Cuba

I was in Cuba for ten days at the end of January and beginning of February when we were having sub zero temperatures in Minnesota. I went legally with Witness for Peace, an organization that encourages people to be open-minded about US policies and how they affect people. It was an education tour with many visits to educational institutions, but the main purpose was to become informed about life in Cuba. We were a group of 21 wonderful, widely traveled curious people from many places in the US.  We were kept busy attending meetings and visiting various institutions. It was all very interesting, but it was also exhausting, as we went from one activity to the next.

We stayed at the Martin Luther King Center in the working class neighborhood of Marianao. The center provides many outreach programs in the neighborhood. We mostly ate at the center where the food was quite good, black beans and rice, veggies (lots of egg plant), tomato, cucumber, and cabbage for salad, and chicken, fish, and pork. We had good breakfasts with pineapple, watermelon, guava and papaya. It was a fascinating neighborhood to explore which I did every morning before breakfast. People were going to work, students to school, and others were lining up for bread rations. Some of the houses were quite nice and in good repair, others were falling down, some were definitely abandoned. On one of the main streets there were mansions, a few even looked like castles. Like most third world countries, there were piles of garbage and trash on many street corners. One morning we watched as the trash truck came around and emptied the trash bins, never mind that there was often three to four times as much still on the street. The back roads were narrow alleyways that twisted around and had huge holes in the pavement. Workers were cutting the grass with machetes in some places on the boulevards. Many stray dogs wandered about, but they appeared healthy. There once was a sports center, sadly there is an empty Olympic size swimming pool, a narrow dirt track, a baseball diamond, racket ball courts, and once attractive green areas with benches.

The 40’s and 50’s cars are amazing, wonderful to see so many in mint condition, the owners are very proud of their cars and work on them constantly, many being mechanics themselves. Some of these old cars are taxis and I rode in a ‘52 Chevy and a ‘48 Ford where an extra backseat had been added in the trunk to carry more passengers. One driver had been a policeman, but said it was too difficult earning about $30 a month. I’m sure some evenings; he could earn almost that much. Not only was he policeman turned taxi driver, but he was also an evangelical minister, and we drove down the streets of Havana with religious rock music blaring. There are many people who switch to the tourist industry, teachers in Havana who speak English may become waitresses. These teachers then have to be replaced with teachers from the countryside.

We visited a number of educational institutions, a nursery school, two primary schools, which were impressive; students preformed poetry, sang, and danced. Class size is between 20 and 25. We also visited a folkloric dance school, which started at 5^th grade and went through high school. It was fun watching the students move to the music. We visited the Pedagogical Institute, and heard about teacher programs and research that is being conducted. We visited the Ministry of Education and watched a power point with many graphs showing the great progress that has been made in the schools. Cuba is of course very proud of its free education and health care. We visited the Latin American Medical School, which has a beautiful huge campus where students complete medical studies in 6 years after high school. Students from all over the world, including the US, study there (free tuition). We also visited the technical school of restoration in downtown Havana where students learn various skills to refurbish the colonial buildings, not only the facades, but some study stained glass techniques and furniture reparation. We also visited the Literacy Museum, which told the history of the almost 100% literacy achieved by Castro in 1961. One woman related her experiences of going to the countryside as a 12 year old and teaching adult campesinos to read and write. It was said that the gas lanterns and eye glasses donated by the Chinese helped to make the campaign a success.

Downtown Havana is a very beautiful majestic colonial city with large plazas, cathedrals and archways. My daughter, Sarah, and I were in Cuba in 2003 and we did a lot of wandering in the streets of Havana. More buildings have been restored, still when one gets off the beaten track, there are many more that need attention. It’s mainly tourists in the downtown area, not American tourists, of course, because of the travel ban, but tourists from Canada and Europe. Wonderful Cuban music blasts from the many bars and restaurants. Some things have changed. There is evidence of entrepreneurship with small storefront businesses in front of homes, mostly food stands with sandwiches, pizza and drinks, and there are stands with pirated CDs and DVDs. Men also sell fruits and vegetables from carts. There are of course no billboards or any signs of advertising; instead there are revolutionary and socialism slogans with pictures of Fidel, and Che who continues to be an important hero of the revolution.

Few people have cell phones, so pay phones are everywhere. Internet is barely available, although students learn to use computers in school and there is intranet so that people can communicate within the country. People are friendly and seem to be happy, although life is a struggle for many. They constantly stand in lines, ration lines, bus lines, clinic lines, and pharmacy lines, and stores have few goods.

We spent most of the time in Havana, but we took two excursions into small towns in the countryside. We visited Vinares where there are beautiful limestone hills like in China, and Puerto Esperanza. There we visited a tobacco farm, another time we went to Los Palos, a sugar cane area and explored the town. We visited a clinic and a primary school. In both towns, churches hosted us.

A United States Interest section is there, but no embassy of course, and we met the Council General who answered questions about the embargo, travel restrictions, life in Cuba, and the government. The embargo is blamed for many things in Cuba, but as a result Cuba has had to create many new pharmaceuticals and other goods. Raul’s presidential term will be up in 2018. A successor is being groomed and it is assumed that the government will continue without major changes. Production of tobacco and sugar cane is down 90% since revolutionary times. The government imports 80% of its food.

We had a fascinating tour with an expert on the four Afro-Cuban religions. The most popular is Santeria, which the slaves brought with them from the Yoruba tribe, which is now Nigeria. It is an animistic religion and was incorporated with Catholicism The Catholic saints are associated with Yoruba deities. There has been freedom of religion since 1993 and it is estimated that 70% of the people practice an Afro-Cuban religion. We visited a healer who only uses natural remedies and a home where ceremonies are preformed. We sat in a living area where there were many statues and relics from different religions and listened to the guide while a variety of people were coming and going. We visited the artist, Salvador Gonzales, who has painted murals and constructed sculptures where he has a studio and a home. We ate lunch at his home, definitely the best food of the whole trip. There was an area where we watched an animated dance performance of four Santeria deities and women played music. Another day we visited the studio of artist, Jose Fuster, in a neighborhood with whimsical mosaic creations, somewhat like Gaudi in Barcelona. It was a very intense ten days, but extremely informative and fun. We met many creative and intelligent people who are very proud of their country.