Seeking to strengthen ties with one of the United States' most controversial neighbors, the University has recently formed a partnership with a group that promotes education and social work in Cuba.
Fundacion Amistad, founded in 1997 by the wife of a former University trustee, will sponsor its third trip of Duke undergraduates to Cuba this May. With a new office that opened this semester in the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, the program is designed to facilitate teaching and research relationships between Duke and the island nation.
"Our mission is not the same, as we focus on research and teaching and their mission is public service, but we come together around specific projects, particularly ones that involve education and training," said Gilbert Merkx, vice provost for international affairs. "The relationship will develop according to the opportunity, but I see two-way traffic."
In particular, Merkx said the University is seeking to work with Fundacion Amistad to improve links with Cuban researchers in medicine and the environment, as well as with undergraduate and graduate programs in Latin American studies. Working through an educational visa from the U.S. Treasury Department, Fundacion Amistad has already sponsored several student and research trips to Cuba but is now starting a more formal relationship with the University.
Fundacion Amistad was started by Maria de Lourdes "Luly" Duke, wife of Anthony Duke, a former trustee and a member of the University benefactor's family. Born in Cuba, Luly Duke said she started the program to increase the welfare of Cubans and to promote understanding. The program is sponsored by outside funds and receives no University money, she said.
The group's goal is not without controversy, she said, noting that many other Cuban exiles support a stronger embargo against Cuba as a means to oppose President Fidel Castro. Although Fundacion Amistad has no official position on lifting the sanctions, Duke said she thinks they should be repealed.
"We're not a lobby and we try to stay apolitical," she said. "I respect others' views and I respect their differences, but I feel the time has come to move forward and cut emotional ties."
The group sponsored its first trip to Cuba in the summer of 1998, led by Hortensia Calvo, Perkins Library's specialist in Latin America and Iberia. With extensive contacts and experience in both Cuba and the United States, Fundacion Amistad made possible many opportunities on the trip that it otherwise would not have had, Calvo said.
"There were many bureaucratic pitfalls in dealing with the Cuban side and the U.S. side, with paperwork and visas, etc., and Fundacion Amistad facilitates that process," she said.
Many of the collaborations between the University and Cuba have taken place in medical research, including neurology and psychiatry. An undergraduate study abroad program is in the planning, and work is continuing in Latin American studies and environmental studies.
Two years ago, Fundacion Amistad sponsored a trip to Cuba with several University officials, including representatives from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. The trip allowed researchers to study the urban environment, including air and water quality, in Havana.
"It's a mutual thing of people getting to know people, and a sense of how similar the issues are and what people worry about, whether they're in Durham or Havana," said Norm Christensen, then-dean of the Nicholas School.
There will be an information session for the three-week undergraduate trip at 6 p.m. Friday at the International House.
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