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| Our itinerary |
In March of 2016, we visited Cuba for a look at this country of contradictions. Cuba with its crumbling infrastructure is still a place of some beauty. It is a third world country with a well educated population. It is a repressive Communist regime with first rate education, health care and cultural institutions accessible to all. It is a place where credit cards are not used, the Internet is difficult (at best) to access and no ATM machines are to be found. In many ways Cuba is a step back in time to the 1960’s. The more you learn about the Cuba, the more questions you have.
In some ways, Cuba can be divided into two parts: Havana and the rest of Cuba. We were able to spend seven days visiting Camaguey, Remedios, Caibarien, Santa Clara, Jovellanos, and Matanzas (the non-Havana part of Cuba) before spending the next four days in Havana. We were treated to several musical and dance performances, visits to art galleries, and even a visit to the King Ranch outside of Camaguey. We were able to visit with everyday Cubans in their homes and talk with them in a variety of settings. We were able to learn about the history of Cuba and its various relations with the United States. We visited some coastal cities and inland farms. We learned about the African rooted religion known as Santeria and of the Cubans love of baseball. We toured a cigar factory to see how the Cuban cigars are made. Vina was (unplanned) able to experience the Cuban health care system up close and personal. We were able to visit a Cuban university and learn how it is run. No academic freedom or tenure in Cuban universities.
We were visiting just a week before President Obama visited. The Cubans were busy painting and fixing up things. The Cuban people are eager for the opening with the U.S. to occur. They are hopeful that someday a Home Depot and a Checker Auto Parts will find their way to Cuba. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong amongst the Cuban people even though Cuba is a Communist economy.
Cuba – a study in contradictions.
You can click on the link of each day (above)
to see all of the photos for that day. Once on the website, you can click on
More Options, then on Slideshow.
We started with Vina panicking that we were depending on
Uber to get us to the airport. They will
never get here and we will be late, she thought. Uber arrived about five minutes after we
called and we headed out to Sky
Harbor around 7:30 a.m.
Saturday morning. The driver was very
pleasant and the car very clean.
The line to get through security took us more than 45
minutes! Fortunately we had arrived at
the airport early. Flying now requires
patience.
We experienced several problems on boarding the
plane. Gary's seat was loose and needed to be bolted
down so it wasn't available until after the maintenance crew fixed it. Gary was one of the last
allowed to board (or so we thought).
Because the flight was overbooked, they kept offering people more money
to give up their seats. Finally four
people got off for $450 each to allow others to board. But Marilyn, one of our travelling group, we
thought was bumped from the flight and was to take a later flight. Our flight
took off a half hour late which made our arrival in Miami also a half hour late.
Half way through the flight, we discovered that Marilyn
had actually made it on board at the last moment. She got one of those four seats from the
people who got the $450. Now all six in
our ASU party were on board.
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| Our ASU travel group |
After arriving in Miami, Marilyn's luggage was briefly
misplaced but we found it and caught the hotel shuttle for the very short ride
to the hotel, which was located at the airport.
We all (except for John and Susana) met in the bar for a
drink before having dinner at the hotel restaurant. John and Susana met with their daughter and
new granddaughter who live in Miami
who came to see them.
We then had an orientation meeting at 8 p.m. where we
filled out a whole bunch of bureaucratic forms necessary for travel to Cuba and got to
meet our traveling companions.
Then we headed up to our room to organize ourselves for
tomorrow, a short night’s sleep and the early morning flight to Cuba.
After a short overnight nap, we awoke at 4 a.m. to
meet in the hotel lobby at 5 a.m. to catch a shuttle for the short ride to the
airport terminal.
After making our way through U.S. security, we grabbed a quick
breakfast at an airport restaurant. We
then boarded our American Airlines charter flight to Camaguey, Cuba.
So far the trip has not been very inspiring. Travel by air has become drudgery.
2008 was the start of the "opening up” of Cuba. When Fidel Castro -- the island nation’s
longtime dictator -- resigned in February 2008, President Obama said, "If
the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the
United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and
to ease the embargo of the last five decades.'' When he stepped down, Fidel
Castro turned over power to his younger brother and fellow revolutionary, Raul
Castro.
In July, 2015 the United
States and Cuba reopened embassies in each
other’s capitals. Both had been closed since 1961. The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which cannot be lifted
without congressional approval, remains in place. Neither country appointed an
ambassador upon the embassies’ reopening.
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| Camaguey Airport |
We landed in Camaguey
at 8:45 a.m. and spent the next two hours going through immigration, collecting
our luggage and getting our dollars changed into CUCs - the local currency for
foreign travelers. Cuba has two currencies at
once. The peso is the currency for
Cubans and is worth about 4 U.S. cents.
The CUC is the money that foreigners must use and it is exchanged at the
rate of 1 CUC to 1 dollar. But there is
a tax on American dollars of 10% plus a service fee of 3%. You also pay the service fee when you convert
your CUC back into dollars when you leave Cuba.
