¡Estamos Con Cuba!: A Fundraiser for the Cuban People
Published in Antler River Media Co-op
(*artwork: Painting by Incé Husain. “It is an important moment for us, like a demonstration for the entire world, that there are so many people in favour of Cuba…Relations between governments are very important but in moments like this we are demonstrating that the solidarity between peoples is stronger, it’s really stronger. The people have the capacity to move all the world. We have the opportunity to be stronger, more involved in the fight for justice, not only in Cuba but in all other parts of the world, like Palestine.”)
This Friday, Casa Latina will hold a fundraiser, ¡Estamos Con Cuba!: A Fundraiser for the Cuban People, at 7pm. It will be filled with live music, silent auctions, video-recorded greetings from Cuba solidarity groups and Cubans living under the intensified blockade, and a dance party that may stretch late into the night.
Performances will feature London-based Chilean duo SUYAI, made of folk musicians Viviana and Mauricio, and local choir Accento Latino. Journalist and writer Ruth Taylor will read an excerpt from her debut novel Even the Birds – which chronicles three generations of Guatemalan women seeking peace and purpose. The thirty-item silent auction will include echoes of Cuban culture and history: Cuban coffee, 12-year old Ron Santiago de Cuba rum, a Cuban güiro, a mixed media artwork of the now-extinct vibrant Cuban macaws, packages for 5-week introductory salsa dance lessons and 6-week Spanish language classes, and five framed vintage Cuban film posters from the 1970s – a time when the Cuban revolution wielded cinema to transform Cuban society.
The fundraiser is organized by People for Peace and Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association (LACASA); tickets are $10 or by donation. All proceeds will be donated to the Toronto-based Canadian Network on Cuba, which is sending containers of humanitarian aid – such as food, medical supplies, and solar panels – to Cuba. Medical supplies will improve hospital conditions, and solar panels will help Cuba develop alternative energy systems. E-transfers can be sent to the Canadian Network on Cuba at any time.
“We’re hoping to raise a few thousand dollars to support solidarity efforts of the Canadian network on Cuba, contribute to filling containers with much-needed humanitarian aid, and to them being shipped in the most efficient, reliable way possible and distributed reliably to where they are most needed to help Cubans,” said Jeff Tennant, professor of French studies at Western University and the fundraiser emcee. “We’re hoping to build awareness as well…You don’t have to be 100% with every decision made by the government of Cuba but it’s important that you acknowledge that it is in Cuba that political and economic decisions about Cuba are to be made – not in Washington. We hope to develop that further, and not only awareness around slogans like ‘stop the blockade’, ‘let Cuba live’, but also, let’s keep the donations going. Those actions speak very loudly for Cubans. They know they’re not alone.”
Since January 30, the US has imposed a fuel blockade on Cuba by placing trade tariffs on countries that Cuba relies on for oil. The ensuing blackouts have become so extreme that hospitals have been forced to suspend some medical procedures. In February, CiberCuba reported that doctors in Havana were performing surgeries in total darkness, huddled around the operating table with scalpels and pinpricks of light from their cellphones. Some schools and businesses have closed, food spoils in fridges, and resources become scarce with gasoline shortages. In February, UN experts declared that the blockade is a violation of international law, stating that “there is no right under international law to impose economic penalties on third States for engaging in lawful trade with another sovereign country”. It adds that the blockade “may amount to the collective punishment of civilians”.
“I consider this blockade of Cuba to be an outrageous violation of international law. It’s cruel collective punishment. It needs to be ended immediately,” said Tennant.
The current blockade amplifies the effects of the US’ Helms-Burton Act of 1966, which has imposed economic, commercial, and financial embargoes on Cuba for sixty years. Initial sanctions began years earlier to suppress the Cuban revolution. For thirty-three consecutive years, the UN General Assembly has adopted resolutions to end the “punitive” US embargo. These resolutions have never been heeded by the US.
