Más allá de Harvard, 1900: analogues for later times

• In Event: The Harvard Cubans

Abstract

Is it possible to remain a nationalist while participating in an educational program designed by a foreign country? Where does one draw the line between effective solidarity and paternalism? How do those who tend to be seen as racially and culturally “other” confront biases and prejudices while participating in programs of international educational exchange?
These are only some of the questions raised by the Harvard Summer School for Cuban Teachers. Rather than focusing on that episode itself, this paper draws from the experience of Cuban teachers in 1900 to propose pertinent questions that historians might ask about Cuban participation in international exchange programs in other eras. While the Harvard experience in 1900 was singular in its scale, some of the dilemmas it presented were timeless, repeating themselves as select Cubans traveled to the Soviet Union for advanced education after 1959. In the revolutionary era, moreover, Cuba would also find itself on the other side of the equation, offering educational programs to a wide array of citizens from the global South. Were such efforts fundamentally different, or were some of their fault lines the same? Episodes and instances to be considered include the training of Cuban nuclear physicists in the Soviet Union, Cuban literacy teachers in Angola, and, more recently, a training program for Cuban entrepreneurs at a U.S. university.

Author

• Michael Bustamante, Florida International University