Our guide informed us that the CDR frequently organizes such events and suggested that its principal purpose is a social one. Everyone in the town seemed to enjoy our company sincerely, and we likewise enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We were told to sit down and then enjoyed a nearly two-hour block party of the neighborhood children entertaining us with their exceptional dance skills and even handing each of us a flower as we departed. She then proceeded to lead us outside where seats had been set up for us in the street. Since it was raining, a woman ushered us into her home where the leader of the local CDR, a woman in a simple t-shirt, read us a letter welcoming us to the community and articulating Cuba’s desire for good relations with the United States. However, we were quickly disabused of these notions when we got off our bus and walked down the street to discover a large Cuban flag hung up across the street and several hundred people, many of them young children, greeting us excitedly. Since we heard about this meeting, most of the students in my class, including myself, expected a formal meeting of ideologues wearing military fatigues and spouting communist propaganda.
Through our tour guide in Cuba, we were able to arrange to attend a meeting of the CDR. It is a network of several million Cubans, with different sections of the Committee in different areas of Cuba. The Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) was founded in Cuba in the early 1960s as a sort of neighborhood watch to keep an eye on Cubans within their own communities. Children dance to entertain Wabash students during a CDR meeting.
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