BY MEGAN ARNEY
Around the country young people are preparing to visit Cuba on the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange July 24 - August 6. The trip is being organized by the National Network on Cuba (NNOC). As of May 15, some 45 applications had arrived at the Cuba Information Project, which is coordinating the travel arrangements. Leslie Cagan of the Cuba Information Project said, "There is a lot of interest right now - we're very optimistic. We expect 200 people will be going."
Participants will travel to Cuba for two weeks, visiting the provinces of Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba and staying with Cuban families. The deadline for submitting the applications is June 1. The following are reports from different cities where young people have begun to organize fund-raising, travel, and outreach for the Youth Exchange.
A plant shutdown this summer coincides with the trip to Cuba, but Ivie, a member of United Auto Workers Local 882, will also be working to "get my union officials involved in helping me get the two additional days I need."
Ivie and another supporter of the Cuban revolution from Athens, Georgia, have teamed up to raise funds for the trip. They are planning to play their instruments - guitar and violin -
wherever the can to pay for the trip. A student from Spelman College in Atlanta is also considering going on the Youth Exchange.
Youth going on the exchange are discussing a variety of fund- raising ideas, such as marching as a U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange contingent in a gay pride parade and hosting a video showing of the film Gay Cuba. Two activists are putting together a fund- raising dance. A New Hampshire fund-raising event is being built for June 27.
In addition, the July 26 Coalition, a Cuba solidarity organization here, sent out a 750-piece mailing that included the Youth Exchange flyer. Another local organizing meeting will be held May 22.
There are several outreach and fund-raising efforts for the Youth Exchange under way, including a raffle, a rummage sale, and a send-off of the Minnesota contingent in July. Twenty-two young people in Minnesota have applied to participate in the trip to Cuba so far. Amy Vruno, a University of Minnesota student, explained why she's going. "I just want to see Cuba firsthand without the filters of the news media, or other people's filters," she said.
"I want the opportunity to speak with workers, farmers, teachers, and students to see if they enjoy the way the system works," said Jennifer Molina, an 18-year-old member of La Raza Student Cultural Center at the University of Minnesota.
Collado also spoke on a Haitian radio station, Pep-La. A presentation was also made to the Alliance of Cuban Workers in the Community (ATC). The Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba is organizing a fund-raising picnic and an expanded coalition meeting to get more support and more youth to go on the trip.
The meeting discussed what is happening in Cuba today and raised questions from how to get a passport to whether participants should tell anyone that they are going to Cuba since Washington restricts travel there. Lorena Gaibor, a national coordinator for the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange, replied, "You should tell everyone you're going. It is your constitutional right to travel to any country that you want to." They also discussed lining up editorial assignments with local and campus papers to write about their experience and get the truth out about Cuba.
The Youth Exchange Committee-New Jersey decided to open a checking account and establish a financial committee. Ideas for fund-raising included a May 16 party for Seniors Week at Rutgers University, a raffle, a public meeting and party with a live band at a local restaurant, and reaching out to activists, professors, and others to donate to a collective fund for the group to get to Cuba this summer.
Arlene Rubenstein in Atlanta, Ryan Kelly in Boston, Jon
Hillson in Minneapolis, and Ernie Mailhot in Miami contributed to
this article.
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