Alondra Aca
Winter study abroad: Havana, Cuba 2020
This past winter I had the opportunity to study abroad in Cuba. The reason why I initially wanted to go to Cuba was because of the many questions I had while undertaking my Latin American and Latinx Studies classes and to further understand U.S. hegemonic interference inLatin American countries. I wanted to understand the flow of Cuban migrants into the U.S both inthe past and present, also the overlooked impacts Cubans who stayed in the island dealt with and lastly to understand nationalism and patriotism on the island and how it influenced art. With these questions in mind, I began to comprehend the true and real effects of policies that the U.S had implemented and the resilience amongst Cubans. Having had first-hand encounters individuals who lived through important moments in Cuban history as well as visiting historical sites allowed me to understand the Cuban revolution from a different perspective, one that I would not have gotten from textbooks.
