Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Autumn 2013 | Page 18

as car ownership and the ability to buy and sell homes, as well as to
farm and sell produce in local markets.
But the biggest transition—one frequently noted by journalists
and other visitors today—is a new found freedom to dissent, sparked
largely by Cuba’s economic decline once the Soviet Union—long
Cuba’s supporter—fell apart in the 1990s.
“I was surprised at the level of candor,” says Dr. Amstutz of this
year’s trip compared to his previous two trips. “Before, the people
who spoke to us had to be very careful with their words. Cubans feel
freer today than in times past.”
Students went to Cuba with a range of views on socialism versus
capitalism and spent time talking with Cubans about what their lives
are like living under a Communist government.
The government provides free education (including college) and
basic healthcare, so Cubans enjoy a 90 percent literacy rate and an
education that is “possibly more rigorous than one might find in
many American public schools,” says Anne Justine Houser ’15, a
Spanish and international relations double ma