By Gerry Boyle '78

From left to right: American activists paint a mural at the town community center in La Güinera, Cuba, last June; Eric Miles '93 applies paint; Elizabeth Maclean '94 takes a break with a fellow Cuban worker. photos by Karen Oh '93

When bills were introduced in the House and Senate last year that would have made it easier for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba, Elizabeth Maclean '94 saw her phones light up.

Maclean works for the Center for Cuban Studies, a nonprofit organization in New York whose mission is normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S. From its offices in Chelsea in lower Manhattan, the center publishes a magazine called Cuba Update, maintains a Web site (www.cubaupdate.org), houses a research library and art gallery–and takes tours to the long-restricted island. "We've gotten a million calls where people are like, 'Does that mean we can go now?'" Maclean said.

Not at all. As of this writing, it appeared the bills would leave travel restrictions in place in exchange for relaxing limits on sales of food and medicine to Cuba. That means it's unlikely that there will be a big increase in the number of Americans visiting Cuba (165,000 went last year, including 100,000 Cuban-born naturalized Americans, according to The New York Times). Those Americans who do travel to Cuba may take a circuitous route through Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean to sidestep restrictions. Others can follow Maclean's example and go to Cuba to work.

A veteran activist who began working with Habitat for Humanity in high school in Ohio, Maclean went to Cuba in June with other Colby alumni as part of a "construction brigade." Along with Eric Miles '93, Prentice Grassi '95 and Karen Oh '93, Maclean joined in a project called "La Abeja Obrera," Spanish for "The Worker Bee." Joined by a contingent from San Francisco, the group, now numbering approximately 25, met with Cuban municipal officials in the town of La Güinera, a city with a rich community activist tradition, chosen by the United Nations as one of 50 model global communities. The American group visited a school for mentally challenged children, poured cement, hung doors and painted a mural at the town community center. "I really find it's such a great way to get to know other people and to work together," Maclean said. "You learn a lot."

After four trips to Cuba, including a six-month stay in 1994, Maclean says she finds the Cuban people are generous, warm and open, very different from Americans. "It's a different focus entirely. . . . (Whether they are) political or not, that comes across."

She also noted the allure of Cuban architecture with its balconies and courtyards, buildings still beautiful even in a state of disrepair. Everywhere in the towns one hears mothers calling children, children playing. "It's like everyone is talking to everyone all the time," Maclean said. "It kind of envelops you."

Licensed by the Treasury Department, the Center for Cuban Studies is not affected by the travel restrictions. In fact, more Americans have expressed interest in the next La Abeja Obrera trip, Maclean said. The New York contingent is limited to 25 people because larger numbers can become unwieldy and impersonal, she said.

But even small groups are worthwhile, she said, as the projects connect activists who can remember when the economic embargo was imposed in 1962 and those who were born 20 years later. "I just feel it fills this void," Maclean said. "I feel like people my age and younger are really doing stuff, are really looking for a way to be connected, to do international work but not to be a tourist. To do it actively. To participate."