New York, (USA), Sep 21 (Prensa Latina) “Cuba will always be your home,” Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez told a group of U.S. doctors today, representing the 245 U.S. graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.
At the meeting, held at the headquarters of the Cuban Mission to the UN, emotions ran high. The Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke to them about that mystical and warlike island they had come to know, where, despite the greatest difficulties, “the joy and optimism of the Cuban people have not been lost.”
Rodríguez explained the reasons for his trip to New York as head of the Cuban delegation participating in the High-Level Segment of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly and the messages and proposals Cuba brings, always with its firm and consistent voice in favor of the Great South.
For Jiddou Sirker, the experience on the island was an important stage in his life. A recent graduate of ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine) in 2025, he said he saw the resilience of the people. They made jokes about everything, and “I missed that when I arrived here,” he said.
Sirker expressed gratitude for the learning, as did Elicia de los Reyes, who was moved to tears. She completed her studies in Cuba in 2012 and wondered how much she could do to support the country that had given her the opportunity to make her dreams come true. With her words, “I have so much love for Cuba,” she summed up how much that time meant to her.
Joaquín Morante, a pulmonologist and intensive care specialist, currently works in the Bronx. He also graduated from ELAM in 2012. He proudly expressed how Cuban medical graduates receive a humanistic education that distinguishes them and referred to the prestige of the Cuban school.
He spoke with satisfaction about his patients, about those who recognize him as a Cuban-trained professional, and how whenever they ask him, he exclaims that he’s a “Cuban doctor.” Morante mentioned the “seed” sown by ELAM, founded on November 15, 1999, by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.
The same is true of Evelyn Erickson, a pediatrician who sees Cuba as the best thing that could have happened to her. She dedicated kind words to the memory of Reverend Lucius Walker, and to Fidel for his brilliance.
Ivan Smiley was emotional, sending a clear message in just one sentence: “I come from Houston, Texas, I am the only doctor in my family, thanks to Cuba.”
The Cuban foreign minister’s meeting is part of his collateral program here in New York.
The anecdotes and stories echo those of thousands of other young people from countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean who earned their medical degrees on the island, which, despite the blockade, upholds the banner of international cooperation.
The ELAM program is consistent with the UN’s conceptions of South-South cooperation, but for years it has also been extended to young people from less-advantaged families and communities in the United States, with free scholarships.
“Cuba shares what it has, it doesn’t give what it has left over,” said Claudia de la Cruz, director of the IFCO-Pastors for Peace organization.
The Cuban foreign minister is scheduled to participate in high-level meetings and other multilateral events, exchanges with counterparts from various countries, and a bilateral program in the United States that, among other activities, included the Meeting with Cuban Residents here yesterday.
The delegation also includes the Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío and Anayansi Rodríguez; Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberón; Cuba’s Ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres; and other executives and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission to the UN.
The new session began on September 9 under the theme “Better Together: 80 Years and Beyond for Peace, Development and Human Rights” and comes at a crucial moment for renewing the global commitment to multilateralism, solidarity, and shared action for people and the planet.
Pictures of event
