BY LISA SEDELNIK
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BY LISA SEDELNIK |
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The origins of this decades-old partnership began when Bowman Foster Ashe, shortly after being named the University's first president in March 1926, established contact with the University of Havana. President Ashe, it seems, wanted to start amicable relations with the Cuban university not only due to its geographic proximity, but also because of the international prestige the University of Havana, founded in 1728, was then enjoying. By that point, graduates of the University of Havana were well-known internationally for excellence in the fields of medicine and law. And what better way to understand how to cultivate academically gifted students than to begin a relationship with an institution that had already done so? An open exchange of students and professors between the two universities soon began. In fact, the newly formed University of Miami was invited by University of Havana's rector, Octavio Averhoff, to its bicentennial celebration in 1928. Later that year, Carlota Sarah Wright, a student from Santiago de Cuba, would enroll at the University of Miami as its first Latin-American student. Fifteen more Cuban students enrolled during the next two years. The University of Miami even participated in competitive sporting events with the University of Havana. The Hurricanes played the sixth game of its first football season on Thanksgiving Day, 1926, against the University of Havana's Caribes. The 'Canes won that game by a score of 23-0. The flow of Cuban students to the University would eventually peak between 1933 and 1936, when the University of Havana was forced to close due to the outbreak of the Machado Revolution. "It was the only university Cuba had at that time, and when it closed, we had approximately 70 students come to Miami," says Esperanza de Varona, curator of the Cuban Collection and assistant head of the Archives and Special Collections Department at the University of Miami's Richter Library.
One such professional was educator Elvira Dopico, who arrived in Miami in December of 1962, after trying her luck in an executive position in New York. Once in Miami, however, Dopico knew she was in for a tough adjustment. Cash-strapped and jobless, like so many Cuban refugees in the United States at the time, Dopico needed to find professional work-and fast. Landing a job in education, a career she hoped to reenter, would prove painstakingly difficult. Although Dopico had been trained as a teacher in Cuba, she had no prior teaching experience in the United States. All she could do was hope for the best.
"It definitely helped open doors, especially since we didn't have the money to pay for the courses," recalls Dopico, who retired in 1994 after a 30-year stint in education. Her career culminated in an associate superintendent position with Dade County Public Schools. Participants in the program were taught not only the all-too-familiar subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, but something even more valuable-intensive English lessons. The courses were also extremely helpful in easing the culture shock many students faced upon arriving in the United States. By the summer of 1973, approximately 500 Cuban teachers had completed the program and become board certified. The University has established a long tradition of being a reliable, sensitive friend to the fast-growing Cuban-exile community, always, it seems, one step ahead of their changing needs. Yet the Cuban Teacher Retraining Program was just one example of how the University opened its doors to the Cuban community. Many similar professional retraining programs would follow. Cuban attorneys arriving here suffered a similar predicament, albeit slightly more difficult. Not only did these students need to master English, they had to find an institution of higher learning that would provide a comprehensive training program in common law, says Jeannette Hausler (B.A. '51, J.D. '53), a Cuban herself and dean of students at the School of Law. Trained in civil law in Cuba, these attorneys needed instruction in the core courses of a common law system, as well as training in legal research and writing. The University quickly offered assistance to these students through a program for Cuban lawyers under the leadership of the late Wesley Sturges, then dean of the law school. Richard Hausler, professor of law at the University since 1948, vividly remembers the sight of the young Cuban lawyers in the classroom. "I can still remember it clearly, watching the various lectures and surveys of American law that were given to the Cuban lawyers," he recalls. "It was a very beautiful experience for us as Americans to offer them this opportunity to adjust to a new environment, to a new world, to a new culture, to take them in." In fact, many of the lawyers trained under the Cuban Lawyers Program have since gone on to enjoy successful careers in the legal field. For many of the program's participants, the experience is still fresh on their minds. Although not a graduate of the program, but someone who attended the law school during that era, Mario Goderich (J.D. '66), now a judge with the Third District Court of Appeals, remembers the program as one that was well-received, not only by students, but by faculty. "Most of the group from the University of Miami passed the bar and went on to practice law," says Judge Goderich. "They were delighted, as I was, that the University gave us the opportunity to go back to law school. The University did a wonderful job." The University also provided retraining to foreign physicians through a program dubbed the Post-Graduate Medical Program for Cuban Refugees, which was created as a refresher course to help foreign medical graduates/physicians pass their licensing examination. According to a thesis by Charles Sevick, a former associate director of the Cuban Teacher Retraining Program, the University created the program in 1961 and helped an estimated 2,000 physicians, who had left Cuba by 1967 (almost one-third of all physicians in Cuba prior to the Castro regime), pass the licensing exams. Manuel Peñalver (B.S. '73, M.D. '77), a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the School of Medicine, who taught the course from 1984 to 1988, and whose father, the late Rafael Peñalver, ran the program for more than 20 years, saw many international students go on to become doctors because of the training they received at the University. "There are many people who have told us that without this course they would have had a very hard time passing the exam," Peñalver says. But these special professional training programs were not the only resource Cuban students could tap into at the time. Many students took regular classes and enrolled in various degree programs. "Many students were able to go to the University of Miami and get an education, even if they didn't have the money," says Luis Botifoll, who received an honorary degree from the University in 1993 and is a University trustee emeritus. "At that time, the only place they could go was the University of Miami, and of course Cubans were very interested in giving their children a good education."
