Table of Contents

P.03 Using This Guide

P.04 About the Film

P.05 Key Historical Background

P.09 Health in and by Communities

P.14 Sowing Medical Internationalism

P. 23 Cuba’s Health System Today 

P. 25 Health Cooperation Against the Odds

P. 27 Discussion Prompts 

P. 28 Calls to Action

P.29 Resources for Further Study 

Historical background authored by Conner Gorry

Impact Producing by Sanjna Selva 

& Yurema Perez-Hinojosa 

Graphic Design by Wilfredo Valdez

Photos courtesy of Belly of the Beast and  

Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC)

Using This Guide 

This guide is designed to support your engagement with From Cuba to Calabria across a  range of settings—including classrooms, community discussions, independent viewing, and  organized screenings. It offers background context, discussion prompts, and resources to  help explore the film’s central themes, from global health and scientific innovation to the  real-world impacts of U.S.–Cuba policy. 

You are encouraged to use this guide flexibly. Select the sections, questions, and materials  that best fit your needs—whether you are leading a classroom discussion, facilitating a  group conversation, or reflecting individually. Not every section is meant to be used at  once. 

For more ways to take action, as well as further resources on the history of U.S.–Cuba  relations and Cuban healthcare and biotechnology, see the reference materials included at  the end of this guide. 

Learn more about this film and discover other short films from Cuba to the world.

Directors: Daniel Montero & Gabriela Tamarit 

Historical background authored by Conner Gorry 

Executive Producers: T.M. Scruggs, 

Babochki Collective, Reed Lindsay 

Impact Producers: Sanjna Selva 

& Yurema Perez-Hinojosa 

Fiscal Sponsor: Center for Independent Documentary 

About the Film 

From Cuba to Calabria is a short documentary that follows a group of Cuban doctors  who leave their families behind to serve a two-year medical mission in Calabria, Italy’s  most impoverished region. 

As Calabria’s public healthcare system buckles under staff shortages, austerity, and  decades of economic neglect, Cuban physicians fill a void by stepping into hospitals and  clinics that are struggling to stay open. In a region where the ’Ndrangheta mafia has  siphoned public funds, infiltrated construction and healthcare contracts, and drained  resources meant for social services, entire communities have been left with fragile access  to care. 

The film begins in Cuba, capturing the doctors’ final days at home before their departure,  and follows them as they navigate language barriers, cultural differences, and political  controversy abroad. Celebrated as heroes in Cuba yet denounced by some U.S. officials  as participants in “forced labor,” the mission becomes a lens into a much larger debate  about international solidarity, global health inequality, and who gets to define  humanitarian aid. 

From Cuba to Calabria offers rare inside access to a Cuban medical mission in Europe —  revealing the human stories behind a program that has become both a lifeline for  underserved communities and a flashpoint in international politics.

Key Historical  Background

All photos courtesy of Medical Education  Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC) 

“We volunteer. Each person has to  make that decision. For me, my  profession is my life. And, like the  others selected, I’d served abroad in  health emergencies before. When I  read about Ebola, I signed up  because help was needed right away. 

– Dr. Félix Baéz, Henry Reeve  Contingent, Sierra Leone (2014) 

Like all Cuban emergency medical volunteers serving in the most dangerous and  contagious places, Félix Baéz is a tough cookie. A veteran of the Henry Reeve  Contingent’s 2005 Pakistan mission, he joined 255 other Cuban medical professionals  who answered the call to help fight Ebola in West Africa in 2014. After undergoing  specialist in-country training and receiving certification in WHO protocols, Baéz worked  six-hour shifts, seven days a week. He donned full hazmat gear to treat the most critical  patients. Several died. Then, he contracted Ebola and nearly died himself. His first words  days after fighting for his life: “I’m going to be okay. And I’m going back to Sierra Leone.”  And that’s precisely what he did.