• Promote people-to-people exchange that builds upon Illinois

• Establish and strengthen relationships between the churches

• Provide a window of understanding on the changing religious

• Engage in dialogue about the U.S. embargo and prospects for

                "neighbor nation" relations.

Rev. Raul Suarez's Bio:

• Pastor – Ebenezer Baptist Church, Havana
• Director – Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, Havana
• Past President – Cuba Council of Churches
• Representative – Cuban Popular National Assembly
• Member – Cuban International Affairs Commission
• Religious Delegation Host – President Jimmy Carter

Raul Suarez was born in 1935. He was one of ten children of a poor family. His father cut sugar cane during the four-month season while his mother washed clothes and ran errands, as did the children, to generate household income. During the other eight months, the family went to the mountains to make charcoal. Raul was the only one in the family who learned to read, but did not begin his formal schooling until age 18 when he left home. He completed his primary, secondary, and high school education in record time and graduated from the Baptist Seminary in 1959.

Following his ordination, Rev. Suarez first assignment took him to minister in a church among the charcoal workers in Cienega de Zapata. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion was launched in this swamp area. Rev. Suarez was recruited as a Red Cross driver to take the wounded Cubans to the hospital. During the invasion, he was injured in one eye by shrapnel.

As one who chose to remain in Cuba following the 1959 Revolution that brought Castro to power, Rev. Suarez never accepted the communist ideology, but did come to support the positive social changes that the revolution had brought to the Cuban people such as literacy, education, health care, and pensions for the elderly.

In 1971, Rev. Suarez moved to Marianao, a working class neighborhood of Havana, to become pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. During his tenure, he became the founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center. The MLK Center hosts international visitors year-round and offers educational programs about Cuba, church-state relations, and the non-violence teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the 1980’s, Rev. Suarez was instrumental in arranging a series of meetings between religious leaders and President Fidel Castro to discuss church-state issues. As a result, the Cuban Constitution was amended in 1992 to create a secular state. Explicit prohibitions were enacted against discrimination on the basis of race, skin color, sex, national origin, and religious beliefs. Other political changes also made it possible for people of religious persuasion to be elected to the Cuban Popular National Assembly without having to become a member of the Communist party.

7:30 PM: Champaign: Clergy Reception and Dialogue – Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church (2010 Three Hierarchs Ct.) -

CO-SPONSOR: Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church

"Life in Cuba Today in the Context of a Global Community" CO-SPONSOR: Cuba Support Committee