Today we’d like to introduce you to Cherie Cancio.
Cherie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Miami surrounded by the sounds of my family’s music and rich history. My mother is Puerto Rican who grew up a few blocks away from Roberto Clemente Park in Wynwood and my father came to the U.S. from Cuba during the Mariel boatlift exodus. When I was 22, I returned to Cuba for the first time as an adult. It was a profound experience, as I reconnected with my identity and cultural roots in a very pure way, through family, stories, music, and food. It allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of our city’s journey and our collective history as a community.
After four years serving in Baton Rouge as Americorps member and later City Year Impact Manager striving to support and improve the city through community engagement, asking students and community members alike “How will you impact your community?” I found myself asking how was I impacting my community. It led to a desire to return to the community that raised me. I took a step back, and moved back to Miami, asking ‘How can I impact my community?’
I founded the CubaOne Foundation. We take millennial Cuban Americans to Cuba for the first time.
My co-founders and I viewed the December 17, 2014 re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba on December 17, 2014, as a chance to introduce our generation to Cuba and its people. We were inspired by the re-establishing of relations between the two countries and thought of ways that the Birthright Israel model could be applied to Cuban Americans.
We empower and inspire young changemakers to create a lasting impact on an island they have a strong family – even “tribal” – connection to. In three years, we’ve brought 100 Cuban Americans to Cuba, reunited 32 families and inspired 46 fellowship projects. We all grew up with black and white photos from our parents and grandparents. They showed us our family, our heritage – who we are and where we came from. We want that history to be much more than black and white photos for our generation. It must be a place we know; the names and faces of people we love.
That is the reason we started CubaOne: to encourage understanding between a long separated diaspora. To create a new vehicle for a new generation that’s looking to understand their past and chart a new future. In the two years since our launch, we have received over 4,000 applications and have brought 104 Cuban Americans to Cuba.
CubaOne Foundation envisions a future where our programs serve as catalysts of innovation, unity, and opportunity. Through our trips to Cuba, we have connected Cuban Americans with their peers on the island. Our trips are designed to facilitate interactions among a new generation of Cubans—both on the island and in the United States—where people can naturally pursue their passions, dreams, and work together toward unity among all people of Cuban heritage, regardless of where they may live.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Healing the wounds of separation is an emotional and complicated process, but in order to create understanding and look towards a brighter future, we must first acknowledge our past. By connecting Cuban Americans with their cultural identity and with their peers, both in Miami and in Cuba, they can better serve their communities.
While respecting the histories of our parents and grandparents who immigrated from Cuba, we need to determine for ourselves what it means to be a Cuban American today. We are at a turning point where we must decide what our role will be in the future of US/Cuba relations, we can be the movement, we can lift each other up, and come together to build something new for generations to come.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with CubaOne – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I have spearheaded our CubaOne programs – designing itineraries focused on heritage, responsible travel, reconciliation and engagement with Cuban peers on the island. It’s important to remember that not only is this something that we created from scratch. But, tourism to Cuba by Cuban Americans is not something that has existed between our countries for 55 years — CubaOne would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. In developing our flagship program I have created an inspired network of Cuban millennials on the island and Cuban American millennials across the U.S. I have done this while respecting the exile that my father and our grandparents went through, building bridges of understanding across the Florida Straits and fostering positive social change.
I have over 10 trips to Cuba, connecting 36 participants with families that they had never met — in one particularly memorable event, I had my network in Cuba find a long last grandfather and arranged a surprise introduction for one of our fellows Helen (see the moment here: http://bit.ly/2p3PFIt)
I have been adamant about pushing us to be a place in the community where people can belong. For instance, working with our alumni to create local programming in Miami for example, organizing and serving as a facilitator for Female creatives focused event both on and off the island entitled Creatives, building local programming around LGBTQ issues in advance of a trip to Cuba coinciding with Havana’s pride. And, recruiting our first new board member to lead the creation of our alumni programming.
This amazing thing I have worked endlessly to create has been profiled in places like the AP (http://apne.ws/2a0pDO3), Washington Post, New York Times (http://nyti.ms/2pjuzCw) – creating change not just in Miami, but in tens of million people across the united states. Reconciliation is a process, and I am helping to lead it for 1.8 million Cuban Americans.
Miami Girls Foundation featured as a Miami Leader, Miami, FL, May 2017
Miami Today, Nominated and Selected as Best of Miami New Comer, Miami, FL, June 2017
PEAR – City Year -McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Youth Development Certification
Program (YDC) Class 2015
What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
Success looks like working with a team who cares more about building communities and driving social change. Working day in and day out with leaders who strive to build sustainable solutions that make social change real. I get to do this every day in my role at Impact Director at City Year Miami and co-founder of CubaOne.
Contact Info:
- Address: 966 Northeast 80th Street, Miami, FL 33138
- Website: cubaone.org
- Phone: 7865460255
- Email: cheriecancio@gmail.com
- Instagram: cheriecancio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cherie.cancio
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CherieCancio
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
