Weekend Edition
May 20 - 22, 2011
The Latin American School of Medicine Today
Cuba's Revolutionary Dream of International Medicine
By DON FITZ
"We are one people who share a common history of struggle."
—Cassandra Cusack Curbelo, second-year ELAM student
A revolution can only be successful when the new generation takes over from the old. When thousands of students come together because of their dedication to helping others at a school that was built to allow them to fulfill their goals, the ground is fertile for students to continue the struggle.
Students are assuming defining roles at the Latin American School of Medicine (Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina or ELAM), the twelve-year-old medical school in Santa Fe, Playa, a ninety-minute bus ride from Havana, Cuba. With their educational costs covered by the Cuban government, students learn new social relationships in medical practice that they will use in underserved communities in their countries.
International Medicine: A Revolutionary Dream
In his article, "The Cuban Revolutionary Doctor," Steve Brouwer describes a vision that Che Guevara had in 1960, the year after the Cuban Revolution. After observing that many graduating doctors did not want to serve in rural areas, Che imagined training campesinos to become doctors so they could hurry "immediately and with unreserved enthusiasm to help their brothers."<1> That year, Cuba sent medical teams to Chile to help after a major earthquake.<2> Cuba's first health contract resulted in its sending a medical brigade to Algeria in 1963.<3> In 1998, when Hurricanes Mitch and Georges devastated the Caribbean Islands and Central America, Cuba sent doctors and paramedics. Fidel Castro then proposed expanding Cuba's new Comprehensive Health Program (Programa Integral de Salud) by creating ELAM, which began in 1999.
Castro's ability to inspire changes should not be underestimated. I met Exa Gonzalez, a sixth-year ELAM student, on a plane to Havana in December 2009. She had studied art and film in high school in Baja California, Mexico. As a teenager, she made two trips to Cuba with her parents, members of the Workers Party (Partido de Trabajo, or PT). During her second trip, in 2001, Fidel described ELAM to the PT delegation, and inspired Exa to change her studies to medicine. She entered ELAM in 2002, when she was nineteen years old, and spent her first year in pre-med, studying biology, chemistry, and physics.<4>
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http://www.counterpunch.org/fitz05202011.html
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