Desarrollando Proyecto de Amistad Cuba-NYC: Exchanging Words, Ideas and Resources

[Editor's note: Below is a first-year ESL teacher's reflections on his visit to Cuba. The UFT and our national union, the AFT, has been strongly critical of the Castro regime which rules Cuba. In particular, we have opposed its jailing of its citizens who organize free and independent unions and who exercise their right to free expression, as teachers and journalists, to criticize the anti-democratic practices of the state. By the same token, teacher unions are critical of the U.S. government embargo of Cuba, as it has only inhibited the free exchange of people and ideas which are the enemy of authoritarianism. In the spirit of an open exchange, we publish the following post.]

Inspiration

I ambled down the street in downtown Havana, sweating, enjoying the heat and talking to a friend I made in Santiago de Cuba. The crumbling streets and dilapidated buildings betray a 50 year effort to provide housing for all Cuban citizens. I was on my way to realize my intention of visiting schools and learning about the Cuban education system.

I walked into the school with concern about how I would be received. In Cuba it can be hard for Cubans and tourists to interact. Every Cuban I spoke to in my ten days was concerned about speaking to me and being social with a tourist. As I learned from a new friend, Cuban law prohibits Cubans from leaving the country without express permission from the government. Many say that this is because the government needs the people to be able to carry out its social project. Others say that it is because the government does not want people exposed to the material commodities and other lifestyles in other countries. However, the only places I did not feel that people were on their guard were in schools.

I first visited a primary school on the seventh day of my trip. I stepped into a small school in the Plaza Vieja of downtown Havana. I introduced myself as a teacher from Nueva York (New York) interested in learning more about the Cuban education system. I was immediately welcomed with open arms as a comrade in education. I spoke to one of the assistant principals (AP) in the school who gave me a quick orientation. She told me that they had grades one through six in this school, and said that I could return the next day during the day and get a complete tour.

My return the next day was as rewarding as I had hoped. I arrived to the school and was escorted through the various classes and rooms in the building. The custodian who showed me through the school was on a first name basis with each student. Obviously in a small school, this is not as hard as in some of our large schools in NY, but I was thoroughly impressed by his care and concern for each student. Since there is not a large staff at this school, he explained to me that he plays many roles: janitor; cafeteria aide; food server; after-school guard for children whose parents were running late to pick up their children. This school counted its pupils among approximately 300. It contained a single, small cafeteria and a computer room with almost ten computers. The main office where the principal, two APs, and a secretary worked to run the school was a comfortable, single room where I was asked to sign their visitation book. As I opened the book, the janitor was quick to point out the many tourists that had visited from Europe, the United States, and Canada. Many of these visitors donated things much larger and more significant than the small donation of pencils I carried with me, but the staff at the school warmly expressed their gratitude for my offering.

As I left the school I thought about the story that the custodian told me of an American teacher who made several visits to this school. This teacher had come to Havana several times and during one of his visits, arrived with a small backpack for each child in the school. The excitement with which this story was told to me made it clear that my ongoing interest in Cuba was obliged to deepen. My personal desire to see and experience Cuba had been ten years in the making. Now, my desire to return was just beginning to foment. I realized I wanted to make a connection with a school that would have students similar in age to those I teach. As a junior high school teacher, I found out that the secundarias (secondary schools) of Cuba have students who range from approximately 11 to 15 years old. It was time to connect to a secundaria.

Getting to Alquizar

Before leaving for Cuba, a friend of mine gave me a small bag with some food, medicine, and clothing for his family on the island. My friend has never been to Cuba, and he is half-Cuban, himself. I went down with the bag and delivered it to his uncle. A few days later, my friend’s cousin called me at the home where I was staying because he wanted to come meet me. I was happy to make yet another friend in a place where I now counted three new ones. Reynier, my friend’s cousin happened to have a car and offered to take me to visit his family in the town of Alquizar. Alquizar is located approximately one hour outside the city of Havana in Havana province.

