Black Social Justice Activists and Educators Delegation: III Jordana Cubana Por El Día Internacional De la Mujer Afrolatina, Afrocaribeña de la Diáspora

Cuba | Black Social Justice Activists and Educators Delegation: III Jordana Cubana Por El Día Internacional De la Mujer Afrolatina, Afrocaribeña de la Diáspora

Journey Dates: July 20-30, 2024 Trip Availability: OPEN to invited organizational members

Tour Sponsor: IFCO Pastors for Peace with Rosemari Mealy and Sam Anderson

Greetings and Welcome to the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) Delegation of Social Justice Activists and Educators. For more than five decades, IFCO has been organizing for justice by supporting and guiding programs in pursuit of domestic and international community development. One of the cornerstones of our work since 1991 has been working in the United States on a variety of projects to bring about reconciliation and normalized relations between the United States and Cuba, and to challenge the immoral US economic embargo imposed by the US for more than 60 years. We have a solid reputation for organizing hundreds of US delegations to the island; facilitating the free scholarship program offered to US youth whose dream is to become a doctor via studying at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM); and IFCO/Pastors for Peace, which has organized 31 Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba as challenges to the US government’s economic blockade. Caravans take valuable humanitarian aid, but more importantly, they demonstrate to the Cuban people that they are not alone, and that Cuba has support and allies in the US.

We are so happy that you will be joining us on this incredible People-to People Journey to Cuba, July 20-30, 2024. We will meet and share memorable moments for ten days with our Cuban neighbors, participating in educational forums, hanging out at social and cultural venues, and having exchanges with Cuban scholars, students, and others representing various sectors of Cuban Society. You will have direct conversations with the Cuban people about their own first-hand reality. We will also have a road trip from Havana to visit historic Trinidad, which is one of the most beautiful and most authentic colonial cities in Cuba; in 1988 Trinidad was Declared World Heritage by UNESCO.

From July 21-24, we will be immersed in celebrating, sharing, and exchanging dialogue during Three Cuban Days of Afrofemenista Articulation, where specific actions are built around July 25th, The International Day of Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean, and Diaspora Women, which highlights the roles and contributions of Diaspora Women. The Articulation works as a Network of networks in which several projects with a diversity of projections connect, but a common denominator is the anti-racist and anti-patriarchal struggle to ensure equality in furthering Cuba’s Socialist experiment, which began 71 years ago on July 26, 1953.

We will hear over and over that the three days are not just about celebrating the International Day of Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women, but the focus is about putting emphasis on the anti-racist fight and the appreciation and contributions of Black women in building a new Cuban society, and the importance of maintaining ties with her sisters and brothers throughout Africa and the diaspora.

Finally, this delegation serves as witness for each one of us to the steadfast resilience of the Cuban People, their ingenuity, and how they are enhancing and advancing a rich intellectual, scientific, and cultural tradition in all aspects of Cuban society despite the decades-long challenges posed by the US economic blockade.

Our travel partners here and in Cuba will be available to make every aspect of your trip stress-free, where all of your expectation will be met by those who practice and promote ethical- and socially-responsible travel to Cuba.

Sam Anderson | Friend and Supporter of IFCO
Brooklyn, NY native Sam Anderson is an author of books and essays on science, technology (The Third World Confronts Science & Technology-with the late French Professor Maurice Bazin) and the history of slavery: The Black Holocaust for Beginners (Writers and Readers Publishers, 1995-2018). In addition, he has been an editor of numerous Black journals and anthologies: Black Dialog, NOBO Journal, The Black Activist, In Defense of Mumia, Writers and Readers,1996 and the tribute anthology to the Late Amiri Baraka: Let Loose on the World, 2010. He was the first chair of a Black Studies Department in 1969-70 at Sarah Lawrence College. Dr. Anderson has also taught at SUNY Old Westbury, City College of NY, NYU, Rutgers University, and Brooklyn College, and was former Education Director at the Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law and Social Justice. He has also been active in the Civil Rights/Black Liberation Movement since 1964, as a member of the Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a founding member of the original Black Panther Party in 1966. Sam Anderson was also an active participant within the US Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Rosemari Mealy, JD, PhD | Member Board of Directors IFCO.
Rosemari is an International Human Rights Activist and longtime Friend of Cuba. She was an international journalist for Radio Habana Cuba (RHC). Dr. Mealy served as the NGO Rep. of the National Alliance of TW Journalists.She has been the recipient of several outstanding reporting awards from the National Association of Black Journalists (NATWJ). On February 15, 2024, she received a Proclamation from the NY City Council as one of six Black Women who have “Strengthened our city today as a result of their Contributions to Building Community Networks, Taking Risks in Challenging Injustices.” In 2019 she was presented a Congressional Proclamation from Congresswoman Yvette Clark of the 9th Congressional District of Brooklyn, NY. In 2011, Dr. Mealy was petitioned by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People (ICAP), where she was awarded the Friendship Medal by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. She is the author of Fidel and Malcolm X-Memories of A Meeting(Black Classic Press, 2014); and Activism and Disciplinary Suspensions/ Expulsions at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): A Phenomenological Study of the Black Student Sit-In Movement, 1960-1962 (Mellen Press, 2013). Articles and Chapters: “An Incomprehensible Omission: Women and El-Hajj Malik El –Shabazz,” in A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X, J Ball and T. Burroughs, (Editors), Black Classic Press, 2013. “The Crisis of Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex” (Spring, 2000) African New World Studies, Florida International University, l (2). For more than twenty-five years, Prof. Mealy was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the City College of New York, Interdisciplinary Studies Department. In fall 2012, she was invited as a guest lecturer at the University of Havana in the Foreign Language Department. Rosemari has led a variety of thematic delegations to Cuba.