Greater Richmond Chamber headed to Cuba

Greater Richmond Chamber headed to Cuba
Aim of the excursion is to learn about the island nation’s culture
Posted: Sunday, July 6, 2014 10:48 pm
BY RANDY HALLMAN Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Greater Richmond Chamber has its eyes on Cuba.
The business organization is planning a trip to the island nation in early 2015 — a night in Miami and five nights in Havana for $3,599 per person.
“This isn’t a beach vacation,” said Christy Schneider McCurdy, manager of investor relations for the chamber. She is coordinating the chamber’s efforts with the outfit organizing the trip, California-based Chamber Explorations.
McCurdy explained that the California company is licensed by the federal government to conduct “people-to-people” excursions to Cuba.
“We’re not going there to spend time on the beach,” McCurdy said, “but it will be a fantastic trip. It’s an opportunity to understand the art, culture and music of a country. There are things planned every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
The Greater Richmond Chamber will conduct an information session about the trip at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the chamber’s offices at 600 E. Main St in downtown Richmond. McCurdy said anyone can attend and asked that those who plan to come contact the chamber at (804) 783-9379.
McCurdy said the early response to the excursion has been enthusiastic. She said plans call for 20 spots on the trip, with the potential to add more.
Travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens has been limited since 1960, after Fidel Castro came to power. The travel ban began as part of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Castro’s chief ally.
Until 2011, the U.S. essentially limited sanctioned travel to journalists, academics, government officials, those with immediate family members living on the island and others licensed by the Treasury Department.
Three years ago, the rules were loosened to allow visits by any Americans taking part in a “people-to-people” tour.
Other area groups have made such trips to Cuba. For example, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts organized two art-and-architecture trips of 32 people each early this year and plans two more in 2015 pending a renewal of its “people-to-people” license.
Independent travel to Cuba by Americans remains prohibited. Some U.S. citizens — tens of thousands by some estimates — have skirted restrictions by entering Cuba via Canada, the Bahamas or other nations.
Mark A. Creery Sr., who was born in Cuba in 1956, came to the U.S. with his Cuban mother and American father in 1958. He is founder, owner and president of Data Directions Inc., a software development company with headquarters in Mechanicsville.
For Creery, the Greater Richmond Chamber trip is the answer to a wish he has had for decades — to visit his native country with his mother.
“Many of my mom’s family came to the U.S. after Castro took over,” he said. “I still have some distant relatives there — second cousins maybe.
“For years I tried to talk her into a trip, but she refused,” he said. “We would have had to get creative to get there. … But now we can go, and my mom has changed her mind.”
Creery said he hopes to see scenes from his own history, “the hospital where I was born, where I lived, where I was baptized.”
He said that besides the cultural lessons to be learned on the trip, “there might be a way to develop some commerce with Cuba.”
Business between the two countries is sharply restricted. The U.S. imposed a trade embargo with Cuba soon after Castro took power. The embargo has been amended occasionally over the decades and is the subject of fierce debate, but it is still in force.
There are exceptions — notably food and medicine. The Virginia Department of Agriculture lists Cuba as the 20th largest customer for agricultural goods from the state, with apples and soybean products at the top of the exports list. Virginia shipped $38 million worth of apples to Cuba in 2013.
Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Elaine Lidholm said Virginia began exporting to Cuba in 2002. One of the first things shipped to the island nation was cows — needed to improve the genetic makeup of Cuba’s herds.
Cuba is no place to accumulate souvenirs. Other than informational materials, U.S. visitors are forbidden to bring anything back to this country, not even the world-famous Cuban cigars.
Michele Zajur is president and CEO of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, with offices in Midlothian and Vienna. He said he applauds the Greater Richmond Chamber for choosing Cuba as a destination.
“Richmond has a considerable Cuban population,” he said. “Lots of people here go back as far as the early ’60s. A cultural exchange like this is a very important element in reaching that community.
“It’s a competitive advantage to understand a culture, the values of that culture, its systems, its mindset,” Zajur said.
He said Latin Americans place high value on savoring the moment, on relationships and trust. “Those are things that make a difference in the approach to a community,” he said.
Among the events on the Greater Richmond Chamber’s itinerary are discussions of Cuban baseball and the decades-old cars (American and Soviet) that provide much of motor transportation there.
The tour will include visits to the Plaza of the Revolution, the Cuban Institute of Music, Ernest Hemingway’s farm, a cigar factory, a rum factory and other places of interest.
McCurdy said she recently visited Cuba as part of the preparation for the “people-to-people” tour.
“It was incredible,” she said, “not what I expected. The people were fascinating, so proud of their culture — musicians, artists, everyone.”

rhallman@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6844

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