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News from the new Berkeley/Palma Soriano sister city group, 6/21

On Tuesday May 14^th the members of U.S.-Cuba Sister City Association, Berkeley-Palma Soriano were dancing out of the meeting of the Berkeley City Council. The proposal by the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, that Berkeley form a sister city relationship with Palma Soriano, had been an easy sell. Berkeley is now becoming the third San Francisco Bay Area City to oppose U.S. the blockade of Cuba and form a sister city relationship with a city in the Santiago Province of Cuba.

Palma Soriano is located about 40 kilometers from the port city of Santiago de Cuba, in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains. This region, on the eastern, Caribbean coast is noteworthy for its rich folklore, patriotism and revolutionary history. It is a primarily agricultural area whose primary products are sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, fruits, vegetables, and livestock and forest production. It joins Cuba as a whole, in the new local organic food production movement. It even has one of 2 factories on the island developing natural organic pest control and soil amendments.

Palma, like most Cuban cities has a noteworthy number of social services for its inhabitants. There are over 500 doctors, working in over 400 medical facilities serving families, children and women. In Palma Soriano there are170 educational facilities, among them are a language school, technical and agricultural schools as well as institutions providing preschool through pre-university education.

The Berkeley-Cuba Sister City Association was initiated by Rebecca Davis and Roya Arasteh (now the Chairperson and Secretary of the group). The association has been holding monthly meetings since January 2002 at Berkeley City Hall. It's members are as diverse a group as the city of Berkeley: teachers, doctors, social workers, musicians, environmentalists, Berkeley High School students, members of collectives, representing a wide range of ages and backgrounds.

Prior to the proposal to twin Berkeley with Palma Soriano, which was put forth by the Cuban direction in February, a couple of members of the Berkeley committee had already visited Palma. Call this a "coincidence" but more likely some mysterious "other worldly" forces are at play. When the news was broken in Palma that some folks in Berkeley were planning to create such a project we were immediately considered as part of the colectiva. Two members of the Berkeley group were received by the Municipal President Alfredo Gonzáles Batista and given a tour of some of the noteworthy institutions of the city.

Palma is attractive to us for its vibrant, yet somewhat non-mainstream, art and folk culture. There are 24 cultural centers in a city of 79,000. These include movie and live theatres, video studio, museums, ceramics, disabled person’s workshop, radio station and a variety of music venues. There are several folkloric groups and carnival comparsas that function year round. Palma has orchestras and a variety of bandas, not the least of which is the Charanga de Palma. This group is noteworthy internationally because Palma is the birthplace of the charanga and each year the city hosts the Festivál de la Charanga. Charanga is a happy music that uses a variety of instruments including violin, cello and flute. Not a week goes by in Palma where one does not hear some kind of live music spilling out of one of the many cultural centers.

Palma is also famous for its excellence in athletics. 164 athletes from Palma have participated in the Pan-American games. It has produced 13 world champions as well as 3 Olympic gold and one silver medal winners in Sidney 2000 games. Is it something in the water?

Palma Soriano is interesting for its rich culture, which preserves a reservoir of traditions of the people of Spanish, Yoruba, Congo and French-Haitian/Guinea descent that reside there. This region together with Guantánamo is where this particular folklore exists even though it is a vibrant part of the national folklore of the island and the root of many forms of Cuban popular music.

In Palma there is a group of young artist called the Taller Experimentál Ennegro, who derive their inspiration from their Haitian roots. They are developing a project that the folks in Berkeley want to support as our initial exchange and collaboration. It is an environmental art installation including tree planting and the reforestation of the watershed of the Cauto River, the longest river in Cuba, which flows through Palma Soriano. The concept combines art and environmental restoration. In the long term its goal is to preserve the land and the fragile culture that depends on it. The people of Palma use herbs as medicine and as an important element in their African-Cuban and vodú practices. The vision for the project, that they are calling El Vevé de Afá, is to educate as many people as possible as to the relationship of the land to culture. This will be done through exhibitions, conferences, grassroots efforts and will lead to the planting of trees and native plants in a barren, deforested area on the banks of the river. The artists have drawn out a design plan to plant in the form of a vevé, which is a vodú "signature" or firma for energies specific to different entities of nature, called loá. The repercussions of such a work are vast and deeply rooted; to educate, preserve the water and climate and culture, restore a source of vital native plants, and to return the area to how it was.

This project can be a way for us to begin to exchange and cooperate. On our first delegation to Palma Soriano, scheduled for December of 2002, we hope to take along, not only the Mayor, but also people working in music, art and culture, environment and habitat restoration, heath care and alternative medicine and the African and Cuban-Haitian religions.

Thanks to Clare Weaver of the California Sister Cities Committee and Members of the Berkeley City Council, especially Steve Rose of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission for your support.

For more information on the group or the December 2002 trip please contact Rebecca Davis 510-548-6914 email: rebeccada@earthlink.net or Michael Page 415-467-4653. Que Viva Cuba!

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