Propaganda

It has been an interesting week for me. This past Thursday we met with José Ramón Fernández, the current Vice President of the Council of Ministers and leader of Cuban forces during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He spoke about the invasion and how Cuba was able to bring about the first military defeat of the U.S. in the Americas. Basically we listened for about an hour and a half about the glory of Cuba and the defiance of the Cuban people to the imperialistic Americans. On Friday we traveled to Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) and visited two museums dedication to the Cuban forces and strategy during the invasion. The first museum was housed in an old sugar mill house which was used as the headquarters for the Cuban forces. It was filled with military paraphernalia, like parts of U.S. planes, uniforms, maps, weapons, etc… Like all museums in Cuba it praised the strength and intelligence of Fidel and the Cuba people who fought in the conflict. I don’t think that the U.S. should have been so shortsighted in their plan for invasion. I think had any official visited the Cuban people it would have been obvious that the majority of Cubans were in support of the Revolution and therefore would not simply let mercenaries invade and establish a new government. Afterwards we visited the actual beach and swam for a while. I don’t know why one would have picked this place to invade, solely for the fact that it is gorgeous.

On Saturday we visited with Michael Parmly the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana at his residence. After hearing a brief history of the house and its extensive grounds we were able to speak with him about many things. Although he does support the U.S. policy towards Cuba it was interesting to see his views on exchanges of academic and cultural institutions. He feels that they need to be increased between the two countries because each side has something they can learn from the other. This was interesting to me since while George W. Bush has been in office more academic and cultural exchange programs have been closed between the two countries rather than opened. Parmly was the first person from the U.S. administration that seemed to be actively seeking to establish more programs to Cuba. This seems to be contradictory to the fact that obtaining visas for exchange students from any country is getting more and more difficult. It is refreshing to see that a high ranking State Department official sees the value in global exchanges.

This past week being full of propaganda and having about 20 articles to read for classes has made me realize that our lives whether consciously or unconsciously are filled with propaganda. Each one of my class readings took the same stance on Cuban-U.S. relations in the last twenty years. Cuba is always right and the U.S. is always wrong. None of the articles we read justify at all the U.S. policy towards Cuba. Despite that obvious fact that my professors disagree with the policy and that I would think that most people on my trip disagree with it, it does not mean that there are not justifications given by either academics or the U.S. Government. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was taking these classes in the States if the perspective would be slightly different despite the fact that a third of the articles were written by AU professors, I came to the conclusion that although the view point might be different it would still in reality only be one-sided. My classes here I only recently came to fully realize are a constant bombardment of pro Cuba sentiments. They almost never approach or if attempted can fully approach topics from both sides. It is not just classes, everyday when we turn on the TV or read the newspapers or just walk down the street we are being ‘taught’ that the U.S. is bad and nothing good can come from cooperation with it, and that Cuba is good and that nothing is wrong in Cuban society or its style of government. There are exceptions to the rule but as a whole I find that most things can be traced to anti-U.S. feelings. This is not just true to Cuba, in the U.S. my entire life, in school and through societal involvement I have be ‘taught’ that the U.S. is the best and that our policies and actions are right or will prove to be the right ones in the future. Until the invasion of Iraq I don’t think that most Americans ever challenged this notion. In the same respect I don’t think many Cubans have challenged the idea that the U.S. is ‘bad’.

It is interesting to think about the effects of indirect propaganda. Here billboards and broadcasts about U.S. imperialism and the blame that Cubans places on the U.S. embargo for most of its social and problems are obvious forms of propaganda. But what about the less obvious things that can act as propaganda. For example, university classes, which are usually advertised as teaching from all view points, are in my experience fairly one-sided. Sure assigned readings do have articles from both view points usually but I would think that most of the time the better written or more numerous articles are those which agree with the professor’s views. People tend to trust what academics say because they are highly educated and are said to think outside the box before making statements. But they were educated on the same flawed system that only seemingly approaches history and lessons from both sides. Propaganda exists on all levels and perhaps the forms it takes that are not as obvious are the most dangerous. It is easy to ignore posters or new articles but it is a lot harder to question what “experts” say and can back up with fancy charts or studies on the subject, or to go against what has been engrained in your head from birth.

Being in a country that relies so much on billboards and ‘news’ articles to continue support for the Revolution has made me rethink the idea of propaganda. What exactly constitutes propaganda then? Can it still be defined the same way has been? Is it possible that everything we surround ourselves with, whether material or ideological is in some way propaganda which can unknowingly shape how we view the world?