Cristian Soler '07 visited his home country of Cuba for the first time in the Summer of 2014 on a school-sponsored trip through Louisiana State University. He was the first member of his immigrated family to reunite with their Cuban relatives in more than 50 years. Cristian's father and Stuart Hall's Spanish teacher, Sr. Soler, returned home in June for his very first trip to the island. They spoke openly about their experience in an article featured on Yahoo! News.
Earlier this month, President Obama made the first presidential visit to Cuba in nearly a century--88 years, to be exact. In an historic speech, President Obama quoted Cristian (view clip here):
"You see it in Cristian Miguel Soler, a young man who became the first of his family to travel here after 50 years. And meeting relatives for the first time, he said, 'I realized that family is family no matter the distance between us.' " (View full speech here. Mention of Cristian begins at 32:30.)
------