Page Eight

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. Mmh 1, um

 

Returns from One-Month Visit

Frank Terms Cuban Revolution Peaceful, Economic

By JOHN muss

In a recent Life magazine article, Carl
Oglesby, former president of SDS, gives
a sympathetic but questioning appraisal
of Cuba's social revolution 10 years af-
ter Castro's rise to the country’s leader«
ship. Everywhere, reports Oglesby, is “a
tumultuous scramble to produce a pat-
tern." The most significant insight
Oglesby otters into the nature of this
"scramble" is that lts emphasis is first
and predominantly economic; its politi-
cal nature is relevant only insofar as the
politics of the country can be seen to
be serving the needs of economic revolu-
tion in Cuba.

Larry Frank, Grinnell junior, has just
returned from a month’s visit to Cuba
with many of the same insights as those
expressed by Oglesby into the present
nature and status of the Revolution in
Cuba. “The people are not political,"
Larry declared in a recent interview.
“They generally are not concerned with
the workings oi the Communist Party
or With the machinery ol revolution.
Their interests are economic and soci :
food, Clothing, education, and health.”

Larry flew to Cuba —— via Mexico City
— on Dec. 27, as a member of a small
group oi reporters and photographers
invited by the Cuban government to
visit the country under the sponsorship
of the Liberation News Service. Larry
won the invitation on the merits of pho<
tography submitted by him to LNS.

The first two weeks of the visit were
spent primarily in government-organized
group “tours" in various “Showplace”
industries and projects, such as farms.
iish processing plants, and dairies. In
Larry's opinion, the predominant reeling
ot the group was that these tours

amounted to “pure propaganda," and
that most oi the group became disil<
lusioned with hopes oi gaining a real
insight into Cuban society by the time
the group‘s oiiicial period oi visit end-
ed.

After the LNS group had officially
broken up, Larry began his own search
tor impressions oi the people and so
ciety of Cuba. Making his own tours of
areas of Havana and the outlying com<

 

 

 

 

 

Larry Frank, Grlnnell LNS Reporter

munity oi Coiimur (where Hemingway
wrote The Old Man and the Sea), Larry
spoke to hundreds of Cuban citizens, and
defined his impressions of the country
from these encounters.

Spectrum of Popular Opinion

The maitre d' oi the hotel where Larry
was staying descrlbed life in Cuba today

 

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as “terrible," primarily because of a Cru<
cial lack of housing which now exists in
urban Cuba. As is true oi many living
in Havana, Larry explained, the man
was not able to live in a home or his
own with his family. Both he and his
wiie were iorced, due to shortage oi
housing, to live with their respective
parents, and were only able to find real
privacy together by checking into a ho-
tel. Such practice, according to Larry,
has become a commonly-accepted social
institution in Cuba, for married and
unmarried couples alike.

Despite complaints about the Cuba of
today. however, Larry did not find the
maitre d' to be among the 200,000 Cuban
citizens currently awaiting the oppor-
tunity to emigrate “He told me he was
staying," Larry related, “because he
feels that Cuba will become a better
place for his children."

Larry did encounter in his conver-
saiions a toll spectrum or opinion on the
state oi Cuba today. Exemplary oi one
extreme of opinion was a Black Cuban
Larry met, who “slapped his stomach
to Show me how well-fed he was, and
proudly showed me the bottoms oi his
kids' shoes, which had no holes."

At the other end of the spectnlm were
people Larry spoke to in a slum area
or Havana, which displayed “tilth worse
than Selma," in Larry's opinion. Here,
where Larry found 300 people using the
Same common bathroom facility, where
people had to carry their own water to
the common toilet, people were extreme-
ly bitter about the Revolution, and
spoke angrily of government promises
which had not yet begun to filter down
to their stratum in Cuban society.

Strides in Education

Larry reported discovering, as did
Oglesby, that “fantastic strides“ have
been taken in the area of education
throughout Cuba. “All children — both
in the city and in the country — are
now in school full time," Larry said.

Children Start to school in Cuba on a
level comparable to American kinder-
garten. Throughout primary school,
children are encouraged to begin de-
veloping iields or “interests" which will
eventually be channelled into prepara'
tion ior future occupations. By the time
children enter secondary schools, they
have defined several “interests" more
completely, and join “circles oi inter-
ests” With other students These “cir-
cles" then meet regularly with a teacher
or resource adviser for extracurricular
discussions of their interest field.

