“Citizen Diplomats” Celebrate 45 Years Of Sister Cities

Internationally-minded New Haveners gathered in the Ives Main Library Branch’s Orchid Cafe to celebrate 45 years of sister-city relationships with eight communities around the world — and a local culture that welcomes immigrants and travelers amid rising xenophobia.

New Haven Sister Cities hosted the celebration of New Haven’s 45 years of formalized international connections on Wednesday afternoon.

New Haven has eight sister cities, whose relationships with New Haven have been fostered by civilians and cemented by city leaders: Amalfi, Italy; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Avignon, France; Huế, Vietnam; Tetlanohcan, Mexico; Changsha, China; León, Nicaragua; and Afula-Gilboa, Israel. 

Some of those cities, like Amalfi and Tetlanohcan, are connected to New Haven through communities of immigrants who moved here. (There are more Amalfitani people in New Haven than there are in Amalfi itself.) 

Other sister cities are linked to New Haven through shared history, like Freetown in Sierra Leone, which was originally home to the enslaved Mende people who rebelled on the Amistad slave ship and fought the legal system for their freedom in New Haven. 

Still others maintain relationships with New Haven institutions, as in the case of Avignon (through an exchange program with Hopkins School) and Changsha (a city with multiple ties to the Yale-China Association).

Barbara Lamb, a former president of New Haven Sister Cities and a retired city director of cultural affairs, explained the organization’s philosophy of ​“citizen diplomacy”: the notion that by fostering personal relationships and ​“connecting with people from other cultures, we stop seeing them in a suspicious way. We realize the commonality that we have.”

“While we might be separated by geography,” said Sister Ana Gonzalez, OP, a board member of New Haven Sister Cities, ​“we rejoice in history, traditions, and solidarity.”

New Haven Sister Cities’ mission of promoting peace through global exchange programs and connections has at times ignited local controversy. When Huế and New Haven forged formal ties in 1994, a group of Vietnam War veterans filled the Board of Alders chambers to protest the relationship. Despite the resistance, New Haven became the first American city to create a sister relationship with a Vietnamese city.

Lamb traveled to Huế in 2010 as a guest of Mayor John DeStefano. She returned a few years later to lead a tour of her own to a group of New Haveners. ​“It’s a phenomenal city,” Lamb said, with beautiful architecture, tombs, and citadels. Huế is located in central Vietnam, and the 1968 Battle of Huế marked a pivotal moment in the Vietnam War, which nearly decimated the city and shifted many Americans’ perceptions of the U.S. presence there.

New Haven’s connection to León also carried a peace message at the time of its establishment in the 1980s, as the U.S. launched an illegal war against Nicaragua, backing anti-government contras who committed human rights violations against civilians.

In order to forge a relationship between Freetown and New Haven in 1992, Sierra Leone’s New England Consul Mohammed Barrie had to first call up Kansas City — Freetown’s existing sister city. Barrie convinced Kansas City to relinquish its relationship with Freetown so that the Sierra Leone city could formalize ties to the town where the enslaved people aboard the Amistad revolted and won their freedom. 

Barrie, who along with Al Marder and Clinton L. Robinson helped establish the Amistad Committee, describe New Haven as a ​“Mecca” for Sierra Leone — particularly because of the statue of Sengbe Pieh, the leader of the Amistad revolt, outside City Hall.

Since establishing the sister city relationship, Barrie and Robinson helped organize fundraising and donation drives to address the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

A contingent of Wooster Square residents were drawn to Wednesday’s event because of the Italian town of Amalfi’s footprint on the neighborhood. 

Wooster Square residents light up ​“the minute you mention Amalfi,” said Elsie Chapman, a resident of the neighborhood and historic preservation advocate. Chapman once traveled to Amalfi. ​“it’s a beautiful, beautiful city,” she said.

New Haven Sister Cities celebrated these international partnerships amid an increasingly hostile national climate toward immigrants, noting that a movement to build a literal wall around the country swelled in recent years.

“When we think of what the world is going through today, it’s good to know that here this town, we have a way of reaching out,” said former Mayor Toni Harp.

“New Haven has always been welcoming,” said Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers. ​“I feel like we need to do everything we can to establish more relationships around the world.

Althea Musgrove Norcott, the president of New Haven Sister Cities, honored past presidents of the organization: Roseline Crowley, Joanne Rees, Barbara Wareck, Keith Krom, Trish Pearson, Kathleen Bidney, Barbara Lamb and Shaundolyn Slaughter.

The organization also recognized representatives from, or advocating for, every city: Mohammed Barrie for Freetown, Kathleen Bidney for Avignon, the Yale-China Association for Changsha, Mimi Glenn for Afula-Gilboa, Hubert Woodard (posthumously) for Huế, Chris Schweitzer for León, and Norine Polio for Amalfi. (The representative for Tetlanohcan, Adriana Rodriguez, was not present.)

Over the course of the afternoon, attendees honored the eight sister cities with food from each town, ranging from Israeli spinach and feta pastries to Mexican chicken empanadas; a modernized Vietnamese dance with brightly-colored umbrellas by Sister Thi Kim Uyen Do, OP; and an 1898 Italian song performed by Richard DiPalma.

“Who knows when we’ll meet again this way,” DiPalma sang in Italian, and then in English. ​“It’s now or never.” According to DiPalma, the song was originally inspired by the writer’s visit to Ukraine, reveling in the fresh air after a storm.