Open discussion of such traditionally controversial issues was a major goal of the conference, said Fidelma Leonor Cobas ’04, one of the event’s co-chairs.

“A lot of emotion goes into Cuba, and we wanted to provide a forum where people could express conflicting passions,” Cobas said.

Conference attendees said that the openness of the conference had important results.

“I think people were expecting the Cuban-American students to come to the conference with the same views—not advocating a return to Cuba,” said Bianca M. Ferrer, a sophomore at the University of Florida at Gainesville. “What they found was older generation Cubans calling for the youth to go to Cuba—to make their own decisions—instead just listening to their grandparents, who often have emotionally-charged opinions.”

Eric C. Lincoln, a senior at Georgetown University, said that he wondered if the call to build bridges with the dissidents was a result of the Elian Gonzalez incident.

“The exiled Cuban community was portrayed as staunch and stubborn in the press in the aftermath of Elian Gonzalez,” he said. “The speakers at this conference have been quite the opposite, encouraging students to go to Cuba, to bring their parents.”

Lincoln said that he agreed with the new way of thinking.

“I’m very pleased that the future generation of leaders in the Cuban-American community are taking a second look at what their parents and grandparents believed, and are trying to build connections with their brothers on the island.”