February 13, 2002

 RELEASE IMMEDIATELY

CONTACT:
Linda Harris, City of Richmond
(510) 620-6515

Sharon Woods, Recreation and Parks Department
(510) 620-6801

Marco V. Gonzales, Principal, César Chávez Elementary School
(510) 412-5081

RICHMOND DELEGATES ATTEND U.S.-CUBA SISTER CITIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN HAVANA, CUBA

Discussions will strengthen recently formalized sister city ties between Richmond and Regla

Two delegates from public service and education sectors will demonstrate that Richmond can be in the forefront of citizen diplomacy when they represent the Richmond-Regla Friendship Committee at the U.S. Cuba Sister City Association Conference in Havana, Cuba, February 18-20, 2002, at the “Building Bilateral Dialogue-A Continuing Conversation” conference. 

The U.S. Cuba Sister City Association seeks to foster sister city relationships and understanding through mutually beneficial exchanges between individuals, community groups, organizations, and institutions in the United States with counterparts in Cuba.  

Richmond delegates Sharon Woods, of City’s Recreation and Parks Department and former co-chair of the Richmond-Regla Friendship Committe, and Marco Gonzales, principal of César Chávez Elementary School in Richmond will be joining other concerned citizens from all over the country gathering in Cuba to discuss sister city efforts with their Cuban counterparts.   Conference participants include representatives of various organizations, as well as municipal and state officials from throughout the United States.  New sister cities relationships will be celebrated between Santa Fe-Holguin, Decatur-Camajuani, and the first state-to-province relationship will be officiated between Pennsylvania and Matanzas.

“We are eager to share information with others because Richmond was one of the first seven cities in the U.S. to establish sister city ties in Cuba, ” said Woods, who was a participant of the first official City of Richmond visit to  Regla in 1999.   After the conference, Woods and Gonzalez plan to visit Regla to discuss future sister city projects.  Gonzales hopes to establish a sister school relationship between César Chávez Elementary School and the Juan P. Blandino Elementary School in Regla.  “We want to expose our students to Spanish speaking students in other parts of the world by establishing pen-pal programs and other cultural exchanges,” says Gonzalez.  “We stand to learn a lot from Cuba which has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.”   The idea for such an exchange was initiated last December when the Mayor of Regla visited César Chávez Elementary School.

Diplomatic history was made in Richmond last December with the arrival of the first official delegation  from its Cuban Sister City, Regla.  Mr. Francisco Hernandez Barcelo, the Mayor of Regla, and Dr. Raul Genaro Gil Sanchez spent  eight-days on the  official city-to-city visit.  The delegation was joined by Mr. Jose Luis Noa, an official from the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C.   Never before had an official delegation from a Cuban city visited a city in California or on the West Coast for official business. 

At the Richmond City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2001, the formalities of the Sister City Agreement were completed.  This moment marked a milestone in a historical process that began on September 14, 1999, when the Richmond City Council voted unanimously to establish the Friendship City Relationship with Regla in order to promote the exchange of citizen delegations, and medical, educational, cultural and municipal resources.  This agreement paves the way for a new and promising relationship between the two cities and their peoples. 

For the past two years, the Richmond-Regla Friendship Committee has presented cultural and educational projects to the community, including film shows, Cuban art and musical events, and a web site, richmondregla.org. The Committee raised funds through donations from private citizens, and musical/cultural benefits to cover the travel and other expenses of the Cuban delegation and to award a music scholarship to Carlin Muccular of Richmond who hopes to study percussion in Cuba.

The Richmond Regla Friendship Committee meets on the fourth Thursday of the month from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Richmond City Hall basement cafeteria, 2600 Barrett Avenue. The public is invited to attend the next general meeting on Thursday, February 28, 2002.  For more information, contact Linda Harris, City of Richmond, (510) 620-6515.