|
Visit to Cuba revealing
for retired HCC prof
By Sandra E. Constantine,
sconstantine@repub.com. The
Republican, Massachusetts, December
01, 2004.
SOUTH HADLEY - Retired botany professor
Walter J. Mozgala did not have definite
opinions about U.S. relations with Cuba
until he returned from an October trip to
the Caribbean island nation with Witness
for Peace.
Now he is sure our country should drop
its trade embargo with Cuba as well as its
prohibition of Americans going there as
tourists.
"The American trade embargo hurts
the ordinary Cuban people. It does not hurt
the people the American government would
like it to hurt," Mozgala, 61, said
during a recent interview at his home. "There
is a saying, 'Castro hasn't missed a meal
because of the embargo.'"
Mozgala said he decided to go to Cuba partly
because it is illegal for Americans to go
there as tourists.
"It seemed like an exciting place,"
Mozgala said.
The government permits U.S. citizens to
travel there with Witness for Peace, because
it is a humanitarian organization.
Mozgala said the group encourages people
who visit Cuba to work for change if they
feel it is warranted. He is considering
giving a talk about his trip at Holyoke
Community College, from which he retired
last year.
"The people aren't oppressed. They
have a good spirit," Mozgala said.
He described the island as a socialist
country with Fidel Castro as its dictator.
The retired professor said as far as he
could tell, people seem happy with their
government.
"Usually, when there is one person
in power it is not a good idea to speak
against the government," Mozgala said.
Although Cubans do not have a very high
standard of living, there is no homelessness
or hunger, he said. The government subsidizes
food purchases and provides free universal
health care. Because of the embargo, he
said the country does not have access to
recently patented drugs. People are also
very educated even though they have only
a Third World economy, according to Mozgala.
Many people get around by foot or bicycle
and most of the vehicles in the country
are old American models up to 1959, when
the revolution took place.
"It's like going back to the teenage
years," Mozgala said.
Because taxi drivers sometimes get paid
in dollars, while doctors are paid in pesos,
the drivers make more money than physicians,
he said.
Although the doctors make only $30 to $40
a month, that does not seem to bother a
doctor his group met during a tour of her
clinic, Mozgala said.
Ironically, Mozgala was in the U.S. Air
Force during the Cuban missile crisis in
1962. Mozgala slept with his boots on at
Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland while
a nuclear war was feared because Cuba had
nuclear missiles supplied by the Soviet
Union.
While in Cuba, Mozgala visited a museum
dedicated to that country's revolution that
had the engine of a U-2 reconnaissance plane
shot down over Cuba the day after the missile
crisis was settled and there were supposed
to be no more U.S. flights over the island.
Mozgala said it took 18 years for the government
to admit the plane was American after the
pilot's family had pressured it to acknowledge
that fact so the Cuban government would
give the relatives the man's body.
©2004
MassLive.com. All Rights Reserved.
|
