Alabamians at Havana’s Latin American Stadium

HAVANA — Neither the 20-or-so students from the University of Alabama who visited Cuba last week nor the fans of the Industriales baseball team will forget the night of Wednesday, March 18, when Industriales lost to the dashing Isle of Youth team, 6-5. The loss kept Industriales from classifying among the four top teams in the National Series.

The students, familiar with the sport, enjoyed a game like few others this season, one in which both teams fought hard throughout. Progreso Weekly wishes to acknowledge the presence of those youngsters in the stadium as they, led by Prof. Chip Cooper, got a taste of the baseball frenzy that we Cuban carry in our veins.

Their visit began at the Santa Clara airport and continued through the ridges of Topes de Collantes, the Escambray, Trinidad and many places of sociocultural interest on the way to Havana. They all carried cameras because photography is their minor at the university.

As Julio Larramendi’s photos show, the organizers of the visit to Latin American Stadium in Havana were all, or almost all, fans of Industrialistas. Many of them wear the jersey of a great team that this year will be unable to seek the crown.

Next year perhaps, and maybe in the presence of students from another university in the United States or ordinary tourists from the nation to the north who are appearing on Cuban streets in ever greater numbers.

Photos: Julio Larramendi

[Editor’s Note: The University of Alabama Board of Trustees last month approved the establishment of the Center for Cuba Collaboration and Scholarship at UA.

The new research center will build on the activities of the Alabama-Cuba Initiative, a 13-year effort to establish educational opportunities in Cuba for UA students and faculty. Both the center and the initiative efforts have been led by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. For details, click here.]