BY MAGGIE TROWE AND RAY PARSONS
DES MOINES - Cuban youth leaders Luis Ernesto Morejón and
Itamys García Villar spoke to packinghouse workers, farmers,
and some 200 students during their visit to Iowa April 11-13.
The visit was part of a U.S. tour organized by the Committee on Cuban Youth and Education based in Los Angeles. Morejón, 23, is a professor and general secretary of the Foreign Language School of the Enrique José Varona Teacher Training Institute. García, 27, is a doctor of veterinary medicine. The two are members of the Union of Young Communists.
When Morejón and García arrived at the Des Moines airport they were greeted by members of the Iowa Committee on Cuban Youth and Education, which organized the visit. Keys to the city offered by Mayor Preston Daniels were presented to the Cuban youth by Professor Mack Shelley. Three television stations covered their arrival.
Morejón, García, and tour supporters then headed for the countryside northeast of Des Moines to visit the hog farm of Larry Ginter and his mother Alice, who hosted a reception for the Cuban youth.
Ginter invited two rural workers, former farmers from nearby State Center, to join the group that also included students and several packinghouse workers.
Morejón and García gave short presentations on farmers and farming in Cuba. "Sixty percent of the land in Cuba is in the hands of farmers," Morejón said. "Before the revolution most was in the hands of the wealthy. The United Fruit Company owned much of the fertile land. When that land was taken by the revolution, it was put in the hands of the peasants.
"Even before the revolution triumphed in 1959 they had the first peasant conference in free territory in the Sierra Maestra Mountains," Morejón said, where the July 26 Movement and Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro had initiated agrarian reform. He added that the National Association of Small Farmers will be holding a 40th anniversary convention in May this year, which farmers from around the world will be invited to observe.
García pointed to how Cubans are turning around the crisis they faced as a result of the U.S.-imposed embargo and the end of aid and preferential trade from the Soviet Union and the east European countries. "One of the big problems in the early 1990s," she said, "was that the seed bank was depleted because food was so scarce. Now we are building it back up." She added that Cuban researchers have developed a mixture of high-quality grass and legumes to replace previously imported animal feed.
Larry Ginter spoke out against the U.S. embargo against Cuba. "Some of us would like to trade our farm products for your medical products," he said, referring to the high quality, inexpensive medicines produced in Cuba.
Ginter described the crisis working farmers like himself face in the United States. "Our goal is land reform to maintain the farmer on the land. Right now, because of low prices, farmers are being driven off the land. We are kind of losing the battle right now, but as things develop we think we can make gains," he said. "We need cross-border alliances and to understand we have a common fight. It's the power struggle between the poor people-the workers and farmers-against the rich. That's what it's really about."
Discussion with packinghouse workers
After the farm visit the Cuban youth went to another
reception at the home of Ramona Chávez in nearby
Marshalltown. Chávez is a packinghouse worker at the Swift
cut-and-kill pork plant in Marshalltown She is a member of
the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1149, and
a leader of the Ad Hoc Committee for Human Rights, which
organized two recent protests against attacks on immigrants.
Nine UFCW members attended the reception, along with several young people who are active in the immigrant rights committee and students and a professor from Iowa State University (ISU) in Ames. A lively discussion took place with the Cuban youth, with time out for a meal of posole, a traditional Mexican pork and corn soup.
Chávez welcomed the youth and described the problems immigrant workers in Marshalltown and other U.S. cities face. She reported that city officials recently announced plans to deputize local police with certain powers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In response, a number of Swift workers and others formed the Ad Hoc Committee to mobilize attendance at a City Council hearing in March. "We had the idea that we had to do something," she said. "We filled and overflowed the hall as the meeting proceeded. So the mayor and the chief of police announced that they wouldn't be making any changes [in the police powers] after all because they didn't have enough money." Buoyed by this victory, the workers went on to organize a protest at the town square where the Marshall County Courthouse is located.
Chávez also described the day-to-day struggles of workers in the packing plant and the resistance they are putting up to increasing line speed, problems getting released to go the bathroom, and other challenges. "I think what is happening in the plant is part of the changing consciousness going on in the masses of working people," she said.
Another worker, describing an example of racism against Mexican-born workers in Marshalltown, said that many local doctors refuse to take Mexican families as new patients. "When I moved here I asked for a doctor. It took me two years to get one."
