U.S.-Cuban Relations
A brief history of educational exchanges
By Skye Stephenson
This article was printed in Abroad View magazine spring 2008
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 transformed virtually every aspect of U.S.-Cuban relations, including educational exchanges. By 1964, the flow of academics and students between the two countries had dramatically fallen from its pre-Revolution numbers due to ideological differences and, much more importantly, governmental regulations. It was in that year that U.S. citizen travel to Cuba began to be restricted as part of the more generalized economic embargo, a situation that has continued to the present day.
While the economic embargo serves as a backdrop to all U.S.-Cuban educational exchanges since the early 1960s, actual U.S. governmental rules and regulations regarding educational exchanges to Cuba have fluctuated widely in the ensuing decades for many different reasons, most of which have had little, if anything, to do with educational exchanges themselves. In contrast, Cuban educational exchange policies vis a vis the United States have tended to be more consistent, although they too have exhibited several marked shifts at critical junctures.
Taking a broad perspective of the last four decades, five periods of U.S.-Cuban educational exchanges can be distinguished. The first one lasted from the Cuban Revolutionary victory on Jan. 1, 1959, until the Carter presidency in 1976. During this time, U.S.-Cuban educational exchanges nearly came to a standstill due to both generalized hostile relations and governmental fiat. For half of this 18-year span, academic or educational flows between the two countries were for all intents and purposes halted.
A new era in bilateral relations between the United States and Cuba began in 1977 when President Carter agreed to open Special Interest Sections between the two nations and eliminate the travel ban to Cuba. Within one year, over 125,000 people from the United States had visited Cuba, some in an educational capacity. Among the first to do so was Professor Demetrius Iatridis of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College, who led a short term course trip to Cuban in 1977 (and has continued to run this course every year since). The Johns Hopkins Graduate School of Advanced International Studies also began active involvement in U.S.-Cuban academic exchange at this time, followed soon afterward by U.S. colleges.
The heyday of reciprocal educational flows between the United States and Cuba occurred from 1982 to 1996. Ironically, this took place against the backdrop of increasingly restrictive educational exchange policies emanating from U.S. authorities. Shortly upon assuming office in 1982 President Reagan reimposed travel restrictions to Cuba. While these restrictions basically eliminated legal U.S. tourist flows to the island, certain types of travel to Cuba were still permitted, including some educational programs and exchanges.
Despite the success of many of the U.S.-Cuba educational exchanges (or maybe due to them), by the early 1990s U.S.-Cuban educational exchanges had become increasingly regulated. As the Cuban economy plummeted into the depths of its “special period,” the U.S. government enacted the 1992 Cuban Democracy bill (Torricelli Bill), which further restricted travel to Cuba. At the same time, the Cuban government undertook a profound restructuring of its academic exchange policies.
During the later Clinton years, a new policy approach to Cuba—the so-called “Third Way” or “Tract II”—was initiated. Its main thrust was to incorporate into the U.S. government’s long-standing “hard line” Cuba policy a “soft arm,” via incentives and engagement. Educational exchanges were considered part of the “soft arm” and rules changed to permit more U.S. students and academics to travel to Cuba through making educational program licensing easier to obtain and renew.
At the dawn of the new millennium, between 35,000 and 40,000 people from the United States were visiting Cuba under the auspices of so-called “people-to-people” licenses, and over 750 colleges and universities had been granted general licenses to carry out academic activities in Cuba. U.S. undergraduates began to participate in semester programs in Cuba for the first time since the Revolution.
While precise figures are hard to come by, it has been estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 U.S.-based students were studying in Cuba in 2002.
As 2003 dawned, few people involved with U.S.-Cuban exchanges guessed what tumultuous policy winds would soon be blowing from Washington, D.C., with the express intention of dismantling most of these educational programs. First the people-to-people licenses and then the academic licenses were not renewed. By late 2004, few U.S. undergraduate programs were still running in Cuba, and it had become harder for Cuban academics to visit the United States as well.
Skye Stephenson, Dean of the First Year Experience at Landmark College, holds a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She has served as Regional Director for the Latin American and Caribbean region at SIT and CIEE. She is author of The Spanish-speaking South Americans: Bridging Hemispheres (Intercultural Press, 2003). Stephenson is a member of the Abroad View Editorial Board.