Why Guamá?
And how the heck do you pronounce Guamá anyway?
What is Guamá? (Pronounced with the accent on the second syllable: Gwa MAH - rhymes with pishaw.) Guamá is a municipality in Santiago Province. Cuba is divided into provinces and subdivided into municipalities analogous to the division of California into counties.
Where is Guamá? Guamá runs for approximately 200 miles along the coast of Southeastern Cuba and extends northward into the Sierra Maestra Mountains where the revolutionaries of the 1950's built up their forces to attack Batista strongholds.
What is the goal of sistering with Guamá? To participate in a national movement to improve relations between the US and Cuba through citizen diplomacy, and to establish mutually beneficial projects to explore solutions to health, education and environmental problems.
Nancy Abbey with Interpreter Juan Carlos and Judy Geer in Guamá
Why sister with Guamá? The state of California is presently exploring a sister relationship with Santiago Province with the idea that California cities would sister with areas within the Province. So, after reading a profile of Santa Cruz County provided by the Sister City Task Force of the Cuba Study Group, Vicente Gonzalez Diaz, director of international relations for the Province of Santiago, recommended the municipality of Guamá.
How can Guamá be described? Guamá is a coastal, agricultural area with a population of 35,000 people, one hour distant by car from a major city (Santiago de Cuba). Its major town is Chivirico, a "dusty fishing village," as Christopher Baker inaccurately describes it in a recent guidebook, with a 200-room all-inclusive resort frequented by Canadian and French tourists. The municipality has 2 libraries, 2 movie theatres, and several small hotels. Guamá, which stretches along the coast and up into the mountain, includes several other small towns, 57 family doctor clinics, 2 hospitals, 117 educational centers, 2 polytechnic schools - one for economics and one for agriculture. Their main industries are cattle, coffee, and tourism.
How can we benefit from this venture? By learning how Cuban people have overcome many barriers to develop an exemplary health care system, extensive use of alternative power sources, practices of organic agriculture, preservation of its coastline, mountains, forests and watersheds, and an outstanding education system (98% literacy rate verified by the U.N.).
What do we have to offer Guamá? Santa Cruz County has also developed expertise in innovative alternative practices in health, agriculture, education and ecology. Groups working in these areas have formed interest groups to send delegations to Cuba to share their knowledge and learn from their counterparts in Cuba.
Judy Warner plants a tree.
Now…Can you see youself in these photos? How can you participate? Here are some ideas:
1. Offer your expertise by forming interest groups and developing projects to share ideas and information in mutually respectful exchanges with the people of Guamá?
2. Help raise funds to send delegations of interest groups to Cuba and to bring Cuban experts to Santa Cruz.
3. Work with AGuaS - the Alliance of Guamá and Santa Cruz County to promote the venture through educational programs and media stories. Fill out the membership form . . . and contact us.
4. Join the US-Cuba Sister Cities Association.
5. Tell your friends and colleagues about this movement and encourage them to support all efforts to improve US/Cuba relations.
Lynn Johnson, Clare Weaver, Maria Hernandez, Vicente Gonzalez Diaz, Alice Lawrence, Rachel Bruhnke, Judy Geer, and Ricardo Alarc—n, President of the National Assembly, at a reception.
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