C.U.S.L.A.R. Website
Mission
The Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations (CUSLAR) works for peace, justice, and greater mutual understanding in U.S. /Latin American relations through education, solidarity and support of human rights. We are committed to non-violent social change led by grassroots movements who are claiming their dignity and power by developing alternative models of development.
Description of Work
CUSLAR is a network of volunteers promoting awareness of the culture and politics of Latin American nations and their relationships with the United States. We support a coordinator and an office in Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell University, as a project of the Center for Transformative Action.
We bring speakers to upstate New York to share their experiences in research and direct action. CUSLAR is a resource center for researchers, volunteers, and others who travel between the United States and Latin American nations. Our library has over 1,500 books and dozens of periodicals and videos on or from Latin America. We have extensive files on international volunteer opportunities and language schools.
Director's Bio
To be completed
Social Impact
CUSLAR was founded in 1964 by Cornell students who were returned Peace Corps Volunteers, outraged by the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic. Over the course of these last decades, thousands of people have been involved in CUSLAR's educational and advocacy efforts. These include students and faculty at Cornell University and Ithaca College, as well as local area residents. We have sponsored countless presentations by researchers and people working in grassroots social change organizations; shown documentaries exposing injustices that otherwise would not have been viewed in our community; organized rallies and vigils and activist gatherings that have educated and inspired community members.
Many of CUSLAR's current supporters came to political consciousness and became activists as students volunteering with CUSLAR. "CUSLARistas" have gone on to be labor organizers, peace activists, policy researchers and academics active in community organizations. One has even become the president of Oxfam America.
As situations changed in U.S./Latin American relations, CUSLAR adapted. In the 1970's, CUSLAR worked closely with Chilean refugees, aiding them in obtaining political asylum from the brutal U.S.-backed Pinochet dictatorship. In the 1980's, we were very active in the efforts to end the violence in Central America. It has been said that popular resistance by U.S. citizens stopped the Reagan administration’s plans to invade El Salvador during the bloody civil war in that country. CUSLAR was a strong presence in that solidarity movement. Currently, U.S. involvement in Colombia is one of our main focuses. In this effort, we are members of the Colombia Support Network, a national organization, and have joined with the nearby cities of Cortland and Syracuse to form a sister community relationship with the area of Cajibio Colombia. Over the years, CUSLAR has also made many people aware of the movement to end U.S. training of Latin American military officers at the U.S. Army School of the Americas. We are part of the national movement which is coming ever closer to moving Congress to cease funding this destructive training.
CUSLAR's impact can also be seen in several "spin-off" student organizations founded by CUSLARistas. Among them are the Farmworker Advocacy Coalition, focusing on labor rights for farmworkers, and the Cornell Coalition for Trade Justice, which convinced the Cornell dining service to use Fair Trade products, and which educated and advocated on the detrimental effects of "free" trade on the peoples of Latin America.