Camaguey is located inland in relatively
flat country. The town streets are very
strangely laid out. Most streets do not
have street signs. They were
purposefully built that way so as to be confusing to pirates.
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| Ignacio Agramonte |
On a walk about the city we visited a museum with a scale
model of the city and got a view of how it is laid out. The guide explained the strange layout of the
city to confuse pirates.
We then went to a central square (there are several
squares or plazas located next to one of the many churches in Camaguey) and saw a statue of General Ignacio
Agramonte, a key founder of the city.
We had lunch in a government run restaurant – as most
restaurants are in Cuba.
The food and service seemed OK but
nothing to shout about.
After lunch we visited a private art gallery located just
off of the main plaza. It was a
collection of wide variety of what I might call “pop” art.
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| Bucanero |
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| Cristal |
For dinner, we went to Restaurante 1800, a noted paladar
- which is what Cubans call a privately owned restaurant. The food and service was good. We enjoyed a singing trio during dinner. Cuba is filled with music. Everywhere in Cuba Fidel Castro committed to
bringing culture to the people. Musicians
abound.
We were introduced to the two beers available in Cuba. Bucanero is the “dark” beer. Good but not so dark. And Cristal is the “light” beer. Over our time in Cuba,
Gary tried them
both several times to try to figure out which was the best.
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| Concert in the plaza |
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| We talk with the musicians |
After dinner we walked back to our hotel. On the way back, we encountered a concert in
the central plaza. We stopped to enjoy
the music and after they finished we spent some time talking with the
musicians. Cuba devotes a lot of resources to
the arts and we learn that these musicians play in the plaza on a regular basis
as part of their job as professional musicians.
Their salaries are paid by the government.
On this morning, we took bici-taxis, a popular
local form of transport, to visit another plaza. We visited a post office where
Gary bought
some Cuban stamps and we visited the church on the square. During the revolution Catholicism – and
organized religion – was discouraged but the churches continued and were not
torn down.
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| Amazing leather work |
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| All out of leather |
We then visited several art galleries. We visited the gallery of an artist known as
Pepe who specialized in leather molded masks that were quite interesting. The next gallery was a collection of very
modernistic wooden sculptures. And
finally we visited a gallery showcasing indigenous art. At each of these galleries the emphasis was
on using available materials. Due to the
embargo, art materials are
hard to come by unless you have foreign
connections. Many artists have been able
to get backing from American foundations and have made trips to the United States.
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| Wood carving |
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| Posing with sculpture |
We visited the gallery of Martha Jimenez with life-sized
bronze statues of local Cubans at work and rest outside in the plaza. It was a great spot for taking pictures while
interacting with the statues. While we
were there, Cuban soldiers were spraying nearby houses and businesses for
mosquitoes that might be carrying the zika virus.
Then it was time for lunch on our own. We chose a restaurant close to the 1800
where we had dinner the night before.
Vina and Gary
shared shrimp with vegetables and it was good but it might have been where Vina
caught an intestinal bug. Gary was not
affected. Cuban food so far has been
fairly basic and somewhat bland. The
Cubans do not do spicy hot. Portions have been large.
After a brief rest after lunch we headed out on our bus to
visit the Jose White Conservatory of Music -
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| Student musicians |
basically a high school for music
students. They gave us a concert. The
students are selected for the school at age 9 for their physical attributes
(Are their hands big enough to play cords on a piano?) as well as musical
talents. The school is the result of the government’s support of the arts
for all the people.
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| Tinajones |
Camaguey is known as the city of
"tinajones". Tinajones are large red pots found all around and a
symbol of the city. Originally they
served as water storage pots.
After resting back at our hotel, we headed out for
dinner at Meson del Principe a paladar featuring authentic home cooking
in an intimate setting. We enjoyed more music with dinner.
During
the night Vina came down with a case of tourist revenge. When morning arrived it was clear that she
would not be going very far this day.
She was about to experience the Cuban medical system up close.
At Vina’s urging, Gary
went ahead and joined the rest of our group on the planned tour. Our tour leader, Nathaly (pronounced Natalie)
called the medical authorities and a doctor and a nurse came to see Vina in our
hotel room. They spent more than two hours tending to her needs. It was determined that she was dehydrated so
she was given an I.V. to rehydrate. The
doctor recommended she continue with the Cipro which we had brought with
us. Food for her condition was ordered
from the hotel kitchen. Sal – a sugary
salt was also prescribed. Of course
there was a house call by the pharmacist!
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| Potter at work |
The tour group headed out to visit the Casanova pottery
gallery where a potter and his son showed us how they made pots - including the
large tinajones Camaguey
is famous for.
Then we headed to a ballet studio where professional
dancers were practicing and working on future performances. We were treated to a performance which was a
merging of contemporary dance with neoclassical ballet. After the
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| Dance performance |
performance, we were able to talk
with the dancers and ask them questions and they asked us some questions as
well.
