A tour group holding a Cornell University sign in Havana

A CAU Trip Sparks a Look Back at Cornell’s Ties to Cuba

Among the many connections: national hero José Martí was an ardent admirer of the University and its founding principles

By Corey Ryan Earle ’07

In January 2025, I led 17 alumni and friends on a one-week study tour to Cuba sponsored by Cornell’s Adult University. We were immersed in the culture, history, and art of the island nation, with local guides and lecturers enriching the experience.

As a firm believer that “Cornell is everywhere,” I had a chance to explore how our alma mater was linked to a country that has a complicated relationship with the U.S.

Cornell was a global university from the very start, with international faculty and students on opening day in 1868.

An illustration of Corey Earle with the title Storytime with Corey

And Cubans were among some of the earliest alumni: Francisco de Paula Rodríguez y Valdés 1878 is believed to be the University’s first Black graduate and first North American Latino alum.

Arriving at José Martí International Airport in Havana, our group began to sense Martí’s impact as a Cuban national hero. We encountered his name and image in statues, artwork, and public squares.

Francisco de Paula Rodriguez y Valdes
Rare and Manuscript Collections
Francisco de Paula Rodríguez y Valdés 1878.

The U.S. equivalent might be Thomas Jefferson—given Martí’s role as an influential writer, philosopher, and key leader of the Cuban Independence movement of the 1890s.

A symbol of liberty, Martí became a martyr after his death in 1895 during the Cuban fight for independence from Spain.

Martí had written extensively about “la Universidad de Cornell” while living in NYC in the 1880s. Fascinated by U.S. higher education, he sent his observations to Central American newspapers, praising Cornell’s founding values and emphasis on a practical education.

In an 1885 letter to an Argentinian paper, he noted (in Spanish) that American university presidents “have decided to abandon the untimely program of the old university education and to put their schools in such a way as the beneficent Ezra Cornell wanted, that each one could follow the line of studies to which he felt most fond.”

Ezra, he wrote, had “founded an institution where modern Americans can be educated in the new knowledge necessary to fight productively for life in the modern era.”

A few months later, Martí wrote, “Yale and Harvard are old, Vassar is rich, Cornell is useful.”

Yale and Harvard are old, Vassar is rich, Cornell is useful.

Cuban independence leader José Martí

He continued: “Cornell, in Ithaca, is a modern university. It is a magnificent university. Hispanic American children should be sent … to Cornell University, founded on knowledge of the needs of modern life, without disdain for the good of the ancient; to Cornell University, where they acquire the universal elements of new life in interesting and productive work.”

He also included a lengthy description of Cornell in an 1889 letter to a Uruguayan paper, just three years before he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

Martí was struck by the breadth of academic disciplines—poetically restating Cornell’s motto by describing the University as a place “where anyone who wants can learn everything man knows, from sowing corn to measuring stars.”

Martí observed the diversity of the coeducational student body, “the most noble and energetic of the country” from all walks of life, rich and poor.

He also noted the University farm and its mandatory military drill—a prescient statement given his role in the impending Cuban war for independence.

José Martí
José Martí.

“By condition of the State, anyone who carries a book learns to load a rifle,” he wrote. “Because the only way to defeat imperialism in the older people, and militarism in the younger ones, is to all be soldiers.”

Numerous Cornellians played a role in that conflict, both before and after the U.S. declared war on Spain in 1898.

Numerous Cornellians played a role in the Cuban fight for independence, both before and after the U.S. declared war on Spain in 1898.

Winchester Osgood 1892 won championships in rowing, football, and wrestling before volunteering to join Cuban forces in their fight against Spain. He died in combat in 1896.

After the U.S. entered the conflict two years later, approximately 165 Cornellians served in uniform.

Clifton Beckwith Brown 1900 interrupted his education to enlist and, in 1898, became the first Cornellian to die in U.S. military service.

Winchester Osgood sitting in his Cornell football uniform
Clifton Beckwith Brown in military uniform
Winchester Osgood 1892 (left) and Clifton Beckwith Brown 1900.

