Lipscomb alumna saw history made during study abroad in Cuba
Janel Shoun-Smith |
When Hannah Garcia (’15) began contemplating a study abroad opportunity to enhance her Spanish and education majors at Lipscomb University, it wasn’t hard to decide which Spanish-speaking country to choose.
Her father, who passed away when she was young, was a native of Cuba who immigrated to America in the 1960s with his parents.
So despite the chilly nature of Cuban/U.S. relations, Garcia began pursuing academic opportunities in Cuba, but she couldn’t have known that her semester abroad would fall right in line with an unprecedented and history-making thaw in the long-held rivalry.
Garcia spent her final senior semester at the University of Havana, from January to May 2015, exactly the time period that U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro were engaged in talks to normalize relations between the two nations.
She and six other American women attended a class on U.S./Cuban relations designed just for them by the university. “The Cuban perspective is very different from what Americans perceive. They are very anti-imperialist,” she said.
But the American students also attended several classes with Cuban students and had plenty of opportunities to discuss politics with her classmates.
“They were really excited about it,” she said of her classmates’ attitudes toward normalizing relations with the U.S. “They said that the negativity needed to go away because it is tearing families apart (as many had family members in the U.S.). It needs to fade into history.”
Garcia said she spoke to a few older Cubans who worried that becoming more friendly with the U.S. would allow American culture to erode the Cuban culture and character, but “all the young people I talked to really wanted to just get the embargo over with.”
In Havana, the hot spot for young people, Garcia said, is the Malecón, a broad esplanade and seawall which stretches five miles along the coast. With few cell phones available, young people must socialize face-to-face, so they go hang out by the wall at night when it is cooler, Garcia said.
U.S./Cuban relations was definitely a topic of conversation along the wall, she said. Garcia, whose father was Cuban and whose mother is from Chile, said she agrees with the young Cubans who want the embargo to fade into the past. “History is history. It happened, we can’t change it. We should just move on,” she said.
While in Cuba, Garcia said she didn’t tell everyone she was American, letting them think she was European, as most Cuban tourists are, for safety reasons. But once a local found out her nationality, they were usually very welcoming and polite, she said.
She also had to watch her spending, being on the tight budget of a student. This was often difficult as almost all Havana merchants have one price they charge local Cubans and a much higher price they charge American and European visitors. Garcia said her Cuban friends would sometimes barter for her so she could get the lower Cuban price on goods.
Garcia, who now teaches Spanish at Mount Juliet High school outside of Nashville, spent a portion of her trip hunting for relatives or friends of her father. It took almost the whole trip, but she eventually located her father’s best friend and his cousins.
“It was very emotional. It was amazing to get a piece of my father and to see my father through his best friend’s eyes,” she said. “Seeing my family and meeting them as people, not just as images in my imagination, was an amazing experience.”
Garcia hopes the thawed relations will improve communication avenues between the two countries and make it more economical to contact her new-found friends and family in Cuba.
Besides her semester in Cuba, Garcia also visited Chile with her family, participated in a College of Education mission trip to Peru and went to Guatemala on a mission trip with her home church congregation.