On January 14, 10 students and two teachers in the Social Change & Solidarity (SCS) profile returned from a three-week solidarity delegation to Cuba. The trip was organized in partnership with the Centro Martin Luther King, an organization in Cuba that promotes local and global justice through popular education and grassroots community-building.
As the students prepared for their trip during the fall semester, Cuba was hit hard by two hurricanes and several nation-wide power outages; still under the U.S.-economic embargo, a scarcity of fuel and other shortages shape daily life on the island. It was in this context that Dawson students and teachers arrived to meet with a range of organizations and people, carrying a dozen suitcases filled with medical supplies and other needed items, to explore the necessity and possibility of global solidarity, exchange, and movement-building.
"Throughout the trip we heard Cubans speak about the current crisis and witnessed their struggles firsthand," explains Gisela Frias, one of the teachers who traveled with the group. "The experience strengthened our commitment to advocating for an end to the blockade and supporting Cuba's right to live with dignity."
For students, the learning went far beyond the crisis. "We learned so much about community," says Leila Pozzi, an SCS student. "Every organization that we visited taught us about a different kind of approach to building solidarity: from building economic solidarity, to working with arts, education, and environment."
During their three weeks, students lived with families; engaged in exchange with Cuban youth; met with scholars of race, gender, and law; visited museums, cultural projects, and urban farms; and collaborated with organizations focused on alternative economies, biodiversity protection, youth development, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Leila describes learning, for example, about Cuba's new "Families Code," which was passed into law by national referendum two years ago. "It was amazing to hear about how people across Cuba were asked to read the code and to give feedback based on their own situations, in consultations that happened in urban and rural areas all across the country." The code has expanded LGBTQ+, women's, children's, and elders' legal rights in Cuba.
Leilah Doyle, an SCS student, pointed to the groups' time in a rural part of Cuba - a small town called Puerto Esparanza - as especially meaningful. "Spending time with families and with organizations in a rural area was such a different experience. The sense of community there was a highlight for me."
Victoria Ormiston, an SCS student, says that visiting "MirArte" was an example of the trip's powerful impact on students - "Seeing the art all over the walls, hearing the story of the space - I felt a sense of home that I've never felt anywhere before. I remember thinking: is this what home is supposed to feel like?"
These words - community, solidarity, family, home - come up often in conversations with students about their experience. For the students and teachers on the trip, the learning is not only about Cuba, or about global politics - but about their own lives and contexts back home. Sofia Giuliano, an SCS student, describes how the trip has made her reflect on the "dominant individualistic culture in the Western World," and the need to intentionally build community here.
"Experiential learning like this helps put the tools and skills that we learn in the classroom into practice," says Victoria. "It's more than you can put on paper."
