The Harbinger, the student-led newspaper at Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC) frequently hosts "Twitter Talk" via Twitter on world and local issues to bring forth intelligent discourse and an avenue for student voices to be heard.
The latest "Twitter Talk" was #EmbargoTalk. The national trending topic went on to garner the attention of The Miami Herald and New York Times reporters and was picked up as an article in El Nuevo Herald.
Fabiola Santiago, a Miami Herald columnist, tweeted encouraging followers to join in the #EmbargoTalk. Former Miami Herald columnist Mirta Ojito, currently a writer for The New York Times and journalism professor at Columbia retweeted Santiago. Researcher and Ph.D. candidate, Arturo Lopez-Levy tweeted a link to a student's article on The Harbinger's website which was later retweeted by New York Times reporter Damien Cave.
The Twitter feed and a student-made historical video on the Cuban embargo are both featured in El Nuevo Herald alongside the article titled "Students of Miami Lakes debate the Cuban embargo on Twitter."
Students raised questions regarding the $1.2 billion dollars in lost sales of exports, how the embargo has been regarded as a scapegoat for the communist Cuban government, and the effects lifting the embargo will bring to the Cuban people. Currently the majority of Floridians are in favor of removing the embargo set forth nearly 50 years ago.
Participants in #EmbargoTalk sided mostly with lifting the ban, though others believed the embargo had little to do with the poor living conditions of the Cuban people.
"The embargo still stands as a mark of resilience in the face of adversity. We shouldn't facilitate suffering," tweeted one student contributor, Christopher, with the twitter handle @stoichiometric.
"The Cuban Embargo is a ghost from the past fueled by Cold War mentalities," tweeted another student contributor, Salwa Raza.