The relationship between the University and the Cuban community grew even stronger when Robert Allen, then the director of the Division of Continuing Studies, with the cooperation of Luis Rodríguez Molina, helped establish the Cuban Cultural Center at the John J. Koubek Memorial Center in Miami in the early 1960s. (In 1974, Allen was named dean, and the Division of Continuing Studies was renamed the School of Continuing Studies.) The center, a 5,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion, with an adjoining auditorium and classroom building, located in the heart of Little Havana, helped the newly arrived Cubans adapt, both culturally and emotionally, to their new way of life. "The Koubek Center has given so much to the community," says Botifoll, who is honorary chairman of the Friends of Koubek. "It has taught people many things-not only literature and history. It has also taught women how to cook, how to paint, and how to sew. In other words, the Koubek Center has been a vital link between the University of Miami and the Cuban community." Austrian immigrant John J. Koubek built the mansion as a gift to his wife Rose in 1929 and donated it to the University of Miami in 1942 to be used as an adult education facility. Over the years, though, the center has provided much more, says Pablo Chao, the center's director for the last 17 years. "The Koubek Center is the heart of Miami's Cuban community," Chao says. The center has offered a wide range of classes and lectures in the past-from business and computer courses, watercolor and interior design classes, to book signings. It has even served as an electoral precinct.
The newly restored auditorium has been named the Luis J. Botifoll Auditorium, in recognition of Botifoll's long involvement and interest in the center and his continued leadership and commitment with the fundraising effort. Botifoll successfully raised funds for the project through pledges and financial commitments from Miami's Cuban community.
"The Koubek Center touches a nerve, especially with the Cuban community, that no other place on campus does because of what it signified in the early days," Holden says. "At that time it was considered a beacon of light." More importantly, however, the Koubek Center is not only a representation of the glowing goodwill the University extended to Cubans in years past, it is a physical example of the ongoing relationship between the University of Miami and the Cuban community-a relationship that is sure to shine bright for generations to come. |
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Preserving Cuban Culture and History
She has put in her share of long hours, helping to sort, organize, and catalog literally hundreds of boxes of Cuban material collected by colleagues Rosa Bella and Ana Rosa Nuñez, formerly librarians in Cuba and both emeriti professors of the University of Miami. The two had collected Cuban material over the years and stored it carefully in boxes, knowing that if the information was not stored properly it could be lost or destroyed. "We've done it by working many extra hours. It's a lot of work, but it doesn't bother us," says de Varona. "We had to make it available and accessible to the public. We knew it was very important to preserve the material on Cuban culture and the history of Cuba." The success of the collection must also be attributed to the long-standing support the collection has received from library directors in the past, starting with Archie McNeal, library director from 1952 to 1979; Frank Rodgers, director from 1979 to 1997; and the library's newest director Don Bosseau. The late Helen Purdy, head of the archives and special collections from 1978 to 1990, was also instrumental in organizing and laying the groundwork for de Varona.
One such document was an original letter dated May 12, 1895, signed by José Martí, the champion of Cuban independence, and Máximo Gómez, leader of the rebel army during Cuba's war of independence, and received by Jesús Rabí, a general in that war. Rabí later gave the letter to Sebastian O'Fallon, who had fought alongside him in the war, as a token of his appreciation. The letter was donated years later to the University for safekeeping by Rolando O'Fallon, Sebastian O'Fallon's son. What followed was an extremely emotional encounter. "He came in with a letter clutched to his chest and said, 'What I bring here with me is my greatest treasure. I am giving you a part of my life, but I know the best place for this letter is right here,'" de Varona recalls. The collection now has a diverse array of documents and artifacts, including one of the largest collections of exile periodicals in the world, as well as political flyers, posters, postcards, maps, programs, invitations, and conference leaflets. And the list goes on. The collection carries over 3,000 rare books, as well as hundreds of boxes of important historical documents, correspondence, and other material from many private collections such as the Lydia Cabrera Collection and most recently the Gastón Baquero Collection. As a result, today the University's Cuban Collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind outside of Cuba. For information on how to become a member of the Amigos of the Cuban Collection, please call 305-284-3247. |
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| Lisa Sedelnik is assistant editor of Miami magazine. Vintage photography courtesy of the Richter Library's Cuban Collection. Quilt assembly by Delta Thompson. Photography by John Zillioux. |
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hen the
founders of the University of Miami envisioned a "Pan-American University"
72 years ago, they foresaw the many advantages afforded by the University's
proximity to Latin America. One relationship in particular-that between
the University and the Cuban community-would especially prosper, but due
to an extraordinary set of circumstances neither could have predicted.
et it wasn't until after 1959,the year
Fidel Castro seized power, that the University would begin to witness one
of the largest influxes of students ever from the Caribbean island. Among
that group was a large number of professionals.
Dopico's prospects
suddenly changed in 1963, however, when the University of Miami instituted
the Cuban Teacher Retraining Program-an intensive program tailored to help
former Cuban teachers, like Dopico, receive state certification. Dopico
enrolled in the program, a decision that paved the way for an extremely
successful career in education.
oday the Koubek Center looks better than
ever after receiving a recent and much-needed facelift, which included restoring
the historic mansion and adjacent 186-seat auditorium. Leading the restoration
effort was Carol Holden, dean of the School of Continuing Studies and a
fan of historic preservation. Funds for the restoration of the mansion were
provided through a grant from the State of Florida. The sizable capital
injection was enough to allow the University the opportunity to restore
this architectural gem to its original splendor.
The Koubek Center now provides many noncredit
professional courses, certificate programs, lectures, and seminars. However,
Dean Holden hopes to collaborate with the newly formed School of International
Studies and offer other programs that will spark the interest of younger
Cuban-Americans and others in the community.
Since her start with the collection almost
17 years ago, de Varona says she has always felt a certain affinity for
the collection, not only because of that special cultural connection she
shares with the collection because of her own Cuban heritage, but because
she also appreciates all the University has done for the Cuban community
throughout the years.
Collecting rare Cuban documents, however, has
not come without its share of heartache, notes de Varona, especially when
receiving documents very dear to donors.