Twelve John Jay students, joined by one Brooklyn College student, participated in a study abroad course that took them to Cuba for two weeks in July at a time when history was made. While the students were in Cuba, full diplomatic relations were established between that country and the United States, relations that were severed more than 54 years ago. The group was led by Professor Lisandro Pérez, Chair of the College’s Department of Latin American and Latina/o Studies. The students were enrolled in LLS 260, History of Contemporary Cuba, taught by Professor Pérez, which met for classes on the John Jay campus and at the University of Havana.
On Thursday July 16, the students met at what was then the U.S. Interests Section in Havana with Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Mission Chief, and Acting Consul General Daniel King. The two career diplomats briefed the students and answered questions on the historic changes in the relations between the two countries, the challenges of representing the United States in Havana, and the U.S. Foreign Service as a career option. The students were informed that the meeting was the last briefing offered to visitors in the Interests Section. On Monday, July 20th, the day formal diplomatic relations were established, the Interests Section became the Embassy of the United States of America, with Ambassador DeLaurentis as Chargé D’affaires
The students attended classes in the mornings at the University of Havana with Professor Pérez and guest lecturers, all leading Cuban scholars in the fields of history, demographics, economics, race relations, gender studies, and international relations. The afternoons and weekends were filled with field trips to Havana’s restored colonial district and fortifications (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), historical and art museums, the country’s largest cigar factory, Revolutionary Plaza, José Martí’s birthplace, and neighborhoods that reflect Cuba’s ethnic diversity, including a meeting with one of Cuba’s leading Hip-Hop artists, lunch in Chinatown, and a visit to the district of Regla, steeped in Afro-Cuban religious traditions.
There were also excursions outside of Havana. An overnight field trip to south central Cuba included the colonial city of Trinidad (another UNESCO World Heritage Site), the young and vital city of Cienfuegos, and the Bay of Pigs Museum on the site of the ill-fated U.S.-organized 1961 invasion, where the students learned the Cuban perspective on that military conflict. Another trip took the students to western Cuba, the island’s premier tobacco agricultural district, where they learned about the harvesting and processing of the tobacco leaves. They also visited limestone caves once inhabited by aboriginal communities.
In Havana, the John Jay group stayed at Casa Vera, a private residential facility managed by Sra. Aleida and her hospitable staff in the centrally-located neighborhood of Vedado.
The students returned to New York on July 25th and resumed classes the following week at John Jay College with Professor Pérez.