Check out the trailer for Oliver Stone’s new movie – South of the Border
September 9, 2009
The Real News – Past is Present in Latin America
April 25, 2009
Latin American leaders, born out of US backed repression, demand an end to 50 year-old US-Cuba standoff
Last weekend, the leaders of the Americas met with US President Barack Obama for the first time as a group. While no major agreements were signed, long-time Latin America observer Larry Birns believes that the atmospherics were of a nature never before seen in the hemisphere. Signs of improvement in relations between the White House and Cuba, after 50 years of embargo and intervention. The leaders of Latin America have made it clear to Obama that any future progress in relations will require a drastic shift in his government’s policy toward Cuba, and there are signs that Obama will be willing to do so. Until that time, an entire hemisphere lies in wait.
Guatemala sorry over Bay of Pigs
February 18, 2009
“Cuba deserves its own destiny, a destiny that you all built with this revolution of 50 years. Defend it like you have always done.”
BBC News, 2/18/09
President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala has apologised to Cuba for his country’s role in the failed US-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
The CIA used Guatemalan territory to train Cuban exiles before their disastrous invasion which was quickly defeated by Cuban forces. Read the rest of this entry »
Event – Two Films on Cuba
February 10, 2009
Tuesday, March 10 -
“Against the Silence: The Family of the Five Speak Out” and
“Engaging Cuba”
7pm, Central United Methodist Church,
25th and Wisconsin Ave.
“Against the Silence: The Family of the Five Speak Out” (Milw. premiere of this new half hour documentary film on the Cuban 5). This documentary features in-depth, personal interviews with family members of the Cuban Five about the impact of their unjust incarceration in US prisons has had upon their families and the Cuban people.
With “Engaging Cuba,” Wayne Smith’s Feb. 3, 2009 talk at UWM (the top US diplomat to Cuba under Presidents Carter and early Reagan addresses the need & potential for a new US policy towards Cuba.)
Free & open to the public.
free parking behind church.
Sponsored by Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba
For more info: 414-273-1040, ext.12.
Documentaries desde el Sur
January 29, 2009
4th Annual Latin America Solidarity Committee Film Series
April 27-30, 2009
UW-Milwaukee, Bolton 150 Theatre
Enter through UWM Union, 2200 E. Kenwood
Free and open to the public
- All films include English subtitles.
Click here for the flyer
Click here for the poster
Join the event on Facebook
Monday, April 27
6pm – Our Brand is Crisis
2005, 85min. Following members of a political consulting firm to Bolivia, where they’ve been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency, this film reveals the manipulation and orchestration involved in big-time political campaigning. With only a few weeks before the election, a team of consultants including James Carville work their magic, shaping Goni into the ideal candidate.
Click here for more information about this film
8pm – Posada Carriles: Terrorism Made in the USA
2007, 90min. The result of two years of meticulous research by an investigative team that examined declassified documents and criminal files, and interviewed witnesses and survivors from several Latin American countries, this is a must-see film. The network of terror that the CIA established in Latin America – in which Posada was a key figure – is exposed step by step through the courageous testimonies of victims whose family members were killed by him or under his orders.
Click here for more information about this film
Tuesday, April 28
6pm – Free to Fly: The US-Cuba link
& Who’s Afraid of the Little School Bus?
2004, 33min. Free to Fly is the story of the efforts to maintain links between the Cuban and American people. In 1978, after 16 years of no direct travel, charter flights began between Miami and Havana. School bus documents the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba that openly disobeys the embargo to take humanitarian aid to Cuba.
8pm – Cocalero
2007, 94min. This Sundance Film Festival
entry documents Aymara Indian Evo Morales’s grassroots political campaign to become the first indigenous president of Bolivia. A former president of the Chapare coca growers union, Morales solicited a groundswell of native political support during the 2002 elections, a telling response to the incumbent administration’s attempts to eradicate the crop with US government backing.
Click here for more information about this film
Wednesday, April 29
6pm – Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
2004, 53min. Cuba rebuilt its quality of life following the collapse of cheap oil, supplied by the former Soviet Union. This fascinating and empowering film shows how communities pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived with a decreased dependence on imported energy.
Click here for more information about this film
7pm – Bloqueo: Looking at the Embargo on Cuba.
2005, 45min. Featuring voices from the streets of Havana, the countryside, and activists supporting the island, Bloqueo lets Cubans speak for themselves about how they have been affected by the blockade, and what it means to live in Cuba today.
Click here for more information about this film
8pm – Who Shot My Brother?
2005, 95min. Filmmaker German Gutierrez was horrified when he received a call from Colombia, informing him there had just been an assassination attempt on his brother Oscar, an activist hated by the establishment but adored by the impoverished majority. In the film, Gutierrez recounts his quest to find the hired gunmen who tried to kill Oscar and expose the roots of violence that have taken hold of his native country.
“Essential viewing for all who wish to understand the conflict in Colombia.”
