Abstract
In this Retrospective, MEDICC Review reprints excerpts from a blog by Senior Editor Conner Gorry, who, during February and March 2010, was embedded in the disaster-response medical team sent from Cuba after the January 12 earthquake. The team reinforced nearly 500 Cuban health personnel already on the ground long term in 120 communities. Some 700 of the 1300 new arrivals were students or graduates of Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine from 27 countries. Haitian graduates now number 1044. The international contingent (named after Henry Reeve, a Brooklyn-born general in Cuba's own independence struggle) became the largest medical relief effort assembled after the quake.
Highlights
Haiti is a country that appears fleetingly in the Englishspeaking media, when stricken by disaster or more recently by epithets
Perhaps few are aware that Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the world’s first black republic—independence declared on January 1, 1804—in a revolution led by former slaves who defeated Napoleon’s 40,000-strong colonial forces
That, when others abandoned the independence wars against Spain, Simón Bolívar appealed to Haitian president Alexandre Pétion and with Pétión’s troops and material aid, went on to free slaves across Spanish-held colonies in Latin America
Summary
Haiti is a country that appears fleetingly in the Englishspeaking media, when stricken by disaster or more recently by epithets. The Haitian people have been beset by disasters, both natural and man-made They have stood against daunting odds and have received solidarity from their hemispheric neighbors, Cuba among the countries allied with Haiti’s attempts to provide for its people. In this Retrospective, MEDICC Review reprints excerpts from a blog by Senior Editor Conner Gorry, who, during February and March 2010, was embedded in the disaster-response medical team sent from Cuba after the January 12 earthquake. A national workshop for orthotics and prosthetics was established to assist earthquake victims, with equipment and other resources provided by Cuba
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