Uptown campus welcomes Cuba delegation

Reinforcing the long association that Tulane University has had with Cuba, a delegation from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., led by Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas-Rodríguez, came to the uptown campus on Thursday (April 3). The ambassador spoke to an audience of university and community members in the Lavin-Bernick Center, discussing changes that are under way in the island nation.

After his talk, Cabañas-Rodríguez, left, took a campus tour led by Tom Reese, right, executive director of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane. While in New Orleans, the ambassador was welcomed by the International Cuba Society of New Orleans and met with Mayor Mitch Landrieu and officials with the Port of New Orleans, as well as Tulane President Scott Cowen.

A tour of the Newcomb Art Gallery brought Cabañas-Rodríguez, right, alongside groups of Tulane students studying a new exhibit of European portraits from 1480–1780. In his address at Tulane, the ambassador talked about the strong cultural and academic ties between Cuba and New Orleans and between Cuba and Tulane, which offers a number of graduate and undergraduate programs in Cuba through its Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute.