Monolo de los Santos spoke on Cuba in the Latin America Interest Group in Lancaster, Penn. Saturday, June 6. He is a theological student in Matanza Evangelical Seminary of Cuba. Cuban theology and church life are very important in terms of helping the people living under many decades of suffering from the blockade (el bloqueo) of goods entering Cuba. The Pastors for Peace Caravans have gathered goods, annually, from Canada, the United States and Mexico to aid their neighbors in Cuba with goods over the last 30 years. Such Caravan help is distributed by the Cuban Council of Church and Religions without a government controls.
Monolo was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up in New York City. He became involved with the Caravan’s theology and faith that aid neighbors in need. He spoke about Cuban life and its perspective on justice. He is now experiencing the Christian faith there– and Cuban history.
For instance, Cuba had a mono-crop, sugar, for more than a century. Hershey Company, once an importer of Cuban sugar, still owns half of the land in Matanza’s province, and it owns the railroad between Matanza and Havana. In the early 1990s, sugar exports to the Soviet Union ended when it collapsed. Famine during these years were known everywhere on the island. The government, however, never– during these famine days- stopped having free education and free health service. Many Cuban medical doctors over the decades have been and are working free in foreign countries where there are communal health problems.
If persons want to love this neighbor and have solidarity with Cuban people, Monolo invited them to support aid going with the Pastor for Peace Caravan. Beside this solidarity, he invited everybody to visit there as another way of loving this neighbor.
The best way to help with food and goods is to ask the U.S. Senate and Congress to end their blockage of Cuba, which started in the 1960s in order to harm the Cuban people and start a regime change; it never happened. But “el bloqueo” remains with people hurting for goods.
— Ken Trauger, 6-7-15
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