Our Nationless Humanity

By Christopher Serrano

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As I sit here in front of a white screen at I don't know what hour of the ante meridian, attempting to find the words to gather into sentences and the sentences to collect into paragraphs that describe all that I experienced a couple of weeks ago in Cuba, I find myself mute, incapable of finding a single letter that truly depict the remarkable opportunity I was given a couple of weeks ago by the Department of Hispanic Studies, the University, and most importantly, by my professor, Dr. Mabel Cuesta.

             When I look back upon my trip, I can't help but think of all the kind and courageous people I met during my short stay in Matanzas and feel obliged to them and the people of Cuba to not only write about how beautiful they were with us, but also about the reality in which they live in, about how the Cuban Revolution failed them and how the U.S Embargo is failing them as well. Due largely to the way the program was administered, that is to say, due greatly to my professor, who I am forever in depth with, we had the opportunity to see both the superficial, stereotypical island that the Cuban State wants all tourist to see and the real Cuba, where scarcity is abundant and abundance is scarce.

            During our six-day stay, my classmates, who I now consider friends, and I lived and worked alongside our now second family at Ediciones Vigía, where we not only learned the art of handcrafting books but also the art of subsisting with what is available. As we visited various museums, publishing houses, and sat through stimulating lectures, we got a sense of the cities history and the people who work hard to preserve it. Throughout the afternoons as we walked over the cobblestone roads, singing and dancing along our matancero friends, we felt their will to be happy despite all adversities and at night as we sat under the dimly lit stars on the stairs that surrounded the statue of José Martí at Parque libertad and conversed, we saw beyond each other and into the core of our nationless humanity.