We then headed back to our hotel - just a very short
distance away - and I was able to check on Vina. She was still feeling badly but seemed to be
moving in the right direction.
We re-boarded our bus for the more than one hour ride
outside of Camaguey
to the King Ranch and its small community of about 200 people. The King Ranch in Cuba
was established as an offshoot of the
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| Welcome to King Ranch |
famous King Ranch in Texas.
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| Musicians at lunch |
We started with lunch in the ranch house (one of the very
few concrete buildings in the community).
We were serenaded by a Cuban group of two guitarists and bongo drums.
After lunch we boarded horse drawn carts and headed out to
watch a short rodeo demonstration. We
then went over to visit one of the homes (actually barely a ramshackle hut) in
the village. We toured the
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| Inside the house |
house and
were served coffee or juice in the backyard.
We saw sugarcane crushed to make a drink - which was (as you would
imagine) quite sweet.
There was only an outhouse and no running water. The people claimed to be happy with their
rural lifestyle. The children here had
an itinerant teacher and TV instruction.
We returned to the hotel about 5:30 and Vina was feeling
much better but still suffering a bit.
We had light soup for dinner which had been ordered by the visiting
doctor for Vina. The hotel did not
normally serve dinner. We then got ourselves packed up and ready to leave Camaguey the next
morning.
We left
our hotel about 8:45 a.m. and headed northwest for the four hour drive on the
main Cuban highway up the middle of the island. Cuban highways are not well marked with
names or numbers or street signs. You
just have to know which highway you are driving on.
Vina was slowly recovering. Our tour guide spent a good part of our
traveling time answering our questions about Cuban society. She believed in the Cuban System even though
she is privately employed and earns much more money than most Cubans since
tourism has become a major industry in Cuba. She did have to pay taxes on her earnings.
Not all Cubans do pay taxes. She was
born after the Revolution and this is the only Cuba she has ever known. This is clearly a period of political
transition for Cuba
as they experiment with a very limited form of a market economy. The opening with the United States
and the possibility of the lifting of the embargo are very welcome.
We stopped at a roadside stand to stretch our legs and
take a potty break. Gary bought a baseball cap with the Cuban
flag on it. Vina wouldn’t let him buy
the Ché Guevara hat.
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| Our Hotel |
After arriving at our hotel in Remedios, we enjoyed a
"light" lunch which was good but definitely not light! We were served pork, chicken and fish at every
meal. They told us this was normal. We didn’t see any real fat people in Cuba. Everyone
walks a lot. Very few have cars.
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| Part of a parade float |
After lunch we walked to a workshop of an artist who
designs the colorful carrozas or floats used in Las Parrandas, a
lively series of street parties and religious carnivals that take place
throughout the
Christmas holiday season.
Cuba
is a Communist country with religion officially not supported but religion is
now making a comeback. Even during the early revolution celebrations at the
traditional times continued. The
government didn’t take that away from the people. About 60% of Cubans consider themselves
Catholic.
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| Dinner |
After our tour we returned to the hotel before going to
dinner at Casa La Paloma, one of the
towns charming casas particulares that is also a paladar, located in a restored colonial home adjacent to the
bustling town square. Vina was most
excited to see a bowl of
white rice. She
even asked for a take-out container. The
Cubans were not familiar with the term “take out” but were able to find a
suitable container. The white rice
sustained her for several meals.
Then we headed back to our room to watch the Democratic
presidential debate on CNN. We in the tourist
hotel and were able to get CNN (I think it was a pirated signal) but local Cubans were
not allowed CNN.
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| At the Sugar Museum |
After breakfast, we headed out to the Museo de
Agrroindustria Azucarero, a local museum focusing on the histories of slave
culture, the sugar industry, and the pre-diesel locomotives that once
transported sugar cane to local factories.
We learned about the history and meaning of the sugar industries in Cuba. It was their main stay. It brought the black slaves and indentured
Chinese to Cuba. They blended with the Spanish and are today
the Cubans. The indigenous Indians were
either killed or died of illnesses brought by the Spanish.
We then boarded our bus and headed to the coastal town of Caribarien where we
visited a local artist who made creative works from discarded articles. He makes his own paper from discarded paper
- an
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| Recycled art |
artistic recycler. Cubans are
committed by desire and necessity to use what they have. Importing art materials is difficult.
We then headed to lunch at a paladar, en familia, where we enjoyed a hearty lunch
of pork, chicken and fish. Rice and
black beans are staples. No kale or
eggplant here.
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| At the Drivers Bar |
After returning to Remedios, we visited the "Driver's
Bar" where we met with members of an old car club and enjoyed a beer and
conversation. We tried our broken Spanish
and they tried their broken English but we did manage to communicate. Actually their English was much better than
most of our Spanish. Vina and Susana,
the two Spanish speakers in our group, had a glorious time speaking Spanish and
gossiping with some of the Cuban women.
