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American-born college students
keep flames of Cuban protest burning
By Madeline Baró
Diaz, Miami Bureau. Posted June 28 2006
in The
Sun-Sentinel.
Candice Balmori has never been to Cuba,
but when the Davie resident is not attending
classes or taking exams, she's working to
bring change to the island.
At Harvard University, where Balmori is
a senior, she and fellow activists once
erected a life-size jail cell and hung a
Cuban flag inside to let the campus know
about the arrests of dozens of dissidents
in Cuba. They have also held candlelight
vigils, screened movies and discussed Cuba
with visiting dignitaries, all in an effort
to bring attention to the island's totalitarian
system.
Balmori is part of the new generation of
Cuban-American activists who are finding
their own way to support Cuba's internal
opposition. By doing so, they are steering
away from the traditional issues of the
older generation, such as the U.S. embargo
of the island.
"I think every college kid has to
have a cause," said Balmori, 21, president
of Harvard's Cuban American Undergraduate
Student Association, or CAUSA. "Everyone
has to take up a banner of some sort."
That banner was handed to them by older
exiles. The young Cuban-Americans, many
born in the United States, grew up hearing
stories from relatives who longed for their
homeland. The youngsters learned to love
Cuba, even if they had never visited it.
"I think most people who had to leave
... I think they all left being very proud
of their country and loving everything about
it," said Joanna González, who
grew up in Miami and was one of the founders
of Raíces de Esperanza, a national
network of young Cuban-American activists.
"I heard about it constantly. I heard
about absolutely everything, the culture
and what happened to the country. You grow
up not being able to be a part of that and
that's how you become passionate about it,"
González said.
But González, 24, a University of
Florida graduate, and others learned that
not everyone shared that passion. When Balmori,
a graduate of Western High School, arrived
at Harvard she realized that not as many
people kept up on the latest developments
in Cuba.
"I came up to Boston and it never
dawned on me that the newspaper wouldn't
have something about Cuba in it every morning,"
Balmori said. "At home it's in the
paper or on television every day."
Encountering fellow students who discussed
Cuba as a vacation paradise or wore T-shirts
of Che Guevara, who fought alongside Fidel
Castro and whom many exiles regard as a
killer, also awoke their activist spirits.
"I would say my parents are Cuban
and they would say, 'Oh, I want to go to
Cuba for spring break.'" recalled Diane
Cabrera, 23, a graduate of Georgetown University.
"I would say, 'My cousin that lives
in Cuba can't go to the same beach that
you can go to.'"
Those encounters strengthened the resolve
of the nascent activists.
At campuses around the country, they are
handing out pamphlets, holding demonstrations
and selling anti-Che Guevara T-shirts.
Their work is encouraged by older exiles.
When Jóvenes por una Cuba Libre,
or Youth for a Free Cuba, a group of University
of Miami students, traveled to Washington,
D.C., for a lobbying trip, U.S. Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen's office helped them meet other
congressional staffers.
"I think they kind of were taken by
the fact that we were younger," Jóvenes
President Daniel Pedreira said of the meetings.
"When you hear about Cuba, it's usually
from the same people, it's older
Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba, welcomes
the infusion of new blood.
"I think it's great to have young
people involved because so often the media
portrays this as a dinosaur cause,"
said Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami.
Cuban American National Foundation Executive
Director Alfredo Mesa, 30, said their involvement
lets young activists in Cuba know that the
task of securing a peaceful transition to
democracy in a post-Castro Cuba "is
up to our generation."
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