Childhood Memories of Cuba Spark a Memorable Return With Road Scholar

There, Gabrielle enjoyed her first taste of freedom, and her earliest education. Her mother enrolled her and her brother in a private school, where they were taught English and Spanish. They settled in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. There was music everywhere then, Gabrielle recalls, in the streets and shops and restaurants — in stark contrast to the oppressive life her family had known in Germany. It was a time she remembers fondly.

A Short-lived Respite

Unfortunately, in just a few years the family would again face turmoil — this time in the form of the Cuban Revolution. Gabrielle’s mother sought visas to enter the United States, where they had relatives who had emigrated before World War II, but their application was denied by the government. Unwilling to abandon the hope of a new life in the U.S., Gabrielle’s determined mother sought another path. 

New York City at the time had an influential Jewish mayor, Herbert Lehman, who earlier had cofounded the investment firm Lehman Brothers. As Gabrielle recalls, her mother sent an appeal to Mayor Lehman to help the family emigrate to the U.S., and to the family’s great relief, the mayor quickly set the wheels in motion to have their petition for entry approved.

Finally in a safe haven after being uprooted for a second time, Gabrielle and her family flourished in New York. She graduated from Barnard College, started a family of her own and went on to enjoy a long and successful career as a business executive, consultant and college instructor. Throughout her eventful adult life, however, Gabrielle never forgot her childhood days in Havana, and in 2024, she resolved to go back.

A Delightful Surprise Punctuates a Memorable Trip

Road Scholar is one of the few organizations authorized by the U.S. government to provide group travel opportunities under the People to People program, which requires that travel to Cuba be centered around education and meaningful cultural exchange — hallmarks of all Road Scholar programs since its founding 50 years ago. Gabrielle, a committed lifelong learner and veteran of three previous learning adventures, found the prospect especially appealing, and she enrolled for a May 2024 program. She arrived in Havana and shortly afterward, things took an unexpected turn. She picks up the story:

“Road Scholar is known for giving lectures to its participants, and the lectures are probably one of the best things they do; they’re outstanding. The second lecture I attended was given by a female professor (Marta Nunez Sarmiento, University of Havana, retired), and my Road Scholar leader must have told her there was someone in the group who lived in Cuba as a young child and was educated in a private school that no longer exists,” says Gabrielle.

“The woman gave a fabulous lecture, and after it was over, I approached her and introduced myself and said I understood she had also been educated in Cuba. I told her I had gone to a wonderful school called Rushton Academy. She looked at me in total awe and said, ‘How fascinating, that’s the school I went to!’ She asked what years I was there, to which I replied that I had attended from 1949 to 1951. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I have the yearbooks from those classes! I was one year ahead of you, but my husband was in your class,’” Gabrielle recalls.

“She was able to show me yearbook pictures of my brother, and of my 7-year-old self sitting there in class with my little pigtails. It was the highlight of my Havana experience.”

That was not the end of Gabrielle’s trip back in time, however. In an old American car of the sort Cubans have meticulously maintained for 65 years or more, she was able to visit her former neighborhood and was delighted to find that her family’s apartment was still there. Weathered but virtually unchanged, the area brought still more pleasant memories of her girlhood.

Also unchanged was the spirit and vitality of the Cuban people she encountered. She says: “When I came back, I did find the people as a culture very happy, rhythmic. They loved music, it was everywhere, no matter where you went in Havana. That element that I remember about the people from my childhood was still there. They’re artistic, they’re very creative and they’re very musical. They either play an instrument or they dance. They use their bodies to express their feelings. It’s beautiful to watch.”

Gabrielle explains her purpose in choosing a Road Scholar program: “I wanted an educational-type trip. I was determined it had to be, because I wanted to go back and be reminded of some of the history I had forgotten, and I knew I would get it from Road Scholar.”

She got what she was expecting. What she wasn’t expecting was an encounter that left her “amazed and flabbergasted at what a small world it is.” But such are the rewards, sometimes, for people with an adventurous spirit.