We returned to our hotel, rested for a bit and enjoyed
dinner with our ASU colleagues.
Our first stop was at a cigar factory in the town of Camajuani where we
learned how Cuban cigars are made. We
were not allowed to take pictures. It
is boring and repetitive hand labor but pays relatively well - about 60 CUC's
per month. The average salary in Cuba is about 20 CUC a month. The cigar workers can earn extra money if
they beat their assigned quotas. While
they are working rolling the cigars, workers are read from the newspaper or a
novel or sports over a loudspeaker.
We visited Santa
Clara, the city whose liberation in December 1958 by
Ernesto "Ché" Guevara marked the end of the Batista regime. We stop
at UCLV, the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas. This is where Ché Guevara led the Battle of
Santa Clara on December 29, 1958. We had
a “panoramic“ tour of the University - a bus ride around the campus looking out
the windows at the buildings – before we disembarked and went into a building
for a PowerPoint about the University led by the head of the International
Relations department. We then had time
for questions and answers. I asked him
about academic freedom as we understand it and it was clear that no such thing
exists in Cuban universities. No tenure
either.
The University also housed a museum dedicated to Ché
Guevara which we toured.
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| ASU at Guevara Memorial |
ASU Then we went to lunch at a local paladar where we enjoyed
what has become almost standard- a large lunch with a welcome sangria cocktail,
fish, chicken and pork, rice and beans, salad, cola or beer, and flan for
dessert.
After lunch we headed to the Ché Guevara Memorial where we
had group pictures taken.
After the drive back to Remedios, we arrived back at the
hotel to discover that the electricity was out all around the town. We enjoyed the cool breeze and managed to
catch a warm shower. Even though the
electricity was out, we had hot water!
So we ventured to shower in the dark – no snickers please. We all joked that we wanted to visit a third
world country. After about 45 minutes
the electricity came back on.
We all met in the lobby to walk to a nice local restaurant
where we enjoyed a good dinner. The food
in Cuba
is good. The quantities were more than
plentiful. Nathaly tells us this is
normal. Our group came together well and
everyone gets along.
After a barely warm shower at the hotel in the morning, we
packed up our things and boarded our bus in Remedios for a four plus hour ride
northwest. As is normal, the road, which
is the main highway across the island, is filled with all sorts of
transportation- horse drawn vehicles, bicycles, taxis of various kinds,
pedestrians, large and small trucks and of course, our large bus. We have to admire our driver for his ability
to navigate the traffic and keep us moving.
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| Musicians at lunch |
Our first stop was in Jovellanos, a town in Matanzas province for a
visit to Finca (Farm) Luna. We have a
traditional family style Cuban lunch featuring many foods produced right at the
farm.
We toured the farm. On the promise of development, the
family has more property than is normally allocated. They grow a mix of coffee bean plants,
bananas, and other fruit trees on the farm. Most farms grow traditional rows of
the same plant. They said that they get
better production this way.
We stopped to visit the oldest continuously used baseball
diamond in the Western Hemisphere - Palmeras de Junco. We watched 10 – 12 year olds playing a
game. The government really fosters the
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| Watching Baseball |
development of the players. Really good
players then have an opportunity to escape to the U.S. Major Leagues and earn
big bucks but then they are unable to return to see family. We do not know if these expatriates are able
to share their wealth with their Cuban families. The “opening” to Cuba might now make this legal
without players having to “defect” from their home country. It is interesting that so many people sought
to flee or escape Cuba
while our guide sang its praises. We
learned about Cuba's
unquenchable passion for baseball and we met with a member of the Cuban Hall of
Fame. John Johnson gave a young Cuban boy
an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball cap which made the boy burst with pride. Despite
censorship of TV and radio, Cubans follow U.S. baseball closely.
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| Sunset on the Atlantic |
We then got back in our bus and headed toward Varadero
where we checked into our all-inclusive hotel for an overnight stay by the Atlantic Ocean. It
was a really first class beach resort hotel with all of the amenities. We were told that these resort properties
were originally developed by U.S.
mobsters in the 1940’s and 50’s. Our
room had three levels with the bedroom on the top level. It was a very nice suite.
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| Walk on the beach |
We enjoyed a sunset walk on the white sandy beach and then
cocktails on the patio. We then had a
good dinner at the buffet. Vina was
thrilled by the white rice and bread.
She regretted that she was not yet able to indulge in the richer foods
and drink. All of this was really first
rate and all inclusive and very different than anything else we had seen or
experienced in Cuba. Most Cubans could not afford to stay
here. The Cuban workers when we
pointedly asked questions in Spanish would look around to check that no one
would overhear before answering honestly.
They welcomed the tourists and especially the Americans. The Americans tipped well whereas the Europeans
and South Americans did not tip nearly as well or at all.
