HOW STANFORD IS CONNECTED TO CUBA

I yesterday focused on Cuba and America's vision of Manifest Destiny. Coincidentally, I saw a Quora contribution about Stanford University, which I will insert later.  As, in my memory, I can still vividly recall how I almost went to Cuba when I was at Stanford, I thought I'd see how these two entities are connected.   I began by asking Google AI about the two.

Stanford University has a direct academic and research connection with Cuba primarily through The Cuba Observatory,[1]  the Center for Latin American Studies.

Specific connections and initiatives include:

• The Cuba Observatory: This academic initiative is affiliated with Stanford's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLAS). It brings together scholarship, media, and public research to analyze Cuba's socio-economic, political, and cultural landscape.

• 
  Visiting Professorships: Stanford frequently hosts Cuban scholars, such as Dr. Ernesto Domínguez López from the University of Havana, who served as a Tinker Visiting Professor, bringing Cuban academic perspectives directly to campus classrooms.
• Policy & History Studies: Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center for Latin American Studies often sponsor events and research focusing on U.S.-Cuba relations, foreign policy, and historical developments in the region. [1, 2, 3]

These academic programs serve as the main bridge for fostering dialogue, research, and collaborative educational efforts between experts at Stanford and those in Cuba.

I have a more personal link, for more than 60 years ago, I can only pat myself on the back for chickening out on an adventure.  Much of the Bay of Pigs information I have inserted below is new to me.  As college students, we were ignorant of the facts, and were only thinking about a possible great adventure.

• 
  I was a junior at Stanford in 1961.
• College students then were attracted to spring vacation in Fort Lauderdale.  
• According to all reports, this continues today.

• 
  The population of the city was 84,000 in 1961, but has grown to near 200,000 today.
• In March of 2025, records show that 2.56 million visited Fort Lauderdale, and much of that were spring breakers.

• 
  There is a classic teen comedy film, Where the Boys Are, (click on that and you can view the whole movie), that had a premiere in Fort Lauderdale on 28December1960.  Rotten Tomatoes scores of 86/71.  One of the actresses was Connie Francis, and she sang a hit song, Where the Boys Are.
• I belonged to an eating club, El Capitan, and some member indicated that we had a patriotic opportunity join select individuals to preserve democracy in Cuba.

• 
  President Dwight Eisenhower had wanted to remove Fidel Castro from his leadership role, for he was a Marxist-Leninist, and had already make a connection with the Soviet Union.
• Seemed like a sensible and exciting adventure, for we were told that the U.S. government was financing the operation.  It wasn't clear exactly how we would participate, for there already existed a trained paramilitary force, but, naive college students....what can I say.

• 
  The plan was to drive 3000 miles to Fort Lauderdale, participate in the spring vacation activities, where we would meet this classmate's contact to send us to either Guatemala and Nicaragua to prepare for an invasion of Cuba.

• 
  That latter part was too fuzzy for me, and there was no mention of any financial aid, so I was the first to indicate my reluctance to proceed.  The effort then dissolved, and we never even made it to Florida.

• 
  Later, as we talked about our weaseling out, the conclusion was that whatever plans they had for us were mock and diversionary to delude Cuba, and we were hopelessly starry-eyed, for the actual invasion only involved around 1500 Cuban exiles organized by the CIA as Brigade 2506 who were well-trained.

Now called the Bay of Pigs invasion, the plan was devised during Eisenhower's presidency.  

• However, the president was now John F. Kennedy, and he began, like us, to show some hesitancy.

• 
  There were enough leaks that Cuba was expecting something to happen, and was ready.
• The attack proceeded on April 17, with fewer fewer forces and insufficient airs/sea support.
• The invading force was defeated by April 20.
• Perhaps 100 were killed, most of the rest were imprisoned, and at the end of 1962 released back to the USA for $53 million worth of food, medicine and tractors.

• 
  Of course, there followed the Cuban Missile Crisis around that time (16-18October1962) when the world came closest to a nuclear war.

