The title of this course is “Traveling Cuba’s National Freeway: The Road to Revolution,” but it could just as easily be titled “Seeing is Knowing: Studying Cuba in Cuba.”

The Cuban Revolution was not just a historical event; on the contrary, it is an ongoing project. What’s more, it is the lens not only through which Cubans view and understand the world but also how Americans understand Cuba and Cubans. The “Road to Revolution,” then, is a physical, cultural, experiential, and academic journey along the entire length of the island by way of the national highway.

In doing this, students will gain a firsthand account of the ongoing project that is the Cuban Revolution in all its present-day political, economic, diplomatic, and cultural realities, as these relate to education, healthcare, tourism, international relations, and trade. Correlative topics of race, gender, LGBT activism, the arts, and sports will also be treated.

It will also be important to underscore that, in addition to the Revolution, Cuba exists in the American imaginary as an island and is, thus, obligated to satisfy the perceptions and expectations that that imaginary demands. In fact, the notion of an “island culture” is a cultural construct born out of an imaginative geography, to use a term coined by Zaid, that are projections, first of the colonizer, then by the tourists who visit, all of whom are external observers. In this way, there is a cultural dissonance between what the inhabitants of an island and what non-islanders think an island should be. This notion will be introduced to the students, initially during the pre-departure meetings during which we discuss expectations, then through the trip, and in the post-trip debriefing.

That said, there are certain obvious geographic features that can be considered. While in Cuba, students will attend a lecture in Havana by Dr. Roberto Pérez Rivero, Environmental Education and Biodiversity Program Director, for the Foundation Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el hombre. The FANJ is a “civil, non-governmental, non-profit organization active in research and development of programs and actions that promote values towards the Culture of Nature at local, national and international level. FANJ carries out five work programs, geo-historical research, patrimonial conservation and cultural services, sustainable localities, nature and community, responsible consumption and economy.” In addition, students will visit the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment) to learn about Cuba’s participation in the Biodiversity Finance Initiative.

By traveling throughout Cuba’s 15 provinces, students will witness the disparities in levels of economic and social development throughout the island and engage personally with Cubans whose lives are distinct from those of the capital and even neighboring provinces relative to their immediate geographic, social, and economic realities.

This experience of traveling the length of the island, this immersion in Cuban culture in all of its manifestations, will provide students a unique opportunity to develop each of the course’s proposed outcomes as they relate to Cuba, their own cultures, their areas of interest, the future careers, and, more importantly, themselves as individuals.