A major thing I could make connections to was with how the level of education raised significantly in Cuba. Before my Dad's family immigrated to the U.S. in 1971, my grandmother was a school principle with a masters degree from the University of Santa Clara.
Personally, I never realized how remarkable that really was. If you think about what life was like in the U.S. during that time, there weren't that many women who went to college and got degrees, but she was able to do it in Cuba while the country was changing rapidly due to revolution. Unfortunately the degree didn't transfer over to the U.S. at the time, but she was an educated woman and became a successful employee of the State of Michigan.
Another big connection I made was to the different Agrarian Reforms that reduced the amount of land a person could own. Many of the different stories about Cuba that I have heard have dealt with my grandfathers family farm. Recently he visited Cuba for the first time in almost two decades, and an observation that he made was that the farm had gotten much smaller since he last visited. While I don't know how big the farm was at it's largest, it really drove home the reality about what was being done there.
Not many people realize how intertwined the United States and Cuba's history is in the last 100 years. From "helping" free Cuba from Spain, to the repeated attempts on Castro's life, Cuban and American governments have been and still are entangled. Cubans have also changed American culture in many ways where large groups of immigrants settled. In places like Miami, New York, and even Lansing, the culture of the people leaves its mark forever.
I really like the connections you have made to what we have been talking about in class. And can I just say, I just think it is so cool how close you and your family are and all the stories and facts they tell you about Cuba and the way things used to be.
ReplyDeleteYour grandma sounds like a really educated and driven woman, and I bet it was hard at first when she found out her degree wouldn't be recognized in the United States. I guess it would be all about weighing the pros and cons of moving here, and whether it made more sense to stay in Cuba where her masters degree would have been valid, or to make a new life in the United States, even if it meant starting over and finding a job that was not exactly related to what she had done previously.
I also think it is interesting that your grandfather's farm has been affected by the agrarian reforms. He must have owned a lot of land to be able to notice his farm was smaller than before. I'm curious to know if he owned livestock, and what the size of his farm was when it was at its largest.