Few people might know that Cuba played a role in promoting interracial sport among Americans but this is exactly what happened at the beginning of last century when white and afro Americans professional baseball players freely played together in Havana, the capital of Cuba in a time where all sports in the USA were still all racially segregated.
Inspired by the Cuban racially integrated baseball teams, afro Americans started setting up professional baseball leagues, the so called Negro Leagues with the first professional team being called the Cuban Giants back in 1885.
Despite the name, the team had no Cuban players and its members were all afro Americans initially concealing their real identities by passing as Cubans.
The team was so successful that many others teams started playing in the Negro Leagues, all with a symbolic name affiliations with the Caribbean island of Cuba.
Sport often embodies a way of living for many nations. Think of football in Brazil and Argentina or all around Europe. The same can be said for baseball or better the game of pelota as Cubans call baseball. Americans and Cubans alike simply love it.
The game, now a global sport, is extremely popular in countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, Republica Domenicana and quite a few Far East Asia nations, especially Japan, Korea and Taipei. It is gaining traction in Europe too.
In Cuba the love affair with baseball started back in June 1866 when an American ship anchored in Matanzas Bay, Cuba and its sailors started playing baseball with the locals.
Until now Matanza is considered the place where the Cubans fell in love for the game of the “pelota” even if the sport gained popularity only when, some years later, a group of young Cubans, back from their studies in the USA, started playing baseball seriously.
The passion for the game became contagious in a short span of time. Cuba boasted the second oldest professional league in the world with its first game played on 29th December 1878 in Havana, only two years after the birth of the National League in the USA.
While Che Guevara and Fidel Castro are the legends of the Cuban revolution, there is no doubt that a real legend in Cuba is Estevan “Stave” Bellan, the first Cuban playing “pro” in the USA after studying at St. John College, now Fordham University in New York City between 1886 and 1868.
Similarly to Brazilians playing the most amazing football in European teams, some of the most amazing baseball players are Cubans currently playing in the Major Baseball League, the US top professional league. (Disclaimer: in Cuba all sports are played at amateur level and even the best baseball players are paid average salaries and many Cubans playing “pro” in the USA have fled their own country)
Despite the politics of the last decades, clearly baseball played a very crucial role in shaping up and strengthening the common bonds between two nations divided only by 90 miles.
The recently announced restoration of diplomatic relations between America and Cuba is marking the start of a new era for the peoples of the two countries.
On the 11th of April this year at the Summit of the Americas, President Castro of Cuba (Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel) had for the first time a bilateral meeting with President Obama.
This month, on the 20th of July, the respective embassies of America and Cuba will be reopened, putting a final end to decades of cold war started with Cuban revolution in 1959.
Interesting, the two nations have something else in common beyond their love for baseball. Even more fascinating is the fact this is something related to Nepal.
While many are well aware about the role played by the American Government in the aftermath of the quakes that hit the country, few knows that quietly the Cuban Government has been doing its own part in providing relief to the Nepal people.
It was in May while we were involved in an emergency distribution in Machagau VDC in the outskirts of the valley that we heard that a Canadian hospital had been set up in Kirtipur. At ENGAGE we wanted to have some persons living with disabilities in precarious health conditions screened and we did not want to miss the opportunity to get them checked by the Canadian doctors.
Ironically the Canadian doctors were speaking an english with a strong Spanish accent. It turned out that the doctors were not actually Canadians but were Cubans: a huge team of more 70 health specialists fully equipped with medicine and medical devices including surgery theaters.
Cuba is not only famous for the revolution, the white beaches and of course the top class of its baseball players. It is also highly regarded for its high level of human development, founded, despite the economic embargo till recently imposed by the Americans, on an extraordinary strong public health and educational system.
Call this the bright side of communism: Doctors and teachers from Cuba are so good that are sent by their government in humanitarian missions all over the world. It is obviously also smart diplomacy.
Ask the people visiting the Cuban hospital in Kirtipur: they are all impressed by the professionalism and high expertise of the Cuban doctors there. Hundreds of people queuing everyday in order to get an impeccable health care service that covers complex surgeries.
I visited the hospital several times and I had the opportunity to talk with some of the doctors and medical staff. They talked to me about the changes being undertaken in Cuba, they shared about their passions about the game of the “pelota” and how they are excited about the future.
Here an idea: why not celebrating the reestablishment of the diplomatic relations between Cuba and the USA with a friendly baseball match between the Cuban doctors and the staff of the American embassy?
Wouldn’t this be an amazing way to do a bit in bridging the gaps between two nations that have been foes for many decades and now finally have decided to walk together towards a possible common destiny based on respect and prosperity?
President Obama in his speech announcing the decision to reopen the American embassy in Havana said
“This is another demonstration that we do not have to be imprisoned by the past; while we continue to have some serious differences that will include America’s enduring support for universal values like freedom of speech and assembly, I strongly believe that the best way for America to start to support our values is through engagement”.
How incredible would be to have a friendly match between American and Cubans citizens in a far remote place like Nepal.
After all, the Americans are really impressive in public diplomacy. The game would be the best ever example of people to people diplomacy.
A baseball or better, a pelota game held in Kathmandu: probably this would be a great way for the nepali people to express their gratitude to these two nations for the great help they have been providing after the quakes.
It would be also very good way for Nepal diplomacy to do its own bit to foster a new sense of peace and common bondage among two countries till recently in denial with themselves.
Add new comment