The Bridge Generation

Four years ago, a few Cuban-American students from Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Florida, feeling disen-franchised from the Cuba discourse that dominates Miami, started a youth group to focus on the island's future.

The controversy surrounding the tug of war over Elián González, the little boy who was rescued at sea after his mother drowned escaping Cuba, was still fresh in the minds of several of the students. They felt many Americans throughout the country misunderstood Cuban Americans' strong feelings on the issue. Then, in early 2003, Cuba launched one of its biggest crackdowns on dissidents and independent journalists, arresting 75 and sentencing them to long prison terms after summary trials.

Today, Raices de Esperanza, perhaps the largest group of 20-something, politically charged Cuban Americans, is holding its third conference at Princeton University, featuring Gloria Estefan as the keynote speaker. The group, whose name means "the roots of hope," expects about 150 people at the conference, almost twice as many as the first one in 2003.

The group's rise and its message are a testament to the changing dynamics in the Cuban exile community.

Not that Raices' message is much different from that of their elders. They want free-dom and democracy in Cuba. They want to focus on Cuba's human-rights abuses. And they criticize the communist government.

CONNECTED

However, Raices members stand out in two key ways: They talk democracy and politics with youth groups on the island, and they have success-fully taken their message beyond Miami -- to the national and international stage. They have formed affiliate groups in foreign countries to hold protests and vigils abroad on key issues affecting Cuba.

"While our parents and grandparents had their own movimientos and organizations, we wanted to create something of our own to be able to enthuse our generation," said Joanna Gonzalez, 24, one of the group's founders who attended St. Brendan High School in Miami and later the University of Florida.

"A positive way to move forward is to empower the youth -- who are those that will be making decisions and influencing public opinion in the future -- to be educated on the issues going on in the island," she said. "We want the youth in Cuba and out of Cuba to see what life is like in each other's shoes."

Estefan said that, as a Cuban exile and a parent, it has been important for her to keep the Cuba issue alive with her children.

"They have gone beyond the talking phase to taking action," she said of Raices. ‘‘And it needs to be supported and applauded every chance we get because if any change will come in the future, it will come from the youth," Estefan said Friday. "That's the torch they need to carry: commitment to the issue."

Apathy about Cuba was one of the main reasons the students decided to get involved in late 2002. It started small, as an e-mail network of friends and contacts, Gonzalez said. Most of the members today are full-time students or have graduated and have day jobs.

It remains an informal group, with no annual dues, and no official membership list, Gonzalez said. Their most visible activity is the annual conference, which has headlined VIPs, such as former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.

For some students from around the country, Raices has been a way to reconnect with cultural roots that have long been dormant. Kenneth Sinkovitz, a Princeton junior who has been involved in Raices for more than a year, said he was first drawn to Raices out of curiosity because he was curious about other Cuban Americans.

"Originally, I was most curious to see and meet other Cuban Americans on campus because growing up I never knew any," said Sinkovitz, whose mother is a Cuban exile, and whose father is Austrian- American.

"I'm looking forward to be able to objectively speak to some of these academics and professionals about Cuba, whether they are from the right or from the left."

Raices, which incorporated as a non-profit group this year, has no steady source of income. Donations to put together the conference come from vari-ous sources. One of them is Premier American Bank Chairman Carlos Saladrigas, who also leads the moderate Cuba Study Group in Miami.

To Saladrigas, Raices fills a vacuum in the discourse, now dominated by older exiles.

"It sends a powerful message for the future of Cuba," Saladrigas said. "I think they are going to be the bridge gen-eration. They are going to play a very important role in Cuba's future."

Raices is not without its intrigue. One of the group's co-founders, who asked that his name not be used because he doesn't want to compromise his contacts in Cuba, said he communicates with young Cubans on the island regularly via telephone and e-mail. Raices has mounted launched anonymous letter-writing campaigns to young people in Cuba, for example.

"We want to inspire them to become authors of their own future," the co-founder said. "There is a lot of disillusionment there . . . We are trying to offer support and solidarity."

CROSS-CULTURAL

Not everyone in Raices is Cuban American. Cynthia Romero, 24, is a Princeton University graduate from Puerto Rico who now works for a non-profit in Miami. She became involved in Raices more than a year ago after a friend of hers told her about the group in Washington.

"There's definitely a reevaluation going on among the exile community of what is constructive criticism of the situation in Cuba, rather than destructive," Romero said. "And there's more talk about reconciliation, and a lot more talk about what's happening in Cuba not being a partisan issue, or a local issue, but a human-rights-abuse issue."

Alex Burgos, a graduate of Miami's Belen Jesuit Preparatory School and the University of Florida, is Raices' offi-cer in charge of networking among young professionals. He said Raices also has members from many Latin American countries, including Mexico, Venezuela and Peru. Last year, for example in fact, Raices co-hosted the launch in Mexico City of the Interna-tional Youth Committee for Democracy in Cuba, attended by 800 young people.

"When we left Miami and went to schools outside of Florida, we realized that nobody knows about the Cuba issue," Gonzalez said. ‘‘We are trying to get the word out of what s wrong, and what can be done to fix it."