In an interview for the American Dream series televised on Fox News-Colorado, Arturo Lopez Levy asserts, “My American dream is to be a scholar, being able to expose my ideas openly and freely. I think America as a society gives me this opportunity.” Levy, a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), did not always have such scholarly freedom in his native Cuba.
   
“In a Communist System, there are severe restrictions to what you can say and what you cannot say,” says Levy. Consequently, when Levy expressed his opinion during the first Gulf War that Cuba should fight alongside the U.S. in order to entice its northern neighbor to lift the embargo against Cuba, he was punished. Levy’s course of study at the Havana School of International Relations was interrupted as he was relegated to a term of service in the Cuban army.

After completing his term with the military, Levy completed his degree in Havana and then worked as a political analyst for the Cuban government, resigning from that post after a year. Though he had ambitions, at this point, to further his education in the U.S., the Cuban government retained Levy for seven years. Despite being accepted into the PhD program at Emory University in 1998, Levy could not get out of Cuba.

“During that time, I did any work that I could to survive, and read every thing I could to prepare for the future” Levy says.

Finally, Levy received permission to travel to Israel, and from there he came to the United States, earning his MA degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. He entered the PhD program in International Studies at GSIS two years later in 2003.

In 2005, Levy earned the Leonard Marks Foundation Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy for a paper that he wrote that challenged the current U.S. policy toward Cuba. The paper was in direct opposition to the policy advocated by right-wing Cuban-American constituents in Florida. Unfortunately, restraints on his freedom of speech continued to haunt Levy. Though past winners of the award were allowed to present their papers to the State Department, Levy was not given this opportunity. Instead, he presented to former ambassadors. We are left to speculate as to why this was the case.

Since 2005, Levy has successfully completed his comprehensive exams, taught courses at both GSIS and the University of Colorado, and worked on his dissertation prospectus. For his dissertation, Levy is leaning toward a research project exploring issues of democratization, particularly the role of external actors in promoting political liberalization and strengthening democracy in different countries in Latin America

After completing his time at GSIS, Levy plans to pursue a double career in politics and academia. In the case of the former career path, Levy aims to have a political impact on inter-American relations. “I am very grateful for the opportunities the U.S. has given me, but at the same time, I am proud of my Latin American background,” he says. “If we understand each other better, we can re-launch a more equitable, democratic and multilateral American century that includes all of America.”

In the case of an academic career, Levy believes that better political outcomes are possible if politicians pay attention to academics. Asserts Levy, “Good politics should be based on social science research.”

Overall, Levy has been satisfied with the DU stage of his journey.

“I’m very grateful to GSIS for the opportunity to study here. I think it is a very good school,” he says. 

For more information regarding the GSIS PhD program in International Studies, please go to: www.du.edu/gsis/degrees/phd.html.

To access Levy’s complete interview with Fox News - Colorado, follow this link.