We spent the day entire there. Everyone I met was extremely welcoming. We ate lunch with his mother and spent time with his father’s family (the side related to my friend here in New York). I had explained to Reynier that I was interested in learning more about Cuban education and familiarizing myself particularly with how English is taught in Cuba. Since Cuba is known for its high literacy rate, I was curious to hear how they teach foreign languages as well. Reynier offered to take me by the local secundaria in order to meet the English teacher.

We drove over and parked nearby. As we walked through the dusty lot where some fruit vendors stood, Reynier explained that it might be difficult for me to connect myself to this school as a tourist because of concerns Cubans have about associating with tourists. I maintained confidence and faith that my efforts would not be in vain. I managed to get a tour without directly asking for one at the primaria (primary school) in downtown Havana, and so I had reason to believe something good would come of this visit.

When we approached the gate, I was not sure if I should enter or wait for Reynier to signal me in, but we passed through together and kept walking. We walked up to a secretary who helped point us in the right direction. We met Kety, the lead English teacher, she offered us a seat at a table in the hallway to chat for a brief moment. I dove into the introduction I had previously used in Havana and added a small comment: “Quisiera realizar algun proyecto como intercambio de cartas por envio” (I would like to create a small project like a pen pal program). The welcoming smile Kety had offered upon chatting, morphed into an ear-to-ear grin at the prospect. She immediately ushered me into the classroom where a group of students were just beginning their English lesson for the day and introduced me and my proposal. I spoke to the students for a few minutes, showed them some pictures of New York that I had with me, and explained that my students were the same age as them and would enjoy having contact with students such as themselves. The teacher then asked students for their thoughts and reactions to this new project. The students, shy at first, showed enthusiasm for the proposed idea and were eager to participate.

It was then that it occurred to me that this could grow to be much bigger than a simple pen pal exchange. I said to the students that as we begin writing and getting to know one another, they should think about certain school supplies they might need. I suggested they think about things like notebooks, textbooks, pencils that they might lack and ask my students for them in the letters. With this plan, my own students could organize a drive for school supplies for the students of Alquizar. The whole class agreed this would be a fantastic idea and wanted to know if they could ask for music in English to help practice further. They seemed highly motivated to learn English through this exchange, and I have heard they still are through my email contact with Reynier.

Back in New York: Writing the Letters

When I returned to work a few days later, over 1500 estranged and longing miles, I spent my first day back talking to one of my classes about my trip. I was thrilled in fact, that my students’ first words after break were “Hi, Mister! How was Cuba?!” Considering the faulty memory many of them have for simple school rules and homework assignments, I was very happy they remembered that I had told them about my trip.

I dedicated a portion of the period to discussing my trip, answering some of their questions, and explaining that there was a new project we were going to work on with some students down in Cuba. The next few weeks were dedicated to NYSESLAT preparation, and so it was not until early May that I was able to begin telling them the details of my trip and the pen pal program. However, when I created my lesson on Cuba and presented a short slide show of my photos, their interested spiked right back up and they were eager to participate in the project. We created an outline for the letter by discussing what information is exchanged when you first meet someone. We came up with a long list and typed it up into an outline. We used this outline to write the letter.

I explained to them that there would be a multi-week delay in getting the letters to Cuba, and that they would probably not receive response before the end of the year. Even though these students are eighth graders on the cusp of graduating, they still expressed interest in participating in this program and maintaining contact with me to make sure it continues. At the end of this year, I will be giving these students my email address to ensure that they have the ability to continue writing their pen pals.

After presenting the program to other classes and the school’s Council for Unity chapter, I sent forty-seven letters to Cuba on Friday, May 15. I now wait to hear of their arrival. Having been told mixed stories about screening of mail going to Cuba, I made copies of each letter and hold onto those in case the letters do not arrive. When I shared the idea of running a drive with my students, they quickly shouted various things they wanted to donate. I am excited to continue this program and hope to return to Alquizar next year with a collection of school supplies that my students will have collected.

Tagged: ESL

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