Reflections on Cuban Coffee & Solidarity
2018 International Solidarity Conference, Havana, Cuba
In 2018, just a few days after concluding a 9 day mass occupation of Howard University’s administration building1; and two weeks before completing my undergraduate studies, I found myself on a plane to Havana, Cuba. I was there for the International May Day Brigade, an annual delegation centered around the International Workers Day celebration and bolstering the movement against the decades-long economic blockade against Cuba. Our multinational group was sizable and had representatives from at least 10 countries including folks from Brazil, Ghana, the US, and Europe. Our base was a camp about 30 minutes out from Havana that had a cluster of cabins, a dining hall, meeting space, and a courtyard with a cantina that sold refreshments.
Whether we were exiting the lecture hall after a panel on the cuban revolution, or tumbling out of the bus from a work day at a nearby farm, we punctuated most of our official activities gathered around the cantina. It was at this cantina that I first encountered the cuban cafecito, which is a strong shot of black coffee brewed in a stovetop percolator. The first drops of coffee that bubble over are combined with a few heaping spoons of sugar, and whisked with a fork until they create a delicious crema. Once the coffee is done brewing, it’s poured over the crema which floats to the top, creating a sweet froth, and served hot in small espresso cups.
We would frequent the cantina sometimes three times a day to enjoy a cafecito and talk politics with our cuban hosts. During that time I felt acutely aware of how differently cubans interacted with coffee. It wasn’t a means to productivity, but a daily ritual to gather and connect. It’s common to invite friends and strangers alike to enjoy a midday cafecito in Cuba, and in many ways this feels connected to the revolutionary spirit that flows through cubans like breath. Experiencing the sweetness and radical generosity of the cuban people through cafecitos y café con leche is undoubtedly what inspired the beginnings of my own coffee ceremony practice.
One of the focal points of the trip was attending the huge May Day parade on May 1st to celebrate International Workers’ Day and the subsequent International Solidarity Conference. The streets of downtown Havana were full of people celebrating both May Day and the recent election of the current president, Miguel Diaz-Canal. There was music, drums, colorful floats, and we even got to see the president speak. The International Solidarity Conference, which was held the next day in a convention center, felt like the United Nations for leftists and progressives. There was representation from over 30 countries, which all presented comments with updates from the movement in their home country and expressions of solidarity for the Cuban people who are, to this day, suffering from the consequences of the embargo.
I was selected to present comments on behalf of the US, bringing the perspective of the student movement after the success of HU Resist’s occupation. I would like to share those comments today because they feel especially relevant as students resume occupations and encampments in solidarity with Palestine, and are being brutalized, expelled, and imprisoned for it.
I hope that these words can serve as a reminder that all of our struggles are connected across space and time. And as Ella Baker once said, “the struggle is eternal. The tribe increases. Somebody else carries on.”
*Please see additional solidarity resources below
2018 International Solidarity Conference US Delegations Comments
May 2, 2018, Havana, Cuba
On March 29, over 500 hundred students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. took over our administration building for 9 days, making the longest occupation in Howard’s history. The occupation was organized by HU Resist, a group that I and 10 other students created last February when we noticed our university aligning itself with the Trump admin. This was in conjunction with discontent brewing for years because of the subpar living conditions and lack of transparency from University Administration. The occupation was sparked by a list of 9 demands (7 of which were met). Which ranged from issues such as rape culture, housing, disarming campus police, democratizing our university , and more. They also addressed larger issues that affect the surrounding black, working class community in Washington which suffers from poverty, food insecurity, and displacement via gentrification.
During the occupation, we built the society that we were demanding by providing free food for students, food pantries for homeless community members, gender inclusivity, medical attention, community activities, and a police free zone. In that short period of time we became a very small version of what the cuban revolution was able to achieve on a national scale. The occupation at Howard gave me as an organizer and oppressed person in the US, hope for the power of the people and hope for the potential of students within our national struggle.
I am here to share my experience as a student at Howard, but what we are fighting for speaks to larger issues such as police brutality, the gross centralization of resources, transphobia, and the many other violent effects of capitalism and racism that plague our society. And it also only one example of the many fights occurring in the states. We at Howard draw inspiration from the students that set the radial tradition of reclaiming our buildings during the previous occupations of 1968 and 1989, and also from the students of the cuban revolution who played such a special role in its national liberation.
During and following our occupation, we were able to inspire two more student movements at universities in the US which speaks to the sparking factor of marginalized people within an imperialist country physically demanding dignity and democracy.
I want to conclude by putting the call out to students all across the United States and the world: it is our responsibility to carry on this struggle and be more actively involved in aligning it with cuban solidarity. We have so much to learn from and share with our cuban family. And I also want to put a call out to the elders here who have paved the way, to take up the responsibility of recruiting and instilling the spirit of revolution into as many young people as possible because it is us that will carry on this fight and pass it on to our children.”
Solidarity Resources
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