Milwaukee, WI - Nuevitas, Camaguey

Feb. 6, 2003, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Cuban city of Nuevitas, a coastal town north of Camaguey, and Milwaukee are now officially sister cities. The formal agreement pairing the two was signed recently in Nuevitas. A delegation of 20 Milwaukeeans made the journey to sign the agreement. They included Daisy Cubias, a staff assistant to Mayor John O. Norquist; south side Ald. Angel Sanchez; and Ernesto Baca, a member of the Milwaukee Police and Fire Commission. RAUL GALVAN, manager of program production for WMVS-TV (Channel 10) and WMVT-TV (Channel 36) and head of the Milwaukee Nuevitas Association, left Cuba at 10. He headed the local contingency and spoke upon his return to reporter Georgia Pabst.

Q. What's Nuevitas like?

A. Nuevitas is a little city, not unlike West Bend or Watertown. It's a quiet city of about 45,000 people. It grew tremendously after the revolution because a lot of industry was imported (from the Soviets). There's a big cement factory and a thermal electric generating plant in the area along with other businesses.

Q. What will this new sister city relationship with Nuevitas mean for those in Nuevitas?

A. For Nuevitas, it will mean influx of Milwaukeeans stumbling on the streets (he laughs). We will continue to bring medicines to Martin Chang Hospital. There's still a great shortage of medical supplies and personal products, like shampoo and toiletries. We will continue to do things with the Municipal Museum in Nuevitas, a natural history, archaeological, little-bit-of-everything museum.

Q. What will it mean for Milwaukee?

A. For Milwaukee, it will provide contacts, perhaps for businesses, on the island for whatever changes occur in Cuba. There's a huge tourist industry in Santa Lucia, which is part of Nuevitas. It's a beach strip with about five hotels. There's a lot of potential if the embargo could be eliminated. I think it probably means more for them than for us. But we're hoping this summer the youngsters in Milwaukee can rub elbows with two soccer players from Nuevitas who will be coming here to attend soccer camp.

Q. As someone born in Cuba who left when you were 10, what's it like to go back now as an Americano?

A. Like my Cuban friends say, 'You can be Cuban up there, but down here, you're American.' They like to kid me. It's always emotional, not outwardly, but it's like being home - a place where you belong, even though you realize you're a hybrid.

Q. How do you explain Milwaukee to the folks on the street in Nuevitas. Do they know where it is?

A. The people working on the project know Milwaukee. But when others ask, you tell them it's north of Chicago on the Great Lakes and they know geography pretty well. I tell them it's closer to Canada than Miami. That makes them smile, and they say, 'What are you doing up there?' I say it's my destiny.

Milwaukee group travels to Cuba on sister city mission, 2/13/01

From Raul Galvan of the Milwaukee team: "We're leaving on the 11th of February on route to Camaguey province, city of Nuevitas, to lay down the basis for what will be the fulfillment of the Milwaukee Common Council's resolution to establish a sister city relationship with Nuevitas." Here is a news article reporting on the trip

Milwaukee group travels to Cuba on sister city mission
By GEORGIA PAST of the Journal Sentinel staff
Feb. 13, 2001

Neuvitas is in the province of Camaguey. Much like Milwaukee, Nuevitas is a port city and a largely blue-collar town. It has one of the largest electrical generating plants in Cuba, a concrete factory, a barbed wire plant and other industry.

City seeks a sister in Cuba

Proposal before mayor sets up new relationship with coastal town

By GEORGIA PABST
of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: Oct. 31, 2000

Milwaukee may soon become one of only seven cities to have a sister city in Cuba.

Last month, the Milwaukee Common Council passed a resolution, introduced by Ald. Paul Henningsen, asking Mayor John O. Norquist "to invite the town of Nuevitas, Cuba, to join with the City of Milwaukee in establishing a sister city relationship."

Norquist is expected to sign the measure.

"I sponsored the resolution because I think all of the U.S. has to try and engender a new relationship with Cuba, even cities like Milwaukee who may not be that close," Henningsen said.

"We should do our part to open up a new interaction that will eventually lead to making relations normal and end the sanctions."

Nuevitas is a coastal town of about 40,000, located north of the city of Camaguey, in the province of Camaguey.

Like Milwaukee, Nuevitas is a blue collar town and a port.

It also has one largest electrical generating plants in Cuba, a concrete factory, a barbed wire plant, a fertilizer plant and other industry, said Salvador Tejon, an elected member of the Municipal Assembly (Camaguey's City Council) who is visiting Madison and Milwaukee this week.

Also on the trip are Francisco "Paquito" Lopez, provincial coordinator for the Cuban Institute for International Friendship, and Jose Luis Noa, officer for religious and sports affairs at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.

Camaguey, the third-largest city in Cuba and the capital of the province of Camaguey, established a sister-city relationship with Madison five years ago, said Ricardo A. Gonzalez, a former Madison alderman who is president of the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association.

That relationship has resulted in more than 250 people from the area visiting Cuba, he said.

Madison has sent antibiotics and other medical supplies worth $50,000 to Camaguey to aid the country's ailing health care system, which has suffered under the U.S. embargo.

Concept born in 1950s

The sister city concept was conceived by President Dwight Eisenhower to further understanding through people to people exchanges.

That's especially important between the U.S. and Cuba because of the years of limited relations between the two countries, said Gonzalez.

And because of the 40-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba, establishing relationships has been slow, he added.

The idea of establishing a sister city relationship between Milwaukee and a Cuban town emerged after a local group visited Cuba last spring, said Raul Galvan.

Galvan, a Cuban who left the island nation 39 years ago when he was 10, participated in that trip and came back believing in the partnership idea.

The sister city agreement must also be approved by officials in the Nuevitas, but it's expected to sail through, said Lopez, who works for the Cuban Institute for International Friendship, the government agency that promotes exchanges and visits.

Galvan said he hopes that a delegation from Milwaukee will go to Nuevitas in February, when it's expected the association will be formalized.

In addition to exchange visits between the two areas, Galvan and Tejon believe, the two areas can learn from one another in the area of health and biotechnology, and education.

"It's a two-way street," said Tejon.

Visitors tour city

On Monday, the Cubans attended a Milwaukee Bucks practice, toured the Miller Brewing Co. and attended a reception at the United Community Center.

On Tuesday, they visited Ken Szallai, director of the Port of Milwaukee, and Jose Manuel Delgado, the CEO of American Transmission Co., a new spinoff of Wisconsin Energy, and a native of Cuba.

Seven years ago, the Cuba sister city movement began when Mobile, Ala., partnered with Havana. Others that have become civic partners with Cuban cities include Pittsburg, Madison, Philadelphia, Oakland, Calif., and Bloomington, Ind.

The city of Oakland recently beat out Philadelphia to establish a relationship with the city of Santiago after Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown made a personal appeal.

Philadelphia ended up in a sister city partnership with the smaller city of Cardenas, the hometown of Elian Gonzalez.

From: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct00/cubans01103100.asp

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