You get up before the sun rises and board a plane.
The flight from Fargo to Dallas is only three hours, Dallas to Miami about the same, and the final leg — Miami to Havana — is only 51 minutes. The whole trip takes less than seven hours, but it gives you some time to start waking up.
After stepping off the plane, however, you are fully awake. The reason? You see that you have been transported to a different world.
This was the experience shared by six Spanish majors and minors on a trip led by Dr. Fanny Roncal Ramirez, associate professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages & Cultures at Concordia College. The group traveled to Havana, Cuba, for a PEAK experience like no other in Fall 2023.
This trip was planned by Roncal Ramirez and former Spanish professor Dr. Alexander Aldrich in conjunction with Global Learning and Spanish Studies Abroad. The idea behind it was to give students a unique experience, different from a trip to any other Spanish-speaking country.
Cuba has not experienced globalization to the extent of other countries, due to its political system, meaning its society is unlike any other students have experienced. Choosing Cuba also meant that students were able to keep travel time and cost low due to its close proximity to the US.
Roncal Ramirez wanted to provide students with a transformational experience. As the study abroad advisor for the Spanish Program, she encourages all students to be a traveler, or sojourner, rather than a tourist. She challenges them to live in the moments that nobody could have but them.
In Cuba specifically, Roncal Ramirez wanted to also fight the misconceptions that so many Americans have about Cuba and its society by showing the realities of Cuban life and giving students opportunities to interact with and learn from the people there.
Students on the trip certainly experienced daily life in Havana. They saw firsthand the local, small stores that serve communities across the nation. They lived with host families in casas particulares, which provided them the opportunity to connect with Cubans as a family.
In addition to this, the students spent mornings learning about the history and culture of Cuba through excursions and worked in an urban garden, Akokán, for several hours each afternoon. A short trip to Trinidad, a Cuban city, allowed students to see another part of the country, this one a UNESCO World Heritage site.
One student said it was the most beautiful place he had ever been.
Students commented on the welcoming and friendly nature of everyone they interacted with.
“It was like Midwest nice times 1,000,” said Luke Wilts ’25.
He was struck by everyone’s kindness and by how excited they were to be able to speak to the students in Spanish. Interactions with the people of Havana reinforced to Wilts the value in learning Spanish, and the reward that comes from putting effort into language learning and communicating with people in their own language.
Multiple students said their Spanish skills had improved due to their close interactions with community members and their constant use of Spanish, even though the trip was only 10 days long.
Rachel Bringle ’23, music education major with a Spanish minor, appreciated working with people and getting to experience their culture firsthand. They also found the experience of working with the gardeners’ children valuable from a future educator standpoint.
Similarly, Wilts, majoring in healthcare leadership and finance with a Spanish minor, felt he gained valuable experiences through the trip’s community engagement focus. As someone interested in a future career working in community initiatives with public health and sanitation, he was impressed by the organization and robustness of the Akokán garden, which is organized by the community with only a small amount of government support.
Student highlights from the trip included the opportunity to attend a performance by the one of the most famous companies in the world, the Cuban Ballet, working in the community garden, and visiting the Fidel Castro Museum.
The museum provided a starkly contrasting perspective to what students had learned about Fidel Castro in the US. Wilts found getting to learn from people who had lived through a revolution and seeing their perspectives on life, Castro, and U.S.-Cuban relations to all be very eye-opening.
Every person that he spoke to about the revolution and relations told him the same thing: “The US-Cuban issues are not person-to-person, they’re government-to-government.”
His interactions with the people he met also offered him a new perspective on life — both humanitarian and linguistic — that he does not believe he could have found anywhere else. The trip helped him realize how privileged he is to live in the United States and to attend Concordia.
The time spent working with the community members in Akokán, along with his daily interactions, have motivated him to make an impact on his community now that he has returned, reflecting that “it takes more than ten days to make a difference.”
When asked what they would tell someone considering the trip? “Just do it, it’s worth it,” was the answer. Both Bringle and Wilts felt that their trip was a very reasonable price for the number of experiences they had in a place so different from anywhere they had ever been. With all meals covered, housing organized, and a full schedule of events every day, they felt their trip was worth every penny.
Beyond the itinerary, students were able to connect with Cubans and learn from them in a family setting. They were part of the community, and through this, were able to begin breaking down long-standing misconceptions.
All students from the trip gathered on Nov. 30 to recount their experiences for the campus community, giving an overview and discussing all the things they learned. Event attendees heard firsthand about the trip and asked questions, as the students began sharing the Cuba they visited — helping others understand the differences between what they’ve heard and the reality of Cuba today.
Written by Emma Skuza, World Languages & Cultures administrative assistant