We enjoyed a leisurely morning and were able to walk on
the beautiful white sand beach before we had lunch. Vina and several others even went into the
ocean for a swim. The water was warm by California coast
standards.
We packed up and boarded our bus for the 30 or 40 mile
ride to Havana. On the way we stopped in Matanzas.
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| Santeria Home Visit |
Matanzas is the birthplace of Regla de
Ocha - the African rooted religion better known as Santeria. Santeria (Way of the Saints) is an Afro-Caribbean religion
based on Yoruba beliefs and traditions, with some Roman Catholic elements
added. Santeria is a syncretic
religion that grew out of the slave trade in Cuba. Santeria builds upon the Catholic
Church and gives different names to the Catholic saints. The focus is on the present and practical
help with leading a life rather than the afterlife. We visited a local Santeria
practitioner in her home. She welcomed
us and attempted to explain her beliefs.
She told us that Santeria is the dominant religion in Matanzas – much more so than
Catholicism.
We then proceeded on to Havana.
We could easily note the change in the scenery as we approached the
city. It was a marked shift from a rural
to an urban environment.
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| Countryside outside Havana |
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| One of many vintage cars |
We arrived at our hotel in Havana, checked in and got settled. We went to dinner as a group at a paladar
situated on Havana Bay called Rio
Mar. It had picturesque views of the bay
and was an obvious tourist place. You
may have seen pictures of it if you watched TV during the President’s visit to Havana.
To start the day, we had a lecture about the effects of
the Revolution on the Arts and of the Arts on the
Revolution. Alexander, an art producer from Santa Clara, talked about
Cuban arts culture and policy. He
described Cuban arts policy as a set of rules to help recreate reality.
To understand today’s Cuban culture you need to understand
a bit of Cuban history. Below is a short
Cuban history lesson:
In 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba and claimed the territory for Spain. In 1511, Spaniards under Diego Velazquez
conquered Cuba
and its aboriginal groups. Spain established settlements, colonizing Cuba. Havana’s
superb harbor made it a common transit point to and from Spain. Colonization destroyed the indigenous
culture.
In 1526 the first slaves were imported from Africa. Workers
were needed for the sugar cane, tobacco and rice crops. Over time the Spanish and African cultures
blended to become the Cuban culture.
They had to work together. The
Chinese were also brought to Cuba
as indentured workers but not as slaves – though they were treated much like
slaves. The Spanish Catholic religion
and the African religions blended to become the Santeria religion. Our lecturer noted that: “Everything claimed
as Cuban Culture was brought to the island.”
In 1868 the Cuban war for independence from Spain
began. It was ultimately unsuccessful.
In 1898 The Spanish-American War began shortly after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana
harbor. In the short war, the U.S. defeated Spain,
which ceded control of Cuba
to the U.S.
The U.S.
military began its occupation of the island. Americans know of it because of the Maine and Teddy Roosevelt charging up San
Juan Hill. This war was
settled by the U.S. and Spain without Cuba even at the table.
In 1901, The Platt Amendment, part of an army appropriations bill, established the
conditions that the U.S.
could intervene in Cuba and
allowed the U.S. to lease
land to create a naval base in Cuba.
On May 20, 1902, the U.S. ended its military occupation of Cuba. Cuba became an
independent republic with Estrada Palma as its first president.
In 1934, amid a growing sense of
nationalism in Cuba, the U.S. abrogates
the Platt Amendment.
The Provincial Revolutionary
Government is overthrown by members of the military and civilians loyal to
Batista, who is backed by the U.S. Batista remains in control of the country
behind a series of puppet presidents.
In 1940 democratic elections are held
and Batista wins the presidency. He implements a new constitution but runs a
corrupt police state.
In 1953, Fidel Castro leads a liberal uprising against the right-wing dictatorship of
Batista. It is unsuccessful. In 1956, Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che"
Guevara join forces in what they called the 26th of July Movement and
launch a guerilla war against Batista's repressive regime. They are defeated by
Batista's forces, but the movement gains in strength, numbers, and
organization.
In 1958, the U.S.
halts military aid to Batista’s Cuba.
From 1902 through
1958, a period of 57 years, Cuba
has a variety of governments under the “Republic of Cuba.” The University of Habana
acts as a hotbed of revolutionary activity and a center for political
change.
In 1959, some 9,000 guerilla fighters led by Fidel Castro drive Batista
out of Cuba.
Castro becomes prime minister, his brother Raul Castro is named minister of the armed forces, and Guevara is third in
command. Within a few months, Castro established military tribunals for
political opponents and jailed hundreds.
In 1959, Fidel went to the United
States (to New York and Washington, D.C.)
but the Eisenhower administration refuses to meet with him. I can remember seeing him on TV in Harlem answering reporters’ questions.
