I thought that some of you might be interested in hearing from a
friend of mine who was part of the group that brought the first AA
meeting to Cuba 10 years ago. Arkie and his wife just returned
from the 10th Anniversary of that first AA meeting in Cuba.

Here's an excerpt from Arkie's email:

We just returned a few hours ago from taking part in a
magnificent event -- the 3-day celebration, in Holguin, Cuba, of
the 10th anniversary of the founding of AA in Cuba. I went with
my wife, Ruth, and Bruce K. from San Francisco, the guy who
rounded up seven of us in the first place to go to Havana in Jan.
1993.

This visit was quite an eye-opener. From our first meeting on
1/18/93 with six Cuban alcoholics, all of whom subsequently
went out and drank, there are now 160 groups throughout the
country and an estimated 3,000 active AA members. Full general
service structure with staffed office in Havana, trustees, districts,
areas; central offices in all the larger cities, the works! 400
members attended the 3-day event in Holguin. Unbelievably
moving experience.

During the all-day sessions at the 10th Anniversary event in
Holguin, Cuba, last Saturday, a Cuban woman rounded up my
wife, the other American woman with us, and around twenty
other Cuban women, and said, "C'mon, let's have a meeting of
just us women!" They went into a part of the big church where the
conference was being held, and shooed out a bunch of guys,
then they spent over 3 hours in what turned out to be Cuba's very
first women's AA meeting!

Ruth tells me that during the meeting, two of those present came
out as gay, saying that it was the first time in their lives they had
felt comfortable talking about it in a group of any kind. One of
them had mentioned it oncein an AA meeting, and was pretty
much scolded by the men present. Cuba is what Americans
would consider quite "backward" when it comes to issues of
gender and sexual orientation. Based on previous experience, I
have a feeling that women-only AA meetings may take hold in
Cuba.

Sort of on the same subject, we were invited to a private home
that night by a friend of the oldest AA in Cuba (ten years), who
said "We've killed a large pig and want you to come help us eat
it." Who could turn down such aninvitation <G>? When we
arrived, said porker was duly spread-eagled on a large table,
perfectly roasted and delicious, and we shared it with a couple of
dozen Cuban AAs. One of them was Matica, the first woman to
get sober in AA in Cuba, whom I had met in a hospital in Havana
in June of 1993, and who claimed I was the first person she had
ever met who was alcoholic and talked to her on an equal basis!
Wow, what a feeling!

For those who erroneously think Cuba represses religion, the
Roman Catholic Bishop of Holguin gave the official inaugural
welcome to the event, stating, in a fairly long and passionate
address, that not only is AA an example of true democracy in
action, but also an example of how Cuba should not reject new
concepts just because they come from supposedly "alien" (i.e.,
yanqui) sources.


p2