In early June, 2019, the US government banned people-to-people cultural/educational exchanges to Cuba. Fortunately, we already had our reservations and were allowed to make the trip. And it was nothing like what we US residents are told. As of our June 17, 2019 departure, flying from FLL to Havana was just like flying within the US, except there was a designated check-in counter. The trip itself was equally smooth. The actual flying time was only about 45 minutes. I didn’t even take out my laptop (though I did use Jet Blue’s free Internet on my phone). Customs and immigration were easy and quick, and Leo, our guide, was waiting on the other side. We’d been warned that accommodations in Cuba would be crappy, but that wasn’t our experience. Our Havana casa particular (think Air BNB) was palatial, with two large queen-bed bedrooms, two balconies (one facing the ocean), two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a spacious living room. There were several modern crystal chandeliers (even in the main bathroom!), antique radios, some really nice art, and the whole place done in Midcentury Modern furniture. Leo is great! He is a wealth of information and a really nice guy who “gets” us. Among the tidbits we gained:
Surprised at how many people we’ve met with excellent English—which is good, because Havana Spanish is much harder for me to understand than Spanish most other places I’ve been. I have to constantly ask people to slow down. We had discussions with several people on the street, all of whom told us how glad they were to see North Americans from the US (and most of whom tried to sell us something but remained friendly when we clearly weren’t going to buy. One of these hustlers, whom we talked to for about ten minutes while waiting under a building overhang for an intense rainstorm to abate, gave me a one-peso note in the currency the Cubans use internally, telling me he wanted me to have a picture of José Martí (the poet who wrote Guantanamera, the 19th-century love poem to the Guantánamo area made famous in the US by Pete Seeger). Cuba has two currencies: as foreigners, we use the convertible currency. But the locals use a different set of bills and coins, worth 1/25 as much. So this was about six US cents. He had a large wad of them. Apparently the scam is to trade it for an American dollar bill, hoping they won’t catch on, since the CUC (tourist currency) is actually worth about USD $1.10. This conversation happened to be in Spanish but many of the younger people speak English quite well. The two drivers we experienced yesterday, Leo’s stepfather Orlando, who picked us up at the airport, and Raul, who was our regular driver in the Havana area, seemed not to know English—but when Orlando heard us discussing the possibility of a salsa dancing lesson, he got kind of excited. Dina would have been thrilled, but I am not a step dancer. I would have been frustrated, wanting to do dance free-form. So we declined. Orlando joked in Spanish that Leo would have to give me eight mojitos first, and seemed surprised when I burst out laughing. Leo told us that many of his visitors claim to speak “un poquito español,” but very few can actually converse. He tends to get a lot of business from the liberal coastal states, and I hope he can continue to make a go of it now that the US government has clamped down and eliminated people-to-people exchanges. But it is still possible to go for eleven other reasons, including helping the Cuban people, so hopefully the tour companies will not see much drop-off. Raul’s vehicle for around Havana is a pristine 1951 Chevrolet four-door sedan, retrofitted with air conditioning and power windows, the immaculate seats covered with plastic clearly custom-designed for this car. A modern car, according to Leo, is post-1990 with a/c and seatbelts. With all these ancient cars built long before pollution control, belching clouds of exhaust are a bit of a problem in Havana. Because the line was very long at the airport, we stopped at a fancy hotel to get our Cuban money. We were in that line for about half an hour, chatting with the people in front of us who were staying there. They were part of a 40-person tour organized by their synagogue in Memphis, Tennessee. I also glad NