For more than 20 years, Pastors For Peace has traveled from through North America to Cuba with material aid. Crossing two borders into the United States and Mexico, it has continuously circumvented the illegal blockade. Collecting aid along the way, the Cuba Caravan is set to arrive at the Texas border in order to cross into Mexico and finally into Cuba within the coming days.
Last night’s stop in Sacramento proved fruitful not just for the Caravanistas who collected several boxes of much needed medical supplies and books, but also for the audience which gained a deeper understanding of not only the blockade and its effects, but also of the determination of the Cuban people.
Since 1960, Cuba has been unable to trade with its largest neighbor. Because of the black eye given to imperialism by the Cuban Revolution, the representatives of the U.S. bourgeoisie have decided to close the door on Cuba, creating shortages of basic goods. As one caravanista made clear, “This inhumane policy, which from the beginning has been about killing, maiming, and starving the Cuban people, has not gone anywhere. We are still here, the people of Cuba are still there, and there’s still a giant wall between us.”
However, far from dividing the Cuban people, as the imperialists had hoped the blockade would, it has united them against capitalist domination. And the accomplishments of the Revolution have led to the a dramatic rise in living standards for the poor and working class of Cuba since the fall of the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Caravanista Manolo de los Santos, currently a student in Cuba who was born in the Dominican Republic and later moved to New York, told Liberation News that his time in Cuba has been the first that he has had three meals a day. In addition to providing a basic social safety net and decent living standards for all of its citizens, the Cuban medical system is also world renown. With such a reputation, one may think it is reserved for a select few. However, unlike the American medical education system, it is not reserved for those who are wealthy or willing to take on heavy debts. Manolo told the crowd, “We have young people from the ghettos of the South Bronx, Detroit, Chicago, Oakland, who here (in America), they were told they are stupid. That they cannot think. That they aren’t worth anything. That they can’t become doctors. Cuba has received them with open arms and said ‘You are our children too. You will become doctors, you are smart, you are beautiful.’ How can I not stand behind a country that allows us to follow our dreams? The question is will you stand with us?”