“Right now the situation in Cuba is very difficult because as you know we have a blockaded country for more than 65 years,” said Melissa Cobel Cruz, a worker with the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), from the ground in Havana. “Trump’s administration has taken some measures against Cuba, like the energy blockade. That affects different sectors in Cuba like the transportation for the distribution of oil, the health service, the education service. Right now, the problem is with food for transportation… We don’t have enough capacity for energy production, satisfy the demand for the population, and we have long days with blackouts in many areas. That policy against Cuba has a lot of negative consequences in our life…We need to change our schedules, our quotidian life, our activities at work, maybe cultural life too because you don’t have capacity with the blackouts. It’s difficult in your home.”
ICAP is a non-governmental organization that coordinates international solidarity efforts, ensuring that aid is equitably distributed once it reaches Cuba. In Canada, humanitarian aid containers are loaded in Toronto, sent by truck to Halifax, and then shipped by boat to Cuba. Each shipment takes between three to five weeks to arrive in Cuba, and so far one container has been sent per month. In March, six aid boxes of three cubic feet each were sent to Santiago de Cuba in a container; last Saturday, thirty-two were sent in a container to a central region in Cuba.
“It is an important moment for us, like a demonstration for the entire world, that there are so many people in favour of Cuba,” said Cruz. “People in Cuba are really strong. We have the capacity to adapt to the difficult situations here, that’s not a big problem for us. We have the capacity to find solutions for ourselves. In that process we have to be very grateful for many people in other countries and the solidarity movement in other countries because they are in favour with Cuba and they help so much…There are many differences in solidarity between peoples and between governments. Relations between governments are very important but in moments like this we are demonstrating that the solidarity between peoples is stronger, it’s really stronger. The people have the capacity to move all the world. We have the opportunity to be stronger, more involved in the fight for justice, not only in Cuba but in all other parts of the world, like Palestine.”
Tennant, who has been travelling to Cuba regularly since the late 1990s for academic conferences, describes it as “a beautiful country… that really is based on an ethic of humanism and humanity.”
“The people are warm, friendly. There’s this ethic of solidarity, ease of establishing friendship…The images I have are of gatherings, the conference, of beautiful landscapes, of people, of walking through the streets seeing all these kids going to school in their clean uniforms,” said Tennant. “There are a lot of things in a state of disrepair, there are material shortages that affect the infrastructure of universities, of healthcare facilities, but Cubans do their best with the organization of their society, to take care of each other.”
Theresa Kiefer, who helped organize the silent auction for Friday’s fundraiser and has been involved in sending aid to Cuba since the early 2000s, marvels at the intellect and open-heartedness of Cubans.
“Cubans are among the most educated and open people that I have ever come across in the world. They know a lot about the rest of the world, and that’s because of a lot of cultural openness. These are people who genuinely want an exchange of ideas with others,” said Kiefer. “These are people that are looking to play a part in the world like the rest of us, they want to do meaningful work, they want to not struggle with food insecurity, they want to raise their children in peace, they value their healthcare system even though it is badly under-resourced, they are lovely humans.”
Kiefer shares that she was once struggling to find her hotel in Cuba. The group of friends she was travelling with rolled down the car window and asked passersby for help. One man, who was on a bicycle, simply said “follow me” and led them to the hotel.
“He went way out of his way to lead us to our destination and this was usual. This is just the way things were done,” Kiefer said. “There’s just a level of comradeship that you don’t see easily in our society.”
She attests that the US has no place steering Cuban life.
“Cubans are proud. Despite the poverty and the problems, they are rightly, justifiably proud of their ability to figure out a solution, figure things out. For the Americans to be arrogantly believing that they need to ‘rescue’ these Cubans or save them from themselves somehow – it’s appalling. These are people who are perfectly capable of making decisions about their future.”
Tennant emphasizes that even broad engagement with Cuba is an act of solidarity.
“A lot of Londoners have friendships with Cubans and will travel down to Cuba and fill a suitcase with things to give away to help hotel employees, to families they’ve met, and that’s the kind of broad-based support and solidarity we’re seeking to build. Engaging with the Cuban university, traveling to Cuba, even just as a tourist to have a good time at a resort, you are making a choice to reject the isolation of a beautiful country.” ♦
With files from Emmanuel Akanbi in Havana
This article appeared in The Antler River Media Co-op on April 30th, 2025:
https://antlerrivermedia.ca/estamos-con-cuba-a-fundraiser-for-the-cuban-people/