Arts policy in the revolution was to foster the arts. Before the revolution the arts were
experienced only by those of the privileged class. Castro wanted all Cubans to have the
opportunity to experience the arts. Ballet
Folklorico was to resurrect Afro-Cuban traditions. A national system of libraries was
developed. From 1959 through 1968 there
was the development of a national structure to support and promote the
arts.
Prior to the revolution, the Catholic Church was largely
made up of high middle class Spanish people.
The Catholic/Spanish Schools were not integrated with Cuban society or culture
at large. Today there are no non-state
schools.
After the U.S. snubbed Cuba,
the USSR stepped in to help
support Cuba and Cuba became dependent upon the USSR for its
support. This lasted until the breakup
of the Soviet Union in 1990. Russian aid,
which had long supported Cuba's
failing economy, ended when Communism collapsed in Eastern
Europe. Cuba's
foreign trade also plummeted, producing a severe economic crisis.
Cuba has been treated as a colony by
both the U.S. and Russia. Cubans want to be treated as an equal – not
as a colony. The Cubans say that their
problem is with the U.S.
government – not with the U.S.
people. The recent “opening” with the U.S. presents
many challenges. The next U.S. President
will have much to consider as he or she negotiates the future relationship
between our two countries.
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| The Ebony Project |
After our lecture, we boarded our bus and visited one of
the few private dance companies in Cuba. The Ebony Project was its name. The dance company was using a synagogue as
its rehearsal space. So we also had a
chance to see the synagogue and a display about the Holocaust.
The dance company treated us by allowing us to watch them
in a rehearsal which was amazing. We
watched them rehearse and perform for about one half hour. After their performance, we were able to ask
them many questions. It was a very
entertaining and informative session.
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| El Solar |
Then we headed to "El Solar", a community
project dedicated to restoring one of Centro Habana's poor neighborhoods. We learned about the project with the
community leader and met some of the neighborhood members. There were 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments but
we did not get to see inside any of them.
A couple of our group members gave donations of money to be used for the
purchase of paint for the facilities. We
weren’t just tourists.
Everything in Cuba needs renovation. The Cubans are looking forward to the
possibility of Home Depot coming so that they can get the parts and materials
they need.
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| Susana celebrates her birthday |
After the tour, we enjoyed a "light" lunch (they
called every lunch light but they were quite full meals) at La California, a paladar associated with
the project in a restored 19th-century nearby colonial building. This paladar had a “fish pond,” what we would
call a small swimming pool. But pools
are not allowed in private homes – so a fish pond. We helped Susana celebrate her birthday.
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| Dinner at La Moraleja |
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| William Roblejo Trio |
We then returned to the hotel and after a short rest, we
enjoyed an informative jazz session with members of the William Roblejo's Trio. The lead played a violin in different but
wonderful ways.
We enjoyed dinner at La Moraleja, a paladar in Havana's Vedado
neighborhood.
We
started the morning with a lecture about Cuban music. The lecturer, Alberto Faya, has had much
experience with Cuban music. Cuban
culture is a mixing of cultures for more than 500 years. The Spanish medieval
sound combined with the music brought on the ships to Cuba and the
imported African sounds. Throw in the
Chinese cultural sounds and the U.S.
jazz sounds. This led to music “transculturation.” Conga Drums, Clave, and Rumba are all a
part of the mix. Salsa music was
developed in New York
in the 1970’s by a Cuban.
 |
| Playing dominoes |
We boarded our bus again and headed to the Club Melen, a
private restaurant located in the Miramar
section of Havana where we learned about the
game of dominoes- a national pastime in Cuba. After a brief introduction to the rules of
the game, we played a few games with some local Cubans who joined us for lunch
and conversation after our matches. One
of the best parts of this trip was our ability to talk with a wide variety of
Cuban people.
We then went to the Plaza of the Revolution, a large open
space with a monument to the revolution.
Also there were a number of 1950’s era cars. We paid some attention to Ché but mostly
admired the cars.
We then drove over to the fortress guarding the entrance
to Havana Bay and took a walking tour of the
area. We stopped at tourist shop that
sold cigars. We didn’t buy any. We had some wonderful views looking across
the bay towards Havana. From there we went to a tourist’s marketplace
where you could buy any sort of t-shirt, poster, hat, bracelet or other
souvenir item.
 |
| Havana Harbor |
After shopping for a bit, we got
ourselves a pedi-cab and went back to the hotel. It was fun riding in a pedi-cab along the
Maleceon. We saw lots of different forms
of transportation – horse drawn carts, motorbikes, classic cars, and newer
cars.
 |
| Dinner with ASU group |
For dinner that evening, we got together with the ASU
group and the six of us went to a nice restaurant on the fifth floor terrace of
a nearby paladar. We arrived at 7:30 and
didn't leave until after 10:30. We had a
good time with a great group.
 |
| Sunrise over Havana Harbor from our hotel room |
After breakfast we had a discussion with Jorge Mario
Egozque, a Cuban economist. He was the
best lecturer we had, I thought. He
talked about the complexities of the Cuban economy, the opening with the US and the
impact of more tourism (“Economy of Mojitos and Guantanamera”) on the Cuban
infrastructure.
 |
| Walking tour Old Havana |
We then headed out to take a walking tour of Habana
Vieja (Old Havana). We walked around
through several squares. A lot of
preparations – clean up, paint, street repair – were underway, getting ready
for President Obama’s visit the following week.
