Class to speak about Cuba trip
By JOE TROMBELLO
News Writer
Selected members of Father Robert Pelton's, "From Power to Communion" class will speak about their experiences visiting Cuba over Spring Break as part of his course. The panel discussion entitled: "Cuba Libre? Reflections Upon the Catholic Church in Cuba Today," will be held today in C-103 Hesburgh Center for International Studies at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.
"People know very little about the Catholic Church in Cuba," Pelton said. "What we wanted to do was see what was going on."
Pelton's students, which included undergraduates, Law School and Masters of Divinity students, will speak on selected themes including human rights, health care, ministry, the role of women and literacy as they conducted research and spent time in dialogue with Cuban scholars.
Shannon Benbow, a third-year law student, presented her research on microcredit and small businesses in Cuba to a Saint Mary's economics class and will participate in tonight's presentation.
"The students [had] prepared themselves really well [for the trip to Cuba] — I was very impressed," Pelton said.
Sairah Saeed, a second-year law student, said her interest in human rights issues led her to explore politics, society and human rights in Cuba.
"Cuba is such an anomaly in this side of the world. It is the country closest to the U.S. that still espouses communist beliefs with rigor and I wanted to explore why that was, how Cuban people felt about their government and their lives under Castro, and why it is that the current regime has survived," she said.
As a Muslim student in a Catholic theology class, Saeed said that she initially struggled to find a topic that could be comparative in its approach. Although she originally believed the Muslim influence in Cuba to be small, she said that further research while in Cuba proved otherwise.
"Most people I talked to [in Cuba] told me there were no Muslims in Cuba, only a few diplomats who met in a building in Havana for Friday prayers. I and many of my classmates found, while in Cuba, that sometimes people do not speak as freely because of fear of repercussions by the government … so I thought that I might not be getting the whole story," she said. "Eager to find out more, I continued to investigate and found out that this building [in Havana] was an Arab Cultural Center. The research I did upon returning further revealed the large influence Arab culture had on Cuba; I therefore decided to focus on this topic."
Pelton, the director of Notre Dame's Latin American/North America Church Concerns Institute, said that he decided to take 13 of his students to Cuba in order to have them experience first-hand a greater understanding of the Catholic Church's role in a socialist country.
"We were interested in seeing how the Catholic Church operates under a socialist regime. To have that experience — it's a totally different experience coming from the U.S. It was a fresh, revealing experience and it helped [us] realize that the opportunities here [in the United States] are not available in Cuba [and are ones] to take more advantage of," he said.
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies' research on the Cuban diaspora led to knowledge of many Cuban contacts both in the United States and in Cuba. Additionally, Pelton visited Cuba three times in 2002 in order to establish some further contacts and said that he hopes to take another group in the spring of 2004.
"There are some courageous people … we wanted to walk with them and listen to their stories," Pelton said.
Students said that their experience in Cuba provided an education far different than what could be found in a classroom.
"I learned more on the Cuba trip about society, economy, culture, people and faith in Cuba, among other things, than I could ever learn in a classroom," Saeed said.
The panel discussion will feature selections from a videotape made during the class trip to Havana as well as a PowerPoint presentation of pictures. Members of his class will participate in a panel discussion, answering questions posed by Pelton, after which the floor will be open for general questions.
All News Stories for Wednesday, May 7, 2003