Here is quick history of Cuba:

• Cuba was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
• Diego Velazquez de Cuellar of Spain conquered Cuba in 1511.
• Havana was founded in 1519, and was briefly occupied by Great Britain in 1762, but left in exchange for Florida in 1763.

• 
  The Spanish-American War, spurred by the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana, incited the U.S. Congress to liberate Cuba, resulting in Spanish withdrawal in 1898.  The U.S. also proceeded to win access to the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico from this war.  There was U.S. military rule of Cuba until independence occurred in 1902.

• 
  Dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro after the 1953-1959 Cuban Revolution.
• Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and embraced communism.
• The Cuban economy was mostly supported by Soviet subsidies.

• 
  The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 threw Cuba into a severe economic crisis that ended in 2000 when Venezuela began providing subsidized oil.
• While the U.S. has not had much of political and economic relations with Cuba since 1959, some normalization recently occurred.
• Read Wikipedia for a more complete history.

Shifting now to Quora, here is a full representation of Stanford University, which has no connection to Cuba.

From your Digest

Augustus Zhao

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Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology5y

Is Stanford secretly the best school in the world?

Stanford has been ranked #1 on the Princeton Review survey of “Dream Schools” for students and parents for several years, so it’s hardly a secret that Stanford is one of the “best” schools in America. Stanford draws more applicants than all of its competitors that offer the same quality of education and opportunities. If anything, Stanford is probably a bit overrated.

I would agree, however, that Stanford is arguably the strongest all-around university in America right now, at least in terms of the most popular academic programs.

• Stanford undergrad is one of the four most prestigious colleges in the country, along with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (don’t cite the US News or misleading stats, top students that matter don’t determine prestige or choose colleges that way).
• Stanford Law School is one of the three most prestigious law schools, along with Yale and Harvard.
• Stanford GSB is one of the three most prestigious business schools, along with Harvard and Wharton.
• Stanford’s PhD programs are top tier for every field, matched only by UC Berkeley. This is where Stanford differentiates itself from its competitors. Harvard is not on par for engineering; Yale is slightly behind in the natural sciences, and significantly behind in engineering; Princeton is slightly behind in chemistry, biology, and engineering; MIT is non-existent in most of the humanities.
• Stanford Medical School is a bit behind Harvard’s, but is unquestionably top 5 or so.
• Stanford does not match Harvard, MIT, and particularly Yale (and a few others) in the arts, architecture, and a few other areas.
• Not an academic program, but Stanford has won the Directors’ Cup for 25 consecutive years for having the most successful collegiate athletic teams in America.

Inspired by Joseph Lee’s answer, I would add that the acceptance rates for Tsinghua University and Peking University, the top two universities in China, are less than 0.04% each, or 1 in 2,500. In some provinces the acceptance rate is 1 in 10,000. The academic standards for admission to top Chinese universities are astronomically higher than for top US universities. US universities practice holistic admissions, but I would argue that in totality top Chinese universities are much harder to get into (unless you’re an international applicant).

Of course, “harder to get into” doesn’t mean “better education.” See my answer to Which college is the best for STEM degrees or technical degrees, Tsinghua University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stanford and many top US universities do a better job of educating its undergrads and graduate students than Tsinghua and Peking.

However, by the same token, it’s likely that some small liberal arts colleges provide better undergraduate education than Stanford, even in engineering (See Lafayette and Bucknell). They offer smaller class sizes and more dedicated faculty to teaching.

Some schools offer programs that Stanford does not provide, such as Cornell in architecture and agriculture, Juilliard and the Curtis Institute in music, NYU in film, CMU in acting, etc.

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  1 of 15 answers

To close, three most recognizable songs from Cuba.

• Guantanamera is a Cuban patriotic song with lyrics from a poem by Cuban poet Jose Marti.
• Cuban singer-songwriter Joseito Fernandez originally popularized the song on Havana radio in the 1930s.
• Version by Pete Seeger.
• The most internationally successful rendition by The Sandpipers.

• 
  Chan Chan by the Buena Vista Social Club.
• The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero).
• Original in 1930 by Don Azpiazu and His Havana Casino Orchestra. (right)
• By Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra.

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