On the first day of his inaugural course on U.S.- Cuba relations for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Andy Gomez said he set a few parameters for his students.
"I want you to leave your political biases at the door," said Gomez, former senior advisor to the President's Office on Cuban Affairs. "In this class, we respect different points of view, but we deal in facts."
Setting aside personal feelings is not easy when the subject is Cuba, he acknowledged.
"When you talk about Cuba, it stirs a lot of passion," Gomez explained. "I believe you have to study the past to understand the present and prepare for the future."
Considered one of the top scholars on Cuba and Cuban-American relations, Gomez will teach a new course at OLLI this semester on the influence the Cuban-American community has had on South Florida–politically, economically, and socially.
The six-week course will also examine the challenges and struggles various waves of Cuban immigrants faced in the U.S.
"There is no question that we created an economic and political powerhouse here in South Florida," said Gomez. "And, from 1959 on, each wave of refugees faced very different difficulties in how well they adjusted to their new country."
Gomez said he won't shy away from challenging topics or perceptions faced by Cuban Americans in Miami.
From the Mariel boat lift in the 1980s to violent images in the movie "Scarface" and the long-running television show "Miami Vice," the perception of Cubans in Miami was not always positive, he said.
"These things didn't really paint a pretty picture," he said. "And at least some of it was based on the reality that was happening at the time. This class will look at the good with the bad and see what we can learn to apply for a better future."
As a Cuban American who left the island nation when she was 5 years old, Vivian Maza said she knew very little about Cuban history. Though family members often reminisced about the "good old days" in Cuba, they never discussed what happened later in Cuban history, she said.
"My mom passed away three years after arriving in the U.S.," she said. "How Cuba came to be was not something we discussed. I (wanted) to understand what my parents and relatives lived through and how Cuba became what it is today."
Maza described Gomez as a "Cuba encyclopedia." Although the class was supposed to cover 1959 to the present, she said, "he took us way back to the 1900s so we could really understand (how) the revolution started."
"He took what he normally teaches in a full semester and did a phenomenal job condensing it into six weeks," she said. "The class really gave me a clearer understanding of the sequence of events which led some of my family members to leave Cuba and why many decided to stay. He also keeps politics out of it, which is refreshing."
Gomez said the students at OLLI were among the best he has had in more than 30 years teaching master's and Ph.D. students at the University.
"I'm only as good as my students are," he explained. "For my first time teaching at OLLI, I found the response from the students re-energized me in preparing for each lecture. I was very pleased."
To learn more about OLLI or this course, visit miami.edu/olli.