-Adam Isaacson, Center for Int’l Policy
Click here for more information about this film
Thursday, April 30
6pm – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
2003, 74min. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez was forcibly removed from office by the military. They were also present two days later when, remarkably, he was returned to power due to popular protest and rebellion.
Click here for more information about this film
8pm – Gay Cuba
1996, 57min. An overview of the status of gay people at different stages in the Cuban revolution, by lesbian filmmaker Sonya DeVrees.
Click here for more information about this film
9pm – Butterflies on the Scaffold
1996, 75min. This award-winning documentary is a highly unusual look at how a group of working-class drag queens in a small town have become an integral part of their neighborhood.
Click here for more information about this film
Cuba and the Venceremos Brigade
August 30, 2008
450 Years of Colonialism – 50 Years of Revolution – 40 Years of Solidarity
Monday, September 14 7pm
Room 260, UWM Union
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI
With: Joe Schuman – Jeanette Martin – Docia Buffington
Chicago attorney and longtime gay activist Joseph Schuman will attempt to summarize five hundred years of Cuban history in twenty minutes. Joe’s academic credentials include degrees in philosophy (Carleton
College), teaching (Harvard) and law (University of Chicago). His activist credentials go back to the 70′s, when he helped organize what might have been Milwaukee’s first-ever Gay Pride Week.
Recently, he presented a series of five lectures on Key Buddhist Teachings at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Chicago and worked on a concert to raise funds for Cuban hurricane relief. Joe has been following Cuban developments closely since his first visit with the Venceremos Brigade in 1996 and has represented travelers charged with violating the US ban on travel to the island.
Jeanette Martin of Milwaukee, a student activist at UW-Madison, active in Students United for Immigrant Rights and MEChA (Chicano student organization), just returned from the 2009 Brigade; and Docia Buffington, a youth from Chicago also went to Cuba recently as part of the VB. They will introduce the VB and talk about their trips, followed by lots of time for questions.
Sponsored by the Latin America Solidarity Committee, Progressive Students of Milwaukee, Peace Action WI, and the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba.
For more info, contact Wis. Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, www.wicuba.org, 414 273-1040.
ASSATA SHAKUR, CUBA & BLACK AMERICA
August 28, 2008
FILM SHOWING AND SPEAKER
Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 7pm
UWM Union Theatre
2200 E. Kenwood Dr.
Milwaukee, WI
FILM SHOWING:
“Eyes of the Rainbow”
This full color film on former Black Panther Assata Shakur, presents her in the context of Cuba’s vibrant African culture. Directed by Gloria Rolando, acclaimed independent Afro-Cuban filmmaker.
SPEAKER:
Dr. Lisa Brock
Dr. Brock is a scholar activist who works on Southern Africa, Cuba and the African Diaspora. She has been active in the Hands Off Assata Campaign for many years, has written numerous articles on related themes and is co-editor of Between Race and Empire: African-Americans and Cubans Before the Cuban Revolution. For more info see www.afrocubaweb.com/brock.htm.
Sponsored by
Latin America Solidarity Committee at UWM, UWM Department of Africology, & Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, www.wicuba.org.
Event – Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba
August 21, 2008
Friday, July 10th
6pm – Potluck supper
7pm – Program/music
Central United Methodist Church
25th St. & Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee
Free & Open to the public
Special guest speaker:
Ellen Bernstein
(see below for bio)
We’re collecting material aid, especially tools & construction supplies for the ongoing reconstruction effort after three devastating hurricanes that hit Cuba last summer, but also medicines (exp. Feb. 2010 or later), medical equipment, crutches, wheel chairs, infant formula, vitamins, computers, school supplies, Bibles in Spanish, and sports equipment. For a complete list of needed aid, visit: www.pastorsforpeace.org.
From June 1 thru July 9, donations may be dropped off at Central United Methodist Church at 639 N. 25th St. (M-F, 9am-1pm & other times, please call the Church at 414/344-1600 in advance.) Free Parking south of the Church.
Click here for details on requested donations
For more information, please call 414-273-1040 or 414-964-0350.
Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, www.wicuba.org or www.pastorsforpeace.org. (Events also in Racine, Madison, Duluth!)
Biography for Ellen P. Bernstein:
Ellen P. Bernstein has served as Associate Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) since 2003, working with Rev. Lucius Walker. She joined the staff of IFCO in 1992. She has been a key staff member of IFCO’s project Pastors for Peace, and has been deeply and integrally involved in IFCO’s historic work with Cuba.
She has been a leader of more than 60 trips to Cuba since 1993, organizing 18 Congressional delegations to Cuba, and traveling to Cuba with 19 members of Congress and 40 key Congressional aides. She has worked closely with IFCO’s director and attorneys to successfully defend IFCO against a variety of US government challenges. She also had a leadership role in the national grassroots campaign to return Elián González to his father in Cuba. Ellen is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Columbia University Teachers College, and a graduate of Princeton University.
