Juliet Munoz left for Cuba on Friday, along with 26 other students and faculty from DePaul University, hoping to learn during the next three weeks about life and culture on the island nation under the regime of Fidel Castro.
“I hope with this trip to unlock the genuine spirit of the people and to try and observe what their culture and their land means to them,” said Munoz, whose father fled Castro’s Cuba in the late 1960s.
But the opportunity for Munoz–and thousands of other college students–to experience Cuban culture firsthand is now in question as the Bush administration clamps down on travel to Cuba.
Amid charges of election-year politicking, the administration has moved to eliminate a category of license that some universities and educational organizations use for travel to Cuba.
Administration officials say the intent of the action is to keep American tourism dollars out of the pocket of Castro’s government.
Tara Bradshaw, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department, which administers the travel permits, said some license holders were tourist outfits masquerading as educational programs.
Bradshaw said the crackdown was aimed at “non-accredited” institutions, but universities and colleges could still seek licenses for study in Cuba.
But education officials worry that in an election year, the Bush administration won’t stop with restricting study programs offered by non-accredited schools.
“There are political considerations driving this crackdown on visits to Cuba,” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a Washington-based organization that represents 1,800 college and university presidents. “The administration is under intense pressure from leaders of the Cuban exile community to be tougher on Cuba, and this is part of this effort.”
Officials at universities with programs in Cuba say anxiety is part of the renewal process.
“We are always concerned that something has happened and we’re not going to get renewed,” said Amy Bartnick Blume, associate director for external relations at Butler University in Indianapolis, which recently had its license renewed to send students to the school’s semester-long program in Cuba.
Study programs in Cuba remain relatively small, but they are growing in popularity. According to a new study by the Institute of International Education, 1,279 students studied in Cuba during the 2001-02 academic year–up 41 percent over the previous year.
Officials at DePaul fret that their license, which expires in November, either won’t be renewed or its approval will come too late to recruit students for the next year’s program.
Joseph Kinsella, director of DePaul’s study abroad program, said the Treasury Department has told the university it can’t apply for renewal until six months before its current permit expires.
“It does put a crimp in our planning,” Kinsella said.
Educators say that eliminating study programs in Cuba would cut an important educational avenue.
There is no substitute for walking through Havana’s streets and talking to locals, educators say.
“You can’t get that kind of experience without some type of experience in the culture,” said Barbara Hancin-Bhatt, associate director of the Study Abroad Office at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which operates a monthlong program in Cuba for its students.
That kind of hands-on experience is exactly the aim of Felix Masud-Piloto, director of DePaul’s Center for Latino Research, who is accompanying students on the current trip.
“I want to give them the opportunity to talk to people in the street, to talk to people in different organizations and make their own judgment,” said Masud-Piloto, also an associate professor of history. “We don’t have an agenda.”
The trip promises new insights for DePaul students who have spent the last few months studying Cuban culture and politics.
But for students like Munoz, it offers the chance to connect to a part of her cultural heritage.
“I am hoping through this trip … I can claim the identity and heritage of what it is to be Cuban,” said Munoz, a 20-year-old junior majoring in communications. “I really don’t know what it means.”
Munoz said her father left Cuba in 1967 with only the clothes he was wearing–a traumatic experience for a boy who was only about 10 years old.
She said she has the address where he lived and she plans to visit there and take pictures.
“I know my father has a lot of pain from the whole experience and I hope this will help him heal,” Munoz said.
