We established a sister restaurant, Restaurante Floridita, in Cuba in September, 1992 and sponsored a trip led by Global Exchange in May, 1993. We went back to Cuba in November 1999 and November 2000, again with Global Exchange, with a new sister restaurant El Bambu.
The purpose in choosing Cuba is to work toward normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S. including the lifting of the 30 year old embargo. Our trip explored the negative impact of the continued hostility of the U.S. government toward Cuba which has caused not only economic hardship and human suffering, but has stifled the political and economic reform the U.S. seeks. The tour emphasized Cuba's food system, from farm to table, as a way of understanding both the results of the Cuban Revolution and the effects of the U.S. embargo. Floridita is birthplace of the daiquiri and was Hemingway’s hangout.
