U.S. wanted Bishop out
before coup, prof says
By Brooks Dareff
Of the Emerald
The recent coup in Grenada, in which Prime
Minister Maurice Bishop and other administrators
were killed, gave the United States a chance to
change a government it had been trying to under
mine since Bishop seized power in 1978, says Sonia
Rivera, a history professor from Cuba.
The Cuban postion on Grenada will be one of the
tuple* ui*eu**eu uy rcivera, on
leave from John Jay College in
Brooklyn, N Y. Rivera will speak at
Eugene's Wesley Center at 1236
Kincaid St. at 3:30 p.m. today.
The U.S. government was no
defender or friend — qualified or
otherwise — of murdered Bishop
or his government, as U.S. of
ficials suggested, Rivera says.
Aside from general opposition
to Marxist governments, Rivera
says U.S. officials were obsessed
with Grenada because they feared
3CVUO Wl UI3
sent among U.S. blacks. Grenada is 95 percent to 98
percent black.
U.S. blacks responded to Bishop because he was
a black man descended from slaves, he spoke
English, and he was "charismatic," Rivera says.
Bishop spoke in this country several times, and
Rivera says she witnessed a predominantly black au
dience in Brooklyn respond to a Bishop speech with
great enthusiasm.
"They’re afraid 100,000 black people in a small
community could have a large effect on several
million blacks here."
The story of the coup in Grenada is "still very
obscure, very confusing. Nobody knows what hap
pened there," Rivera says.
To remarks by U.S. officials that coup leader Ber
nard Coard was trying to impose a more Marxist, and
by implication more Cuban regime, Rivera responds
with a question: "more Marxist — what does that
mean?"
In New York, she says, fellow members of the
Circle of Cuban Culture spoke of the struggle within
Grenada's ruling New Jewel Party as having been one
ot personality rather than
ideology.
While flipping through a New
York Times Magazine recently,
Rivera came upon a travel adver
tisement that epitomized her
perception of United States col
onial attitudes.
The ad was predictably
romanticized — a man was strum
ming a guitar, tranquil beaches
basked in the moonlight — but
what struck her most was the in
viting headline: "The Caribbean:
our private bwimrnmg pool.
Photographs from Grenada have caught her eye
more recently. They are of white U.S soldiers pater
nally holding black Grenadan babies.
Eugene is but one stop in a 12 to 15 city tour for
Rivera. She is speaking as part of the Third World
Women's Project, sponsored by the Institute for
Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and is the guest
of the Eugene Council for Human Rights in Latin
America.
Rivera says she hopes people in the United States
will look closely and carefully at the Grenadan
suituation.
Where there are "so many contradictions," she
says, "people should try to find the truth."
U.S. colonialism is
typified by a
magazine ad headlin
ed The Carribbean:
our private swimming
pool/ says a Cuban
professor.
Greyhound
Continued from Page 1A
In Eugene, picketer John Ditgen vowed to strike
"however long it takes."
Employees here are sharing the duty in around
the-clock shifts. Three men stood before the terminal
door Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, holiday-season customers — many ot
them students — are left wondering if they'll make it
home for Thanksgiving.
Despite some route problems, Coker said he ex
pected a doubling of normal holiday business due to
the Greyhound strike.
Roughly 35 percent to 40 percent of Trailways'
riders are students, Coker said.
Marcia Hudspeth, manager of the EMU Main
Desk, said the strike probably hasn't affected EMU
Thanksgiving business yet, because most of those
tickets aren't sold until around Nov. 21.
The Main Desk is refunding money for all
Greyhound tickets for those who are stuck without
service, Hudspeth said.
Correction
A Nov. 2 Oregon Daily Emerald article titl
ed "Students find a 'little' change of pace" in
correctly states the Big Brother/Big Sister pro
gram is a creation of the YWCA. The program
is sponsored by the YMCA and is located in
Suite 5 of the EMU.
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Burritos 50', Corn Dogs 25'
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