Latin Music Festival in Benefit for Caribbean Hurricane Victims at the Majestic Theater
Modifying the impact of storms of destruction

By Jonathan Gramling

      About 15 years ago, Cuba’s economy was undergoing a severe dislocation as the end of the Cold War also brought an end to the special economic
relationship that Cuba had with the Soviet Union. According to Roberto Gonzalez, president of the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association (MCSCA), Cuba’s
economy contracted by 75 percent, a catastrophic storm compared to what the United States is currently experiencing. In desperate straits, Cuba put out an
international call for people to help it through its economic emergency.
      Gonzalez was at the end of his tenure on the Madison Common Council at the time and he heeded the call. “I visited Cuba for a conference that involved
Cuban Americans, Cubans and Cubans who live in other countries,” Gonzalez said during an interview with The Capital City Hues. “We came to a conference
that involved émigrés and the government of Cuba to look for ways that we could help the country, which at that time, was in the middle of the result of the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp. I thought that the one thing we could do was set up a sister-city program and help in a concrete way by
bringing the people of Madison and the people of Camaguey together to try to solve problems and get to know one another and get over the differences that
have characterized the relationship between these two countries for so long.”
      As a result of the conference, the sister city relationship with Camaguey was formed. While Cuba produces some of the finest doctors and nurses to practice
medicine in the developing world — and many developed countries — it is hard pressed to secure the necessary medical supplies to provide care to its people.
One of the major efforts of MCSCA has been to provide medical supplies to Camaguey in collaboration with the Wisconsin Medical Project. “They lack the
resources,” Gonzalez emphasized. “And because of the economic setbacks of the past 15 years, they have really suffered in terms of the upkeep and the
equipping of their hospitals, their clinics and other healthcare facilities. We send them a lot of disposable things like gloves, bed sheets, syringes and plastic
items. We send wheelchairs, operating tables and microscopes. We’ve sent seven containers in the last 3-4 years. They love it because that is the kind of
materials they have to buy on the world market, which costs them a lot of money.”
      Camaguey, Gonzalez’s hometown, is the old, resilient provincial capital of Camaguey province and is the heart of Cuba’s dairy industry. “Camaguey has the
largest historical center — old colonial center — in Cuba,” Gonzalez said. There are many structures, many homes, many buildings that were built in the 18th
century. There’s a huge inventory of 19th century buildings and of course early 20th century. There are a few that go back to the late 17th century, but not
many. The city was burned down by pirates in 1668. Henry Morgan, the famous pirate who was governor of Jamaica at one time, was an English corsair who
attacked the city of Camaguey back in 1668. He sacked, pillaged and burned the town down. A lot of the records and a lot of the buildings, including many
churches, were destroyed at that time. The city really got its start as we know it today in the early 18th century.”
      Camaguey has had to be resilient because 76 years ago, it was hit by a powerful hurricane that destroyed many of the newer buildings in the province and
left 3,000 dead. “If you go to Santa Cruz del Sur, you will see that 1-2 kilometers from the shore is this new construction that was built, gingerbread looking
homes, to replace the old town that was destroyed by the hurricane back in November 1932,” Gonzalez said.
Since then, Camaguey has been left relatively untouched by hurricanes; that is until this year when Hurricanes Ike and Paloma ravaged the area. While there
was much physical destruction, especially to the newer construction, only one life was lost in Camaguey. But the province has been left needier than ever for
relief from its sister city to the north.
      On November 26, MCSCA and the Wisconsin Medical Project hosted a hurricane fundraiser at the Majestic Theater. Que Flavor, the Tony Castaneda Latin
Jazz Band and Grupo Candela lent their music to the relief effort. Gonzalez has been overwhelmed by Madison’s generosity. “It has been really heartwarming to
see how people really care and how people support the relationship that we have established with Camaguey,” Gonzalez said.
As a result of the generosity, MCSCA is poised to send two more containers of supplies to Camaguey. Relief is on the way from the natural and economic storm
that Camaguey continues to endure.
      For more information about MCSCA, visit their website at www.madisoncamaguey.org. Donations can be sent to: MCSCA, P.O. Box 608, Madison, WI
53701. All contributions are tax deductible.