Americans traveled to Cuba last year, a figure that rose substantially after President Obama eased restrictions in 2009. Although a travel ban remains in place, the administration announced further changes this month that could spur more U.S. tourism.

American tourists, who flocked to Cuba prior to the 1959 revolution, will find a country changed by more than a half century of Communist rule. The cigars, the rum, the nightlife – all remain central to trips to Cuba. But outside the bustling tourist center of Old Havana, the country’s crumbling infrastructure and pressing poverty can be shocking; enlightening.

For my students, the trip to one of the most controversial countries in the world was by turns fascinating, confusing and confounding. Students were confronted by a bewildering mix of pro-government propaganda and tearful entreaties from strangers on the street who hoped to travel to the United States.

“We see poverty here in the United States and we feel bad,” said Hunter Britten, one of my students. “Seeing the true poverty of Cuba was one of the most monumental moments in my life.”

As part of our curriculum, all students studied Cuba’s tightly controlled news media. We chatted with journalists from Granma, the official newspaper of the country’s Communist party, and visited the newsrooms of Radio Havana and Juventud Rebelde, a publication geared toward the country’s youth.

My students became savvy skeptics of Cuban media. On the streets, away from the scripted government messaging, students came to their own understanding as they explored Havana.

They visited Havana neighborhoods where aging buildings collapse with disturbing frequency, too often claiming the lives of Cuba’s poor. They interviewed citizens, who survive on an average monthly wage of $20 and rely on government rations of rice, cooking oil and bread; fish and meat are largely reserved for the country’s tourists and elites.

One of my students rose before sunrise to film Havana’s streets (to see student Marc Wai’s video of efforts to preserve Old Havana, go to: http://vimeo.com/103769375). Another studied Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion infused with Catholicism. Others examined the country’s education system, its obsession with baseball, its rich arts culture.

Cuba offers an incredible, controversial history for American tourists. Its 11 million inhabitants – and, yes, its government – have survived despite its tense relationship with the world’s most powerful country.

Under Raul Castro, Cuba has begun “perfecting socialism,” in the parlance of government communications. To the skeptical eye, these steps look like tepid moves toward a freer market. The government, for example, now allows private ownership of restaurants, called paladares. Bed-and-breakfasts have sprung up around Havana. Cubans can now sell their homes and cars, but change has been slow.

The thaw in relations with the U.S. may encourage further growth of Cuba’s private sector. Or, as the critics claim, it may backfire. After a single trip to Cuba, it isn’t my place to speculate. But it is clear to me that such trips are incredibly valuable to students’ development as critical thinkers and informed global citizens.

On the flight back to Miami last May, our plane erupted in cheers when the wheels touched down on U.S. soil. For many of the Cubans on board, it was the culmination of a lifelong fight to make it to U.S. shores. It was a powerful scene to witness – ecstatic Cubans, smiling, hugging and wiping away tears, and here and there in the rows, my students watching, witnesses to it all.