Morejón told the workers, "The more we learn about the situation in the United States, the more we understand the Cuban revolution and the importance of it." He pointed to Cuba's response to the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in Central America last year. Thousands of Cuban volunteers were sent to provide medical and other assistance.
Morejón explained, "the U.S. is a country where the standard of living is superior to the countries of Latin America...so you have immigration to this country of workers looking for a better life. They don't have a right to make these immigration laws that attack the people."
On April 12 García and Morejón spoke at a public meeting at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. The meeting was sponsored by Latin American Studies Concentration, the Grinnell Socialists, and the Political Science department. More than 85 people, most of them Grinnell College students, attended the event.
Morejón gave a brief presentation on the history of the Cuban struggle against colonial oppression. "The struggle of youth lead by Fidel Castro opened a new chapter of struggle for independence and social justice," he said. The hallmarks of the Cuban revolution, he said, "are our anti-imperialism and our internationalism."
Need to think of collective advancement
García detailed the achievements of the revolution in
health care, education, and in the equality of women, and
described the impact of what Cubans call the Special Period
in the 1990s, when Cuba lost 85 percent of its foreign trade
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She stressed,
"Since 1959 there has been no torture; no peasant has been
robbed of their land. We are a free and democratic republic
where the most important thing is the dignity of human
beings."
After the presentations, one student asked if the Cuban youths' college studies are dictated by the government. Morejón responded, saying, "The revolution seeks to influence the education of youth, aware of Cuba's status as a Third World country. We influence youth to show the importance of studying health care and education. There is a difference between influence and coercion."
When asked about the emigration of Cubans to the United States, García explained, "Cuba is not really a paradise. It is an underdeveloped country that decided to build socialism. There are material needs and lackings. Not everyone is willing to put up with these needs to make the revolution. If you do not think of `us' and collective advancement, it is very hard to live in Cuba."
The meeting received prominent coverage in the Grinnell College Scarlet & Black newspaper. The article quoted student sponsors of the event on their impressions of the presentations.
Elizabeth Fry, a member of the Grinnell Socialists, said, "I think it was really ideal for the campus. In the U.S. there is a lot of ignorance about Cuba. I think it's really important to not just listen to our country's media."
On April 13 Morejón and García participated in meetings at ISU in Ames. García spoke with professors and students at a mid-day reception hosted by Professor David Acker and sponsored by the College of Agriculture and International Agriculture Programs. An exchange took place about farming in Cuba and the United States. García described her work in Cuba producing animal vaccines.
That evening 100 people turned out for a public meeting on the ISU campus. Two carloads of workers and youth who had met the Cuban youth two days before drove 40 miles from Marshalltown to Ames, to hear Morejón and García again. Others from as far away as Kansas City and Austin, Minnesota, participated in the event.
The meeting was opened by Professor Wayne Osborn, who read greetings from Mayor Daniels of Des Moines. A lively discussion unfolded after the presentations.
Morejón replied to a question about Cuba's 11th-inning loss at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. "There were factors [that led to Cuba's defeat], but I can't justify it," he said.
"We have confidence in our players not only because of their qualities but because of their values. They have refused offers to play for money.... Don't miss the [rematch] May 3!"
Another person asked about Cuba's role "exporting revolution" throughout Latin America in the 1960s. Morejón responded, "We should make a clarification. Revolutions are not exported. We did not import our revolution. That's why when the Soviet Union fell we were able to continue."
He added, "We have not exported revolution but we have always had solidarity with just causes in the world. And the Cuban revolution was not just important in the 1960s, but in the '70s, '80 s, and '90 s. The doctors in the most isolated areas devastated by Hurricane Mitch are Cuban doctors. The university that thousands of Latin American doctors have graduated from is Havana University."
Nicholas D'Amico, an ISU student and member of the Iowa Committee on Cuban Youth and Education said, "I wanted to learn from a personal angle what the impact of the U.S. embargo on Cuba has been, and I got that. The tour and meeting at ISU went better than we expected."
Morejón and García met with Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsack and Lt. Governor Sally Pederson during their visit. During this meeting Morejón noted that U.S. government policies toward Cuba do not reflect the warm response the two youth leaders received while on tour. The April 14 Des Moines Register had front page coverage of the tour.
The Iowa Committee on Cuban Youth and Education will meet April 21 to plan ongoing activities in solidarity with Cuba.
Ray Parsons is a member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 310. Maggie Trowe is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1149.