We visited a ration shop where Cubans come to get there
subsidized
 |
| Ration Shop |
food each week. We saw a
ration book that is used by the Cubans.
We visited the square where the building that housed the Cuban Stock
Market is. The stock market is no longer
in existence.
We had lunch on our own and then took one of the yellow
scooter/cars back to our hotel to start packing and to rest before
 |
| Starbien |
our farewell
dinner at a paladar named Starbien, which was situated in a restored colonial
mansion tucked into the residential neighborhood of Vedado. The paladar’s name is a take-off on Starbucks
and the sign for the paladar was in Starbucks green colors and design.
 |
| Choro Vocal Luna |
Back at the hotel before heading out for dinner, we
enjoyed a musical performance by Choro
Vocal Luna, the only all-female choir in Cuba.
Our dinner this evening was the last for our group before
heading home. Everyone was a bit sad to
see our adventure coming to an end.
 |
| Part of our group at final dinner |
As a surprise for us, as we left the restaurant, Nathaly
arranged for five of the 1950's classic convertible cars to take us back to the
 |
| Our ride back to hotel |
hotel. The cars were beautifully
restored. How they manage to get or
manufacture parts is an ongoing task for the Cubans. The cars are also a great source of income
for their owners as they are used as taxis.
It was great fun riding through the Havana night with the warm tropical breeze in
these classic convertibles. A great way
to end our Cuban trip!
We woke up around 6:30 am and completed packing up our
luggage. After breakfast in the hotel
buffet, we set our luggage out by 9:30 and met in the lobby by 10. We boarded our bus for the last time and begin
the half hour ride to the Havana
airport.
 |
| Our last Havana sunrise |
Upon arriving at the airport, we gathered our luggage from
the bus and bid good bye to Oshmel, our trusted driver for the past week and a
half.
 |
| Havana Airport |
 |
| Randy, Lisa and John as we waited... |
We checked in and got our seating assignments and boarding
passes, checked our luggage, exchanged our CUCs for U.S. dollars, passed
through immigration and finally got through security. We were now in the waiting area for our 1:30
pm flight. It was about 11:30 am.
We killed the next few hours but didn’t see any planes
landing or taking off. Finally about
2:30 pm our
plane lands and unloads its passengers. We queued up and boarded a bus which drove
us out to our plane.
We take off at 3:40 pm - two hours late. This airport will have difficulty handling
more American tourists.
Less than an hour later we arrived at Miami.
After walking what seemed like miles down airport hallways, we came to
machines that scanned our passports and spit out a coupon. We then proceeded for another long walk until
we came to lines with real people at booths examining our passports and the
coupons we had.
Since Vina had not been feeling well, fellow traveler Arn
had given her an apple which she had placed in her backpack and forgotten about. No fruits are allowed to be brought back into
the U.S.
so she tried to turn it in. No good deed
goes unpunished!
We were pulled aside by the police and led down a back
hallway where we had to show our documents once again. We were then taken down more back hallways
until we arrived at a special luggage carousel where we waited until they
pulled our luggage off the carousel. We
then had to go through a special screening of our luggage.
Vina still had the apple. The TSA agents would not take
it.
After all of this, they finally took the apple, gave us
our luggage and led us down some more back hallways and out to the American
Airline ticket machines so we could re-check our luggage to Phoenix and get our boarding passes.
Fortunately our boarding passes were marked as TSA Speed
and we were able to move more quickly through the security check lines (since
our luggage had already been thoroughly checked twice). We had finally made it to the terminal.
We then needed to find the Skytrain to get to our
gate. Once we finally made it to our
gate, we searched for a place to get some soup as Vina was still feeling a bit
off.
The plane took off on time and we had an uneventful flight
back to Phoenix.
What Did We Learn?
What did we learn?
·
We
learned that Cuba
is a country of contradictions and paradoxes.
·
We
learned once again that communism does not work as an economic system (or as a
political system). Cuba is ranked along with North Korea as the least free economy
in the world and one that is described as a “basket case.” We learned of the
ineffectiveness of communism at creating prosperity.
·
We learned of a first rate education system, a first rate health
care system and wonderful cultural institutions provided for all of the Cuban
people.
·
Cuba is the rare country
where you won’t find McDonald’s or even a Coca-Cola. One of the things we noticed is what was not
there: advertising signs and billboards.
The commercialism which is the lifeblood of most countries was
noticeably absent in Cuba –
even in Havana.
