The Bridge Generation

Posted on Sun, Apr. 23, 2006

The Bridge Generation
By BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com

Four years ago, a few Cuban-American students from Harvard, Georgetown,
and the University of Florida, feeling disen-franchised from the Cuba
discourse that dominates Miami, started a youth group to focus on the
island's future.

The controversy surrounding the tug of war over Elián González, the
little boy who was rescued at sea after his mother drowned escaping
Cuba, was still fresh in the minds of several of the students. They felt
many Americans throughout the country misunderstood Cuban Americans'
strong feelings on the issue. Then, in early 2003, Cuba launched one of
its biggest crackdowns on dissidents and independent journalists,
arresting 75 and sentencing them to long prison terms after summary trials.

Today, Raices de Esperanza, perhaps the largest group of 20-something,
politically charged Cuban Americans, is holding its third conference at
Princeton University, featuring Gloria Estefan as the keynote speaker.
The group, whose name means "the roots of hope," expects about 150
people at the conference, almost twice as many as the first one in 2003.

The group's rise and its message are a testament to the changing
dynamics in the Cuban exile community.

Not that Raices' message is much different from that of their elders.
They want free-dom and democracy in Cuba. They want to focus on Cuba's
human-rights abuses. And they criticize the communist government.
CONNECTED

However, Raices members stand out in two key ways: They talk democracy
and politics with youth groups on the island, and they have
success-fully taken their message beyond Miami -- to the national and
international stage. They have formed affiliate groups in foreign
countries to hold protests and vigils abroad on key issues affecting Cuba.

"While our parents and grandparents had their own movimientos and
organizations, we wanted to create something of our own to be able to
enthuse our generation," said Joanna Gonzalez, 24, one of the group's
founders who attended St. Brendan High School in Miami and later the
University of Florida.

"A positive way to move forward is to empower the youth -- who are those
that will be making decisions and influencing public opinion in the
future -- to be educated on the issues going on in the island," she
said. "We want the youth in Cuba and out of Cuba to see what life is
like in each other's shoes."

Estefan said that, as a Cuban exile and a parent, it has been important
for her to keep the Cuba issue alive with her children.

"They have gone beyond the talking phase to taking action," she said of
Raices. ‘‘And it needs to be supported and applauded every chance we get
because if any change will come in the future, it will come from the
youth," Estefan said Friday. "That's the torch they need to carry:
commitment to the issue."

Apathy about Cuba was one of the main reasons the students decided to
get involved in late 2002. It started small, as an e-mail network of
friends and contacts, Gonzalez said. Most of the members today are
full-time students or have graduated and have day jobs.

It remains an informal group, with no annual dues, and no official
membership list, Gonzalez said. Their most visible activity is the
annual conference, which has headlined VIPs, such as former Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

For some students from around the country, Raices has been a way to
reconnect with cultural roots that have long been dormant. Kenneth
Sinkovitz, a Princeton junior who has been involved in Raices for more
than a year, said he was first drawn to Raices out of curiosity because
he was curious about other Cuban Americans.

"Originally, I was most curious to see and meet other Cuban Americans on
campus because growing up I never knew any," said Sinkovitz, whose
mother is a Cuban exile, and whose father is Austrian- American.

"I'm looking forward to be able to objectively speak to some of these
academics and professionals about Cuba, whether they are from the right
or from the left."

Raices, which incorporated as a non-profit group this year, has no
steady source of income. Donations to put together the conference come
from vari-ous sources. One of them is Premier American Bank Chairman
Carlos Saladrigas, who also leads the moderate Cuba Study Group in Miami.

To Saladrigas, Raices fills a vacuum in the discourse, now dominated by
older exiles.

"It sends a powerful message for the future of Cuba," Saladrigas said.
"I think they are going to be the bridge gen-eration. They are going to
play a very important role in Cuba's future."

Raices is not without its intrigue. One of the group's co-founders, who
asked that his name not be used because he doesn't want to compromise
his contacts in Cuba, said he communicates with young Cubans on the
island regularly via telephone and e-mail. Raices has mounted launched
anonymous letter-writing campaigns to young people in Cuba, for example.

"We want to inspire them to become authors of their own future," the
co-founder said. "There is a lot of disillusionment there . . . We are
trying to offer support and solidarity."
CROSS-CULTURAL

Not everyone in Raices is Cuban American. Cynthia Romero, 24, is a
Princeton University graduate from Puerto Rico who now works for a
non-profit in Miami. She became involved in Raices more than a year ago
after a friend of hers told her about the group in Washington.

"There's definitely a reevaluation going on among the exile community of
what is constructive criticism of the situation in Cuba, rather than
destructive," Romero said. "And there's more talk about reconciliation,
and a lot more talk about what's happening in Cuba not being a partisan
issue, or a local issue, but a human-rights-abuse issue."

Alex Burgos, a graduate of Miami's Belen Jesuit Preparatory School and
the University of Florida, is Raices' offi-cer in charge of networking
among young professionals. He said Raices also has members from many
Latin American countries, including Mexico, Venezuela and Peru. Last
year, for example in fact, Raices co-hosted the launch in Mexico City of
the Interna-tional Youth Committee for Democracy in Cuba, attended by
800 young people.

"When we left Miami and went to schools outside of Florida, we realized
that nobody knows about the Cuba issue," Gonzalez said. ‘‘We are trying
to get the word out of what s wrong, and what can be done to fix it."

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