Catlin Gabel students anticipate cultural exchange during Cuba trip

By Ray Pitz

The Beaverton Valley Times, Mar 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

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One of the things Catlin Gabel School students hope to accomplish during an almost two-week trip to Cuba is connecting with the people and trying to get an unvarnished look of what life is like in one of the few insular Communist countries left in the world.

What they aren’t trying to do is make a political statement of any sort when they leave for the Caribbean island on Sunday.

“Really, the purpose is not political,” said Roberto Villa the Catlin Gabel Spanish teacher who will lead the trip. “It’s educational and humanitarian.”

Villa said the trip is a rare opportunity for 25 of the school’s upper level Spanish language students to get a close-up look at the country, a place that is experiencing a transition of sorts after Raul Castro was recently named president.

Many of the students going on the trip say they are looking forward to meeting the people of the country and getting a glimpse into their culture.

“We have to remember Cuba is not synonymous with Fidel (Castro),” said Victoria Trump-Redd, a Catlin Gabel junior.

With the main purpose of the trip being humanitarian, students and their chaperones will be carrying medical supplies as well as school and athletic supplies.

Villa, whose group was invited to the country by the Cuban Ministry of Education, said the other goal is to make a one-to-one connection with the people of Cuba. That invitation will allow students to visit schools, clinics and hospitals outside what other visitors would normally see.

“That’s why we’re going,” said Villa. “We’re not going as an act of defiance against our government.”

The students say they want to see for themselves what effect the U.S. embargo has had on the Cuban people.

“I’m looking forward to judging for myself to see if the trade embargo is a good thing or a bad thing,” said junior Miranda Johnson.

Trump-Redd said she thinks it will be the little things they bring – the baseballs, the soccer balls and Frisbees – that will go a long way to help bridge the gap between the two cultures.

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