·
We learned that Cuba
is a country without ATMs or credit cards.
·
We learned that Wi-Fi is inaccessible not by a minority of the
population, but the majority.
·
We
learned that Cuba
is a place there is an ambient, but unspoken,
resentment toward the government but there is also gratitude for the positive
changes that have occurred since the revolution.
·
We learned that the Cuban people are resilient and
entrepreneurial. They are good at
figuring out what to do to not only survive but move forward. That is partly how they manage to keep cars
built in the 1950’s running without being able to obtain replacement parts.
·
We did not
learn about the role of the military in Cuban society. We have a feeling that the Cuban military
plays a much larger role than we were able to see.
·
We
learned that the military continues in power.
They have their own separately funded budget. They control property, travel companies,
hotels and other things to generate money.
·
We
learned that the U.S.
blockade has worked well. It has brought
50 years of economic isolation to Cuba. The blockade means that any ship docking in Cuba is barred from docking in the U.S. for six
months.
·
We learned that Cuba
is in many ways a step back in time.
·
We learned that the Cuban people today are a proud people. Cubans today are a merger of African slaves and the
Spanish conquerors. Nearly all of the
native Indian people were killed or died of illness after the arrival of the
Spanish in 1492. Today racism is largely missing from Cuban society.
·
We learned that Cuba
has, until recently, has been a colony of other countries. First, there were the Spanish, then the
Americans, then the Russians and most recently the Venezuelans. Only recently have they managed to stand on
their own. The Cuban people value this
and do not want to become a colony of any power.
·
We
learned that there are few natural resources in Cuba. Rice, sugar and coffee plants and pork,
chicken and cattle were all imported leading to the need for slaves.
·
We
learned that Cuba
has first rate cultural institutions.
Cuban “culture” was not accessible to the common people before the
revolution. Castro made it accessible by
supporting the arts. The Cuban
government began paying artists to be artists and establishing arts academies,
music schools and performance venues.
·
We
learned that after the revolution the schools were integrated and private
(Catholic) schools were not allowed. All
Cubans were guaranteed a free education from kindergarten through Ph.D. (if
they could benefit from it.) The
literacy rate is Cuba
is said to be 99%.
·
We
learned that the biggest “product” that Cuba exports is its educated
people. Cuba produces large numbers of doctors,
nurses, and engineers which are often assigned to other countries. These people are contracted through the
Cuban government and provide income for the government.
·
We
learned that academic freedom and tenure do not exist in Cuban universities.
·
We
learned that social spending is 64% of the Cuban national budget.
·
We
learned that the Cuban people, as well as the leadership of the country,
welcome the opening with the United
States and the movement toward the
normalization of relations between the two countries.
·
We
learned that Cuban law does not allow foreigners to own more than 49% of any
Cuban property or business. Cubans must
own at least 51%.
·
We
learned that, in the countryside, Cuba has lots of turkey vultures
flying around.
·
We
learned that buses, cars and trucks share the roads and highways with horse
drawn carts, bicycles, bici-taxis, motor scooters with and without sidecars,
motorcycles and pedestrians.
·
We
learned that the average Cuban salary is about $20 per month.
·
We
learned that "creative accounting” is used by the average Cuban to manage
their personal budgets. Official salaries are not enough to make a living.
·
We
learned that there were lots of peasant farmers.
·
We
learned that most Cubans live in "gentile poverty” but don't think of themselves
as poor. They work hard and figure out
ways to try to improve their situations.
·
We
learned that the Cuban economy is more complex than first meets the eye. We were unclear about a "black
market" or underground economy but believe that one exists. We just didn’t
see it. People have clearly figured out
a way to make things work at some level.
·
We
learned that there was no real apparent poverty but no apparent wealth
either. Everyone seemed equally poor and
the people were “getting by.”
·
We
learned that much of the Cuban economy is based on "mojitos and
guantanamera" tourism. While U.S. citizens can not travel to Cuba as
tourists, others can and do.
·
We
learned that the Cuban infrastructure - roads, electricity, housing,
transportation and communication services - is in disrepair and Cuba could not handle a large influx of tourists
or businesses from the United
States.
Whatever might happen in the future needs to be done in a thoughtful
manner.
·
We
learned that the Cubans we talked with are most looking forward to Home Depot
and Checker Auto Parts coming to the island.
We are grateful that we were able to visit Cuba when we
did. We have now visited Russia, China
and Cuba
and have seen for ourselves how each country is adapting and recovering from
there experiment with Communism. It is
clear to us (and to them as well) that some form of a market economy is a
better way to go. Each country is
evolving differently. Only time will
tell how successful they might be.
Communism as a centrally planned economic system clearly does not work.
But the political evolution of each country is also different. Each country still maintains a political
one-party strong man dictatorship form of government to one extent or
another. The impact of the Internet and
open communications also play a role in the opening up of societies.
We are so grateful for being able to live in the United States.
