herreramariacristina

A native of Santiago de Cuba in Oriente Province, Herrera initially embraced the Cuban Revolution for all of its reformative promises, but lost confidence in the movement when it conflicted with her faith. As a counterrevolutionary, her life was in peril and she came to the U.S. in 1961. Earning a doctorate in International and Comparative Education from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Herrera accepted an academic position at Miami-Dade Community College. Herrera’s professional achievement, however, is the Institute of Cuban Studies, a premier center of study founded in 1969. The forum provides the space for new ideas and a platform for democracy and civil interaction among all Cubans. Herrera was part of the group known as Dialogue, an assembly that facilitated an exchange of prisoners and opened travel to Cuba. A critic of the U.S. embargo, Herrera hopes to return to a free and democratic Cuba within her lifetime.