With current U.S. threats of an attack on the sovereignty of Cuba and the ramping up of the U.S. blockade, Cuba is experiencing a heightened crisis -- and basic systems of health, including maternal health are being impacted. 

The Cuban health system has been a model for the world. For example: before the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuban maternity deaths were at 70 per thousand, but afterwards, with the country's health system established, maternal deaths dropped to 5.2 per thousand! Now, however--with rising blackouts, interruptions in communication, refrigeration, transportation and other necessities for a functioning health system -- they are inching their way up to 9 deaths per one thousand births.

Moreover, Cuba has led much of the world, including the U.S. in commitments to women's rights and women's equal opportunity. In his very first speech, just hours after Fulgencio Battista had fled the country in 1959, Fidel Castro spoke of the situation of women and said that the mission of the revolutionary government was to put an end to the subordination of women and the most oppressed sectors of society.

Over the years since the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women, has led in such areas as: outlawing prostitution, total literacy for women and poor people, establishing Day Care Centers and nurseries so that women could join the workforce if they chose to, women's health initiatives, paid parental leave, women in leadership positions, protection of Cuban mothers and women's participation in sport.

Countries in Latin America that Donald Trump has targeted with his hostile rhetoric (threats), are all countries with better policies for women (Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia) than exist in the U.S.!

Our guests on the program will be:

Janis Strout, Co-Founder of U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration, Co-leader of Gallatin Valley Friends of Cuba, member of Women's Int'l Peace and Freedom (WILFP) Cuba, the Bolivian Alliance Issues Committee and President of Montana National Organization for Women (NOW)

Dr. Leni Villagomez Reeves began to be  interested in the Cuban Revolution when it triumphed in 1959; closer to home, he worked in Farmworker's Union, married and had a family and in 1973, through connections made working for the union, she  had the opportunity to attend university and become a Doctor, during a brief period  of opportunity for  students without money.  

She worked as a pediatric emergency doctor  in the Central Valley of California for many years, with many patients the children of the farmworkers. After retiring, she had the opportunity to go to Cuba with Pastors for Peace many times. She has close ties on the island, speaks Spanish and identifies as Chicana. She says: "I'm not Cuban, and only Cubans can be real experts on Cuba. But I've put in a lot of time in "ordinary life" Cuban settings and have learned a lot." Organizing solidarity with Cuba has been her  main job during the last 16 years.