BLOOMINGTON – Last week Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, several city colleagues, and a contingent of local residents traveled to two of Bloomington’s two Sister Cities: Posoltega, Nicaragua, and Santa Clara, Cuba.
In Nicaragua from October 28th through the 31st, the group met with Posoltega Mayor Lilliam Mayorga and accompanied her to a community memorial ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the devastating mudslide caused by Hurricane Mitch on October 30th, 1998. They also visited El Comedor Infantil or “the Children’s Cafeteria,” water system facilities, religious leaders, the police chief, and a house recently built in part by Bloomington volunteers.
In Cuba from November 1st through the 4th, Mayor Hamilton and City staff joined members of the City of Bloomington Sister Cities, CUBAmistad, a group of Bloomington residents who seek to encourage dialogue and understanding between citizens of Cuba and the USA. In Santa Clara, the group visited the Ernesto Che Guevara Sculptural Complex, the Casa de la Historia, El Mejunje Cultural Center, Marta Abreu de las Villas Central University, Samuel Feijo Professional Art School, an evening neighborhood organization meeting, water department officials, and CMHW radio station.
The Bloomington contingent also met formally with Presidente de la Asamblea Municipal del Poder Popular Osmany Garcia Lopez, effectively the mayor of Santa Clara, and also Governor of Villa Clara Province Alberto López Díaz, as well as other officials in Santa Clara. Discussions included challenges and opportunities in local government and opportunities to strengthen our connections.
Those who traveled to Nicaragua include Mayor Hamilton, Chief of Staff Josefa Madrigal, Latino Outreach Coordinator Ximena Martinez, and CBU Assistant Director of Operations Hector Ortiz Sanchez, along with Francisco Gomez-Scifres, a native of Posoltega who now lives in Indiana. In Cuba, the city employees were joined by CUBAmistad members and friends Cynthia Roberts, Sarah Grey, Amy Elizabeth Cox, Adrian Cox-Thurmond, and Yuanna Zheng of Bloomington.
So far as records reveal, this is the first visit of a sitting Bloomington mayor to either city. The City of Bloomington is proud to have been a part of the Sister Cities International program for 35 years, having entered into a relationship with Posoltega, Nicaragua, in 1988 and with Santa Clara, Cuba in 1999. Since entering these partnerships, there have been dozens of visits to both locales by Bloomington residents, as well as visits from residents of Posoltega and Santa Clara to Bloomington. These relationships foster cultural exchange through meetings, discussions, and cultural events. Over the years Bloomington residents have interacted with residents of our sister cities in a variety of ways, such as providing lunch for children, scholarships for university students, eyeglasses for those with impaired vision, and literacy education.
ABOUT SISTER CITIES INTERNATIONAL
Sister Cities International was created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House summit on citizen diplomacy, where he envisioned a network that would be a champion for peace and prosperity by fostering bonds between people from different communities around the world. President Eisenhower reasoned that people from different cultures could understand, appreciate, and celebrate their differences while building partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts. sistercities.org/