“Circle" meetings continue through
the preUniversity level, by which time
each student is expected to have re-
fined his particular interest to the level
of sophisticated study which is charac-
teristic oi a “maior in an American
college. Participation in “circles" is ot-
ficially voluntary but it is at the same
time both a somewhat - pressured
“norm," and also a prerequisite for ad.
mission to a University.

Larry commented that his initial im-
pression of the Cuban University was
that it is “like universities everywhere"
in terms oi atmosphere and general
characteristics or the student body. One
aspect oi the University which Larry
later discovered is that each University
is also a modified military base of sorts.
Every studcnt has a gun and is assigned
to a squad of students organized by one
leader ior the purpose ui mobilization in
the event pi emergency situations re-
quiring the deiense oi the country, city,
or University area.

Each Class of 3040 students is also
organized under a single leader, who
serves as class spokesman, discussion
leader, and general liaison between the
class and the professor. in addition, each
class is divided into two equal groups,
which compete academically during the

school year ior the “honor" or being
granted a greater amount of “voluntary
labor” at the time or harvesting crops.

Larry noted that the majority of Uni-
versity professors are very young, and
that the government has apparently not
yet been able to completely overcome
a serious lack of educators. An instruc-
tor ior a one-year course in humanities,
for example, is likely to have as prepara
ation only a six-month training period
in his field.

Although no philosophy “department"
as such exisits in Cuban Universities,
there are required philosophy courses
in MarxistrLeninist thought ior every de-
partmental field. “An interesting side-
light," added Larry, “is the fact that
Cuban Universities have by now Cum-
pletely discarded initially-used Russian
texts on Marxist-Leninist philosophy as
inferior in content and intellectual ap-
peal, and are now using their own text!
on the subject in the University."

Style of Lire Spare, Few Luxuries

Larry found the average Cuban cid-
zen’s standard of living to be “adequate
— but nothing really beyond.” People
have “enough" to eat, but almost every-
thing on the Cuban consumer market is
presently rationed in the interests or
maximum exportation and resultant
economic growth. ”Even bars are open
only on weekends,“ Larry reported,
“and everyone carries a ration card
which entitles him to a maximum of
two beers."

Social life in Cuba ls limited primarily
to two major institutions. according to
Larry: hotels (as utilized by the maitrc
d' and his wife) and movies. Cuban
movies are made under the auspices or
the government agency lCAlc. Larry re<
marked that the movies he saw seemed
to be relatively iree irom strict governa
ment censorship, although he ielt that
they were deiinitely aimed thematically
at involving the Cuban people more ex-
pansively in the programs of the Revo<
lution.

Larry viewed several documentary
films, in addition to films of more artis-
tic nat re. One of these, entitled
“Lucia,‘ is currently receiving world4
wide Critical attention as the best film
ever made in Cuba. The film consists of
three vignettes whose theme is the his.
torical evolution of the role of the Cuban
woman -— from the oppression of a sex-
ohsessed nineteenth-century society un<
der Spanish rule; through a period oi
the first strikes of the 1930's; to the
present “liberation" oi women through
employment and equal participation in
the Revolution.

Influences on Church and Press

There apeais to be, in Larry’s opinion.
stringent control by the government
over the press. There are three major
newspapers in Cuba: Granma. the oiii-
cial organ of the Communist Party; El
Mundo, a paper put out entirely by Unis
Versity students; and Juventud Rehelde.
the publication of the Communist Youth
Organization. All three papers are pub-
lished daily, and vary between 4-8 pages
in length.

As an example oi evident censorship
of the press, Larry cited a January in-
cident involving a truckload oi Cubans
who attempted to break into the us.
naval base at Guantanamo. The inci-
dent, which Larry later discovered was
iully reported in the papers in the United
States, received no mention in Cuban
newspapers, prcsumably ior its polen-
tinlly adverse propaganda.

The one aspect of Cuban life which
Larry iound to be almost entirely iree
of government intervention was that of
religion. The majority or Cubans remain
“very religious" Catholics, Larry re<
ported;.several oi havana's churches

CUBA—
Colulnued on Page I), Column 1