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Cuba Journal
National Council of Churches USA Delegation to Cuba
by Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, United Methodist Communications, Nashville, TN

Last Day: January 28, 2004

Some last thoughts as we board taxis to take us to the airport:

A riddle: Since we come from a nation that has shown little more than political posturing and hatred toward Cuba and its president, why are we welcomed with open arms by the Cuban people?

A riddle: As many in the delegation were post-World War II babies, how is it we grew up with such simple, shallow cartoonish images of an entire Latin American nation? And why does it take a visit here to change those superficial images? Our families, friends and more than 200 million others back home will never be able to come - who will change their ingrained images?

Cuba will remain an enigma to many of us. It cannot be experienced in a single trip or perhaps in even a dozen. That’s not only because its people are poor, or that its leader withholds certain civil liberties, or even because its socialist organization and economy are traditionally feared by us capitalists. It is because Cuba is not monolithic - it cannot be expressed or understood as a collective.

After all the people, places and conversations we’ve experienced, I’m left with one not-so-grand thought: I must learn to keep more than one idea in my head at once.

I’ve been awed by how much I didn’t know about Cuba, and by how much remains to be learned. Cuba really is not at all an entity that thinks and acts as one. It does not live up it its reputation as a communist society ruled by a ruthless dictator. Understanding this has helped me as a father, a husband and a pastor. I know now that my children don’t have to possess certain, particular characteristics to be American. There is no unique set of American characteristics, just as there is no unique set of Cuban characteristics.

The point is that I would never have learned all this, experienced it, if not for this trip. That need is what’s missing in many Americans, who feel no real need to seek these understandings. We experienced them.