Quakers in Cuba

by Louisiana Hanlon
Brooklyn Meeting

This past January, during my junior year of high school, my family of four trudged through the airport with six suspicious giant black duffle bags. After a night in Miami and a few airport mishaps, we boarded the daily flight to Holguin, Cuba. Our plane landed on a small sun-soaked runway. We disembarked down a flight of stairs to the asphalt and met our hosts outside the tiny airport. With our bags strapped to the roof of our taxi, a 1987 Soviet-era Lada, we set off to the city. The flight to Holguin is only an hour from Miami, but our journey from the glitzy streets of downtown Miami to a city full of 70-year-old cars and horse-and-buggies felt like we had time-traveled back decades.

Our hosts were Maria Yi, the pastor of the Quaker church in Holguin, and her assistant, Lianet. Maria and Lianet helped us get religious visas so that we were allowed to stay in the church and volunteer in the Quaker community in Holguin. My parents had communicated with them via WhatsApp and (since they don’t speak Spanish) Google Translate to plan the trip. But once we arrived, the responsibility of communicating was now placed solely on me and my twin brother. Our Spanish is good for high school Spanish, but being the translator for my parents and trying to forge relationships in Spanish was an incredibly daunting challenge.

Because of the current economic crisis, we brought as much food and supplies for the people as we possibly could. Our duffle bags were full of over-the-counter medicines, toiletries, clothes, toilet paper, soap, toys, office supplies, canned food, peanut butter, ramen, condiments, powdered milk, coffee, and more. Over the course of two weeks, after meeting lots of people and learning more about the Cuban economic crisis, I saw how badly these basic items were needed. And I learned more about the forces causing shortages, even on goods that can be produced locally like coffee.

My family and I painted two rooms of the church building, did various chores, and my brother and I taught first day school. We were welcomed into the homes of seven different Quaker families and had dinners in a few of their houses. At each of these gatherings, I was challenged to converse in Spanish. My curiosity about everyday life in Cuba and my desire to understand their perspective on the current political and economic situation forced me to stop being so self-conscious and to take risks and improvise. Playing cards with Lianet’s 11-year-old son after dinner always provided comic relief.

If I didn't know the struggle of the current life in Cuba, I would have fallen in love with the city of Holguin. The colorful city is book-ended between two green mountains. With multiple town squares, a promenade, and streets full of bicycles, it looked like such an idyllic community. But because of the turmoil in recent years caused largely by the lack of tourism during the pandemic, compounded with the U.S trade embargo, the economic situation is at its worst since the collapse of the Soviet Union. We spent most of our time with young adult Quakers and everyone we met was waiting for a visa to come to the United States because they had little hope for a future in Cuba. Despite all this, we witnessed so much love, faith, and strength. The link between American Quakers and Cuban Quakers is more vital than ever through these difficult times. If you are interested in visiting the Holguin church, or would like more information, please reach out to me via an email to [email protected].