John Henry Cabanas walks slowly through the Key West-Cuba Heritage Institute's newly remodeled offices and classrooms, talking excitedly about the institute's challenges and future.
"People-to-people is what it is all about," he said from the 417 Angela St. location. "Exchanges between the people of the Untied State and the people of Cuba. The people of both countries have always had good relations and people-to-people contact will put us above politics."
Cabanas points proudly at a faded old black-and-white photo of Cuba's father of independence, José Martí, as Martí talks from the balcony of where La-Te-Da and Alice's restaurant are today.
Cabanas, chairman and CEO of the institute, and Richard Reposa, vice president and CFO, have been licensed by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to promote and sponsor people-to-people educational exchange programs to Cuba through the institute.
The institute's OFAC license authorizes American citizens to travel to Cuba to participate in one or more of the institute's approved programs.
"Right now, we have eight OFAC approved programs," Cabanas explained as he sipped from a small cup of strong Cuban coffee. "And we have applied for others and expect to be licensed for them this year."
Itineraries
The itineraries now are "Architecture in Colonial Cuba: Havana and Trinidad." There are two different architecture agendas that can be taken separately or together. "Medicine in Cuba" also has two agendas. Both "Tobacco: Its history and meaning in Key West/Cuba relations," and "Cinema in Cuba 1897-2000," have three agendas.
The institute's bylaws state that the purpose of the institute shall be people-to-people exchanges in order to "sponsor, organize and promote people-to-people contact through educational exchanges. ..."
The institute wants to identify and develop studies on historical links between Key West and Cuba. Cabanas' father, Julio, was president of the San Carlos Institute from 1951 to 1961 and he is able to trace his family's migration to Key West from Cuba to 1854, when Ricardo Cabanas came to Key West.
"The history between the two islands is long," Cabanas said. "The Instituto San Carlos and many other clubs in Key West were established by the Cuban community to foster the independence of Cuba."
The institute's tobacco agenda begins as does its other agendas with a sightseeing trip down the Overseas Highway the first day and the second day includes tours of historical Key West-Cuban interests.
"We will stop at the Gato Cigar Factory and the Teodoro Pérez house where José Martí spoke to the cigar workers from its balcony," Cabanas said.
The tour will also include a trip to the San Carlos Institute before the group leaves for Miami and a flight to Havana on the third day.
"The institute was founded to preserve, study and celebrate the shared cultural heritage of Key West and Cuba," Reposa said. "Our programs are designed to prepare Americans to understand the history of Cuba and Key West from the perspectives of centuries of cultural exchanges."
"Key West and Cuba do not simply offer a tale of two islands," Cabanas added, "but a shared history and heritage."
Tobacco roots
Growing tobacco and rolling cigars is an old art in Cuba. The Cuban habanos industry arrived in Key West in the late 1800s as the workers who hand-rolled the cigars and constructed the cedar boxes fled the Spanish-controlled island, which was in revolution.
Tobacco factories or tabaquerías, with their corresponding labor force from Cuba, flourished in Key West. The institute's trip to Cuba will trace the history of tobacco and cigar making on the island. Participants will meet with people who are part of the tobacco industry in Cuba today, many of them with years of experience.
During the seven days of the agenda, participants 10 to 20 Americans, maximum will interact with Cuban nationals six to 15 Cubans from the tobacco industry will meet with the group each day.
That number of Cubans does not count the tour guides and other Cuban workers who will be involved daily with the visitors.
After checking into the hotel, the institute's guests will spend the week visiting Institute of Tobacco Research in San Antonio de los Banos, the Partagás tobacco factory, the Museo de Bellas Artes, travel to Pinar del Rio to tour a tobacco farm, and participate in many other tobacco and historical aspects of the industry in Cuba, including roundtable discussions.
During the week, the visitors will have the opportunity for open discussions with experts in the tobacco and cigar-making fields.
Package deal
All the institute's trips involve American citizens meeting with Cuban citizens to discuss topics of interest such as tobacco, medicine, architecture and cinema.
The institute's programs average about $3,500 per week. The price includes round-trip airfare to Havana, hotel accommodations, meals, transportation, Cuban visas, medical insurance while in Cuba, and all American and Cuban arrival, departure, airport and security taxes and fees.
Also included are all field trips, pre-departure reading materials on Cuban history and U.S. Cuban relations. All field trips are guided and offer opportunities to meet and talk with Cuban citizens, officials and experts in the field of the chosen agenda.
Cabanas and Reposa like to talk of their trips to Cuba and how the Cuban people are curious about Americans and there is no hate toward Americans.
"There are controversies between the two countries," Cabanas said, "but not between the people. Our trips will enrich both peoples as they meet and learn from each other."
"I have always been impressed by how I am greeted by the Cuban people I meet," Reposa said. "I went there the first time not knowing what to expect and I want to share the surprise and pleasure with others on their first trip to Cuba."
Visiting Cuba, both men said, will only help the citizens of both countries understand each other. By choosing areas of the academic seminars, American and Cuban people who share the same passions and concerns in those fields will get to talk to one another.
"People to people," Cabanas said. "Americans will experience the Cuban people and this is just the beginning. We will grow as a base for education and I hope that our children Cuban and American will grow out of the mistrust the governments have." .
