Corrections appended.

Last week, the Rev. Yosvany Carvajal of Havana visited Brandeis, and on Wednesday, he led a talk titled "Cuba Today: The Church, State and Private Entrepreneurship."

Carvajal is the director of the Father Felix Varela Cultural Center in Havana, which started Cuba's first ever Master of Business Administration program, and now provides a course for new entrepreneurs in Cuba called the Cuba Emprende Foundation.

According to Mrinalini Tankha, program coordinator for emerging markets at the Brandeis International Business School and lecturer in Anthropology, Carvajal's residency was sponsored by Co-Chair of the Board of Overseers of IBS Alan Hassenfeld, and was organized in conjunction with the Hassenfeld Fellow Overseas Immersion Program. This IBS program takes M.A., MBA and B.A./M.A. students on immersion trips to emerging markets, such as Cuba and Turkey. Thirty students participated Cuba last year, and 24 students will participate this year, according to Tankha.

As part of the Hassenfeld Cuba Program, students from IBS have been visiting Cuban students in Havana from Carvajal's center's MBA program, as well as young Cuban entrepreneurs from the center's entrepreneurship program.

"To extend this academic exchange, we thought it would be great to have someone come from Havana to speak at Brandeis and we therefore invited Father Carvajal for a week long residency at Brandeis," wrote Tankha in an email to the Justice.

Following the event, the Justice spoke with Carvajal separately. The interview was conducted in Spanish and translated.
Carvajal discussed the relationship between Cuba and the church, and according to Carvajal, it "has gotten better in the last years."

"When Raul Castro assumed power, he asked for the help of the Catholic Church to liberate political prisoners that were incarcerated in 2002 under Fidel Castro," said Carvajal.

Carvajal explained that in Cuba, "there was a long confrontation between the Church with the state because the government assumed an official atheist philosophy that established an atheist state."

"There were serious confrontations with the church and with the constitution, an atheist country, that evidently had no absolute passions for religion. The church was practically called upon to disappear in the political scenario," said Carvajal.

According to Carvajal, the Cuban constitution was amended in 1992, and Cuba changed from an atheist country to a secular country. However, when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, he called for reform in Cuba and a change in mentality.

Following the visit and change in mentality, it was easier to get permission for all the public processions, to project public religious images and hold public mass, according to Carvajal.

"Lately, for example, there was a great procession in 2001, with the image of the Virgin of Charity, the Patron Saint of Cuba," Carvajal said.

According to Carvajal, Cuba was never truly an atheist country. "Atheist Cuban policies never penetrated through the hearts of Cubans. We were always a religious country," he said.

Carvajal reflected on his decision to become a priest, despite the relatively recent struggles between the Catholic Church and the state. "When I was about 12 years old, I visited the church. There, I grew in faith on the parish and noticed the necessity for religious leaders in Cuba," he said. "My pastor, for example, tended to six or seven parishes, just him for so many parishes. The idea always stayed in my head."

Carvajal noticed the need for a priest in his own town, noting the "lack of faith."

Carvajal went to a vocational school to prepare himself to enter the seminary, which he did in 1993.

According to Carvajal, "to be a priest in Cuba is to give one's life to Cuba, as well, because the church in Cuba has an important function because it accompanies all of my town's history."

"My method of loving Cuba is being a priest," he said.

Carvajal started the MBA program in 2011. "In the year we started the MBA, we chose 45 students first. It was a very difficult selection because 200 students applied. To choose 45 students of 200 applications is difficult," he said.

Carvajal described his students as "great" and "prepared." The program continues to grow in size.

Carvajal described the importance of such a program as being able "to help the changes of the economic reform that have moved forward with Raul Castro as president of Cuba."

"Before business men, there were merchants. Now, [understanding business] is a necessity," he said. "We don't want to prepare the people for ourselves, for the Church. It's for Cuba; it's all for Cuba," he said.

In regard to the selection of Pope Francis, a native Argentinian, Carvajal is optimistic. Carvajal described the Pope as the type of religious leader who "walks with his town, is involved in the middle of usual communication in Buenos Aires, visits poorer communities and is concerned about the poor."

Carvajal hopes that this is a chance for the world to become more familiar with Latin America. "We're all very happy to have a Latin American Pope," he said. "I hope the Pope makes a new vision for not only the Church, but the world." 

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Editor's Note: The students participating in the overseas immersion program in Cuba are not currently in Cuba. They will be leaving next year.