Cuban relations under the microscope

Passing up an early start to their weekends, a large crowd of Penn students crowded into Logan Hall last Friday afternoon to hear about Cuban-American relations. Charles Shapiro, the coordinator of the Office of Cuban Affairs at the State Department in Washington, drew nearly 70 faculty members and students from Penn and other nearby schools. The talk was part of last week's Festival Latino, which saw the appearance of many notable speakers, including author Juila Alvarez and comedienne Marga Gomez. "The United States and Cuba have been intimately related since before the United States was a country," Shapiro said. Shapiro stressed the tough economic times facing many Cubans as a result of the country's more than 30 percent economic decline in the years between 1991 and 1994. "People benefitted from the revolution," Shapiro said, explaining that the poorer an individual was, the more advantages Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution brought. Shapiro devoted some of his address to a discussion of Cuban political and social repression. "There's no opposition because the government doesn't allow opposition," Shapiro said. "The Bush administration is very concerned about Cuba and about human rights in Cuba," he added. To change Cuban-American relations, Shapiro felt that students should lobby for what they feel strongly about. "I would urge those people who are interested in Cuba to be as skeptical toward the Cuban government as they are toward me," Shapiro said. He also discussed Fidel Castro's brother and proposed successor Raul Castro and his threat to attempt to form a Cuban democratic government after the reigning Castro dies. "This guy is a force to be reckoned with in political terms," Shapiro said. For the organizers of Shapiro's address, Cuban-American relations were something they wanted to pursue because of their controversial nature. "Cuba was such an evocative issue," said College senior and event organizer Isabel Rioja-Scott, who interned in Shapiro's office last summer. While those who attended enjoyed hearing the viewpoint of a foreign service worker well-acquainted with Cuba, some criticized his remarks. "I find it troublesome that someone who works for the U.S. government is so unquestioning," College senior Alicia Blum-Ross said. Yet Rioja-Scott pointed out that even if Shapiro did disagree with U.S. policy, it is difficult for him to express this viewpoint because his job is to execute American policy toward Cuba. "He's bound by a certain set of restrictions that are U.S. law," Rioja-Scott said. Others criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba itself. "I essentially disagree with the policy that the U.S. is having towards Cuba," Penn alumnus Julio Gonzalez said. "The Clinton administration allowed the kidnapping of a boy because the Cuban-Americans are powerful," he said, referring to the long stay of Elian Gonzalez in the U.S. before he was returned to his father in Cuba. Julio Gonzalez said he thought that Shapiro was "very knowledgeable about American policy and the kind of argument that goes behind it." Some students said they enjoyed Shapiro's honest analysis of the present state of foreign relations. "He tried to engage people in the controversial issues surrounding this topic without being overly preoccupied with being politically correct," College junior and organizer Lourenco Bustani said. "We have so many people with conflicting agendas," Bustani added about the varying opinions that were expressed.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.