Transcript Symposium Book - Terrace Community Middle School

Symposium Book
Discussion Questions
Finding Mañana
By Mirta Ojito
Mirta Ojito
Symposium Date: April 9th
Reading Due Dates
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Chapters 1-3: 2/19
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Chapters 4-6: 2/26
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Chapters 7-9: 3/12
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Chapters 10-12: 3/26
Chapter Titles
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#1: Worms Like Us
# 2: Bernardo Benes: Our Man in Miami
#3: Butterflies
#4: Hector Sanyustiz: A Way Out
# 5: Ernesto Pinto: An Embassy Under
Siege
# 6: Unwanted
# 7: Napoleón Vilaboa: The Golden Door
# 8: Leaving Cuba
# 9: Captain Mike Howell: Sailing Mañana
# 10: Tempest-Tost
# 11: Teeming Shore
#12: With open arms
1st Period-Questions-2/19
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Why didn’t Mirta’s parents get involved in the
revolution?
Before the revolution, what was life like for
Mirta’s parents?
When did Benes leave Cuba? How old was he?
What is Benes’s political background?
What would have happened to Ojito and her
father if they had started the process of leaving
Cuba?
2nd Period-Questions-2/19
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How did people Ojito knew earn “coupons to
buy plastic blenders or Russian-made washing
machines”?
Why does Ojito admit that her family went to
church?
Where was Benes’s father from and how did he
make his money?
What did Benes first think of Castro? Why did
he change his mind?
How did Ojito’s family celebrate her
Quinceañera?
3rd Period-Questions-2/19
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What types of questions were in the
questionnaire that Ojito brought home from
school? How many questions were there?
What kinds of information did Ojito have to
memorize?
What view of political prisoners in Cuba did
Benes and President Carter share?
Who were the men that Benes met with in
Panama?
What was the purpose of being required to
travel to la escuela de campo?
4th Period-Questions-2/19
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What did Ojito’s teacher want her mother
to do?
What is a “gusano”?
What two issues did the U.S. and Cuban
governments discuss?
What was President Carter’s agenda and
what did he do to reflect that?
What happened to Ojito’s boyfriend?
5th Period-Questions-2/19
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What was Ojito’s graduation gift from her
teachers?
What kinds of teacher comments were in Ojito’s
student record?
What joke did Benes make when he met
Castro? What was Castro’s reaction?
How did Castro react to the video of Miami
Cuban exiles?
In 1969 what holiday did the Cuban government
abolish?
6th Period-Questions-2/19
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What kinds of teacher comments were in Ojito’s
student record?
As a fourteen year old, how did Ojito feel about
capitalism?
Why was Benes’s life threatened?
Why did some of the Cuban political prisoners
feel that the U.S. “owed them”?
What did Ojito’s father want from her before he
made plans to take the family to the U.S.?
1st Period-Questions-2/26
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Why was Sanyustiz told that he wouldn’t
drive a bus again?
What was the atmosphere like when
Ernesto Pinto during the two months that
Pinto had been in office?
Why was Pinto selected for the job of
being in charge of the embassy?
2nd Period-Questions-2/26
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Why did he quit his job a bus driver and
why didn’t he accept job offers?
What did General Jose Abrantes and
Pinto argue over?
Why were the boulders in front of the
embassy cleared?
3rd Period-Questions-2/26
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Why was the Peruvian embassy so
attractive to Cubans wanting to leave
Cuba?
How many Cubans went to the embassy
on the first day?
Describe the first meeting between Castro
and Pinto.
4th Period-Questions-2/26
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What plan do Raul Radames and
Sanyustiz devise?
Describe the second meeting between
Castro and Pinto.
What types of privileges for “most black
women” had the revolution made
possible?
What did Ojito’s parents pick up in a
suitcase?
5th Period-Questions-2/26
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By April 5, how many Cubans had
gathered at the embassy?
What did Castro ultimately decide would
be the fate of the Cubans at the embassy?
After the revolution, how did elitism still
exist?
6th Period-Questions-2/26
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Describe Castro’s smear campaign against
the Cubans inside the embassy.
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How did countries help the Cubans at the
embassy?
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How did Sergito view the Cubans at the
embassy?