(One year later, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt visited Ithaca to honor Brown by planting two Norway spruce trees outside the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity house. One still stands today.)

Several Cornellians were present with Roosevelt at the Battle of San Juan Hill—including future U.S. Open tennis champion William Larned 1894 and Webb Hayes 1876.

Clifton Beckwith Brown 1900 interrupted his education to enlist in the Spanish American War—and, in 1898, became the first Cornellian to die in U.S. military service.

The son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, he was the first Cornellian to receive the Medal of Honor.

A key Cuban military leader in the war was also an alum: General Mario García Menocal 1888, whose mausoleum our tour group visited at La Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón in Havana.

President Menocal of Cuba sitting in a carved wooden chair
The mausoleum of General Menocal
Mario García Menocal 1888 (left) and his final resting place in Havana.

The very first issue of the Cornell Alumni News in 1899 noted Menocal’s appointment as that city’s police chief, calling him “the coming man of Cuba.”

After developing the world’s largest sugar plantation, Menocal was elected Cuba’s third president in 1912—becoming the first Cornellian head of state. He would serve two terms (and attempt an unsuccessful rebellion in 1931).

Other notable Cuban Cornellians include Ignacio “Lou” Molinet 1927, BME 1929, whose NFL contract is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, recognizing his status as the league’s first Latino player.

The cover of the Los Llopis album

His older brother, Cornell Hall of Famer Joaquin Molinet 1921, hosted the Big Red basketball team—on which his son was a player—for three games in Cuba in 1941.

And Francisco “Frank” Llopis ’40 was a music pioneer.

He and his brother founded Los Llopis—introducing Spanish-language American rock to Cuba and Spain in the 1950s and 1960s.

An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.

Top: The CAU travel group in Havana. The author is at center, holding the Cornell banner and wearing a red cap. (All images provided, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published February 10, 2025

Comments

  1. Alberto Antonio Macia, Class of 2024
    16 Feb, 2025

    Great article Corey! Cornell does have a long history with Cuba. I have a cool photo I would like to share with you of the Cornell Club of Havana meeting in the 1950s before Castro, with one of the people in the photo being my relative!

    Reply
  2. Lucas Zumpano, Class of 2022
    16 Feb, 2025

    As a Cuban descendant, I do not approve Cornell celebrating—in so much as even visiting—a country that is one of the worst communist countries to ever exist. They are a model of why communism does not work and their actions against human rights should be condemned by the university, not what is being showcased here. They have cost thousands of people their lives and that should be known, not ignored. Ironically, this post will likely not be posted (and if it is not, it is a proxy to the same human censorship Cuba does to its citizens by stopping their citizens from freely expressing themselves…interesting isn’t it?)

    Reply
    • Dan Dube, Class of 1980
      16 Feb, 2025

      Lucas, I am sympathetic to your feelings, but it seems that all the cited alumni are from pre-Communistic Cuba. If this article succeeds in making just a few people nostalgiac for pre-Castro Cuba, then Corey’s article will have served the common good.

      However, that’s not my main reason for writing here. I wanted to point out another tie between two of the heroes. Menocal 1888 was actually a fraternity brother of C.B. Brown 1900. They were both Delta Kappa Epsilon bros.

      Reply
  3. Pierre Rodriguez, Class of 2011
    16 Feb, 2025

    Hi,
    how can we get in touch to possibly go out for the next Cornell Cuba trip? I have been to Cuba about 12 times. I would love to go and view it through a Cornell lens.

    Reply
  4. Frank (Mickey) Robbins, Class of 1962
    17 Feb, 2025

    Eloise and I travelled to Cuba in November 2024 and saw private businesses proliferating and the socialist economy with all its lofty goals faltering. Our companies and government deal with numerous countries including Saudi Arabia and China with controversial internal practices. It is in the US’s and Cuba’s interest to support the continued revival of free enterprise and to have a more effective relationship.

    Reply
  5. William Bogdel, Class of 1984
    17 Feb, 2025

    If you travel again to Cuba, I would love to join you.
    Great article!

    Reply

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