Extension Specialist and Cuban Exile Urges Reconciliation

Auburn, Sept. 10, 2003 --- As Diego Gimenez and other members of the Alabama agricultural trade delegation waited in a receiving line in Havana last August to greet Cuban President Fidel Castro, he couldn’t help but reflect on the long journey back to his native country --- a journey that took more than two generations to complete.

Forty-two years ago, Gimenez, a young Cuban exile and University of Florida student, decided to act on his opposition to the Castro regime by taking part in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.

(Above: Dr. Diego Gimenez, AU associate professor of animal science and Alabama Cooperative Extension System animal scientist, center, poses with Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks (right) and Vladimir Martinez Martinez, a representative of Cuba’s vice minister of livestock production, at Los Naranjos, Cuba’s principal animal breeding research center in Havana province.)

Captured only 72 hours after storming the beach, Gimenez and other members of the brigade were sentenced to 30 years of hard labor with the proviso that they could be freed with $100,000 in ransom money. He and the other fighters were eventually ransomed out of Cuba, but only after receiving a stern warning from his captors never to set foot on Cuban soil again.

All of these memories passed through Gimenez’s mind as he made his way through the receiving line.

“We introduced ourselves to Castro, and I remember saying in the most perfect Spanish I was able to summon that I was Diego Gimenez with Auburn University. Castro’s first reaction was to turn to his interpreter and say, ‘He speaks Spanish perfectly.’

“When he turned again to face me, I replied, ‘I haven’t forgotten it, Mr. President,’ and I just continued walking by.”

An American citizen for more than 30 years, Gimenez has forgotten neither his native language nor his commitment to the Cuban people.

For him, meeting the man who personified the suffering his family had endured for so long was a “letting go” – proof that “what happened 42 years ago was no more.”

But it also symbolized a new beginning.

Recently, with the permission of the Cuban government, Gimenez, Auburn University associate professor of animal science, Alabama Cooperative Extension System animal scientist and Extension’s Hispanic/Latino coordinator, accompanied Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and other Alabama agricultural leaders to explore ways to improve trade and information exchanges with this beleaguered island nation.

Gimenez is convinced both Alabama and Auburn University are well positioned to assist Cuba as it opens up to the rest of the world.

“If you look at Cuba, it is still predominantly an agricultural country with a very strong need for many of the products commonly grown in Alabama --- cotton, cotton seed, grain, poultry and eggs and, to a somewhat limited extent, pork, which already is being imported from Canada,” Gimenez observed.

Timber for general construction purposes is another crucial need, Gimenez stressed.

Even so, in the foreseeable future, Gimenez believes, trade and information exchanges with Cuba essentially will be a one-way street. Once a major agricultural exporter, Cuba is now a net importer of many agricultural staples and will likely remain so for a very long time, he said --- a problem made worse by the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s main economic supplier for almost four decades.

“We toured agricultural facilities that were dealing with lack of fertilizer and fuel. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, availability of the most basic products has been limited and Cuba has been forced to shift priorities --- a problem made worse by the lack of foreign exchange to purchase these products from other countries.”

This, among other factors, has forced Cuba to begin a slow, painful transition to a free-market economy. As this transition occurs, Gimenez foresees an especially valuable role for Auburn University working with its Cuban counterparts to develop Extension programs.

Lifting the embargo will be another key factor behind Cuban economic recovery, Gimenez believes. Ending the embargo, he argues, not only will help ordinary Cubans but will provide a strong incentive for normalization to occur between the United States and Cuba.

“Looking at Cuba, lots of people will say, ‘Well, here we go again building up a nation that may eventually threaten American economic growth and jobs,’” Gimenez said. “But it will be generations before the Cuban economy is prepared to compete with the United States.”

“What do we have to lose? Very little, I think. Cuba, after all, no longer poses any threat to the United States.”

Gimenez, who, along with other members of the Alabama delegation, met with Castro for more than 3 hours during the visit, will share his Cuban experiences and his views on fostering better relations with Cuba as part of the E.T. York International Scholar Lecture Series on Friday, Oct. 31 at 11:45 in 109 Comer Hall.

(Source: Dr. Diego Gimenez, Extension Animal Scientist and Hispanic/Latino Coordinator, 334-844-1520.)

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