Oswego philosopher seeks better U.S., Cuba relations

Eugenio Basualdo thinks it is high time the United States improves its relationship with Cuba and he is doing all he can to make that happen.

Basualdo, a professor of vocational teacher preparation at SUNY Oswego, began working toward that goal a few years ago. His interest in all things Cuban was stirred in 1999 after he attended his first Conference of North American and Cuban Social Scientists and Philosophers at the University of Havana.

“What impressed me most about the Cubans was that, although they have very little, they are very willing to share,” said Basualdo, a native of Chile and a UUP member.

This year, Basualdo invited five Cuban professors to speak at SUNY Oswego and agreed to shepherd them on their speaking tour of several colleges in the East and Midwestern U.S. and Canada. The tour was sponsored by the Radical Philosophers Association in cooperation with the Center for Global Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

“The biggest value is in the exchange of ideas,” Basualdo said, “the dispassionate exchange of ideas. Their philosophy of life is different. Cubans have been isolated from us and their political views are completely different from our own.

“At the same time, we have many things in common,” he said. “We share a passion to educate our young people, to search for knowledge and to hope for humanity.”

Although five professors originally were slated for the lecture tour, just three made the trip after Canadian officials raised some questions about transit visas before anyone had touched down in Toronto. To reduce overland travel expenses, two professors remained in Havana.

The three scholars arrived in the U.S. just days before Sept. 11. The terror attacks that day and the subsequent disruption of public transportation upended their speaking schedule.

Emileo Duharte Diaz, a professor of political theory, was at Henry Ford Community College in Detroit and eventually was able to take an overnight bus back to Albany. Clotilde Proveyer Cervantes, a sociology professor, was stranded in Madison, Wis., unable to fly out for several days. Carlos Cabrera Rodriguez, a political science professor, was able to take the train from Baltimore to Connecticut, where Basualdo picked him up to return to Albany.

Basualdo drove the three professors to central New York, where they were scheduled to speak at SUNY Oswego and LeMoyne College in Syracuse.

Asked to compare the U.S. system of higher education with that of their native country, Rodriguez said: “To have an opinion, you need to spend more time here. There is not enough time in a week to make a value judgment. But I have been treated kindly and the students I’ve spoken with have been eager to learn what is happening in Cuba.”

Diaz added that education, like health care, is free in Cuba; students are tested and those who earn a certain score are educated in universities. The others, he said, are sent to polytechnic schools to learn a trade.

— Barbara Pascarell Brown

(Barbara Pascarell Brown is a UUP member and academic advisor at SUNY Albany.)