TORIA BODDEN
FEATURES EDITOR
In late October, three faculty members from CSUSM had a unique opportunity to visit Cuba and pursue academic research with the help of Cuban educators.
The trip was organized by Sheryl Lutjens, director of the Women’s Studies program, who has academic ties to Cuba going back over 30 years. She made her first journey to Cuba in 1979 – a two-week trip to study Cuban health programs. Since then, she has organized 14 trips to Cuba, the largest for a group of over 50 participants. The last three have been organized specifically as research trips, since conferences are not allowed by US regulations banning travel to Cuba. The trip in October was entitled “Busquedas Investigativas: Exploring Cuban Educational Practices.”
In this case, Lutjens gathered 17 educators from around the US. Each submitted an in-depth research plan, as well as their curriculum vitae, in order to be approved for a travel visa to Cuba. While the trip focused on education, each participant had his or her own more specific area of interest. Dawn Formo, the associate dean of instruction and academic programs for the College of Arts and Sciences, went to study literacy in Cuba. “Literacy rate in Cuba is amazing – nearly 100%. I went knowing what their literacy rate [was] and within a year of the revolution, they had eradicated illiteracy. We had an opportunity to visit several kinds of campuses… to see what’s happening in the pre-schools up to the universities, so I was just very interested in what they are doing, because this is amazing. I mean, how many countries can say this?”
Jodie Lawston, an assistant professor in sociology, was focused on a completely different topic, studying the effect of education on incarceration rates. “As you see, every year, there’s a ‘get tough on crime’ emphasis and less funding [for] education in the US,” she said. “[I wondered] what criminal justice would look like in a society with high funding for education, whether they focus on rehabilitations versus punishment.”
The group spent roughly a week in Cuba, visiting Havana and various locations in the Villa Clara Province and touring various sites covering everything from pre-school education to Afrocuban studies to a special school for blind and deaf children. Certain days were dedicated specifically to working with Cuban educational partners on their research topics.
According to the trip participants, some of the most interesting cultural exchanges happened outside the educational setting. “I didn’t know what to expect, but the people we met were the most gracious I’ve met. Kind, and generous…in every way,” Formo said. “I mean, to experience a culture that has made it clear in so many ways that there are two main priorities, healthcare and education. To feel what it is to walk the streets in a culture where those are the two priorities, and with limited resources, you can’t do everything. You make sacrifices… People are not starving, but there wasn’t a lot. I mean, nobody wastes. They know how to make thoughtful, careful use of their resources. That was kind of ‘wow.’”
Lawston also feels that her viewpoint has been heavily influenced by the experience. “Since I’ve gotten back, I’ll tell you that not a day that goes by that I haven’t thought about Cuba. One of those most influential trips that I’ve had,” she said. “I didn’t expect that to happen.” She was also surprised by something unexpectedly missing in Cuba. “I keep telling all my students this, there were no advertisements… There weren’t scantily clad women in everything. All billboards were political or educational. It really brought it into light when we landed in Cancun, and the first billboard I saw was [for] Hooters.”
Lutjens said she is already planning another trip – her fifteenth, based on interest from colleagues who couldn’t make it this time. “We may make the gathering a biannual event, rather than an annual one,” she said. “Many people who went this year or in past years are interested in returning to continue their research.” She does state that undergraduate students cannot attend, though it may be possible for graduate students if they get special permission from the US government.
That may not always be the case, though. “I also went to begin conversations about establishing faculty and student exchanges,” Dean Formo said, “so that Cal State faculty and students, if interested, could study in Cuba.”