BY CAROL ROSENBERG

 Local Urban League President T. Willard Fair is making his first voyage to Cuba
 this week on an eight-day fact-finding mission meant to explore the status of
 children and race on the island.

 Fair, 61, acknowledged in an interview that the privately funded trip organized with
 Cuban government cooperation could create unhappiness among some South
 Floridians.

 But the prominent Miami leader said he chose to make the trip, which begins
 today, to better understand the political passions that drive Miami's exile
 community. He also said he consulted the United Way's board and about a dozen
 Cuban-American colleagues, including Miami-Dade Community College President
 Eduardo Padron, who supported the journey.

 ``We will spend several days interfacing with persons in the Education Ministry,
 the Child Welfare Ministry, taking some tours and having dinner in a home of a
 typical Cuban,'' he said.

 In addition, the 27-member delegation of the Seattle-based People to People
 Ambassadors Programs will make stops in Havana, Cienfuegos and Varadero.
 Evelyn Moore, president of Washington's National Black Child Development
 Institute, is leading the mission whose price tag was $3,500 to $4,000 per person.

 Fair said the tour will not likely include a face-to-face meeting with Elián
 González, the youngster who was the subject of a cross-Florida Straits custody
 dispute last year. But, he said, such a visit would give him a greater appreciation
 of the child's case.

 ``People don't understand the Elián debacle in my community, because they don't
 understand the trauma that's associated with being in exile; all they understand is
 that he ought to be with his daddy,'' said Fair, who is black. ``You have to
 understand the big picture in order to at least tolerate, if not accept, their reaction
 to his going back to Cuba.''

 Fair said of particular personal interest to him was the notion that ``all the people
 who are back there happen to look like me,'' meaning island Cubans today are
 predominantly black while exiles are predominantly white.

 ``I'm going to check it out,'' he said.

 ``One of my real concerns is about the absence of race versus the presence of
 socialism: Is it accident or coincidence or by design? There are some very
 intriguing sociological issues and child welfare issues that tantalize me as a
 social worker in terms of the whole child development process.''

 Fair, a big backer of Gov. Jeb Bush, said he was the sole South Florida
 representative on the trip, which he called ``highly structured in collaboration with
 the government'' of Cuba.

 He characterized the trip as a legal, licensed exchange between professionals
 concerned with education and childhood issues. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
 established the People to People Ambassadors Programs in 1956 on the theory
 that ordinary citizens from countries in conflict should meet.

 A meeting with Fidel Castro was not part of the official itinerary, Fair said, and
 one seemed unlikely, although he added: ``It certainly would be absolutely a
 delightful experience.''