Setting aside cultural differences, a language barrier and more than four decades of tense political strife, a team of Chicago-area girls bonded with their Cuban counterparts this week at the place where their shared passion mattered more than divisions: the softball field.
The Windmills, a girls fast-pitch softball team from Oak Park, along with coaches and parents, visited Cuba for the second year in a row on a U.S. government-approved sports exchange trip. The exchange is one of the few legal avenues for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba since the Bush administration tightened restrictions on travel there last summer.
Windmills’ founder Marc Blesoff (the name as published has been corrected in this text) said the trip was sparked by Oak Park’s connection to Ernest Hemingway, as the birthplace of Havana’s beloved adopted American son.
“Three or four years ago, we started sending [softball] equipment because of the Hemingway connection,” said Blesoff, an Oak Park attorney. “It seemed like it would be an incredible life experience to take the girls to Cuba, where most Americans can’t come.
“We’re really competitive and we really want to win, but this trip is more like friendship through competition.”
Friendship between the teams came easy despite their differences.
“Through the connection of softball and being female athletes, we can cross barriers,” said Blesoff’s daughter Mara, 13, one of 10 players on the Windmills’ team. “I don’t know if in the grand scheme of things this particular trip will make an impact, but I think personally everyone involved in these trips, Cuban or American, has gained a lot.”
The Windmills lost three games to Havana’s softball team and were in awe of their Cuban opponents.
“They are fearless,” said Ali Waterman, 14. “They love running bases, they love the game so much. They always have the motivation to play.”
During downtime, the girls also found they had more in common than softball.
“We learned we listen to the same music. They listen to a bunch of American bands we listen to, and everyone here knows how to dance,” said Aly Euler, 16.
“We were in a sense becoming a team through softball,” said Kealan Waldron, 18. “It was strange: We had different backgrounds, a different government, but that doesn’t matter.”
The Windmills, who arrived over the weekend, will spend Thursday at Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s hilltop estate outside Havana. They return to Illinois on Friday.
The U.S. has not had diplomatic relations with the Communist country for more than 40 years, but Americans have been able to travel there under certain restrictions. After the restrictions were tightened last year, academic and so-called “people-to-people” exchanges have dwindled, and many programs have been forced out of business. Sports exchanges were not affected.
“It has to be within regulations,” said Scott Schwar, past president and executive director of Oak Park’s Hemingway Foundation, which helped fund the Windmills’ trip. “Although there are fewer opportunities to go to Cuba, there are some licenses that the [Cuban] government thinks are worth it.”
Schwar, who now works for a travel company that booked the team’s trip, said the Windmills’ “license” to be allowed on the island nation fell under “public performances.” He said that means the games were to be open to the public.
The Hemingway Foundation and the Sister Cities Foundation have donated softball equipment to Cuba through the Pastors for Peace Caravan, an interreligious group that delivers humanitarian aid.
Schwar said it’s only natural for the Hemingway Foundation to have a connection with Cuba, since the late writer spent his early years in Oak Park and much of his final years in Cuba.
“Both places serve as perfect bookmarks for his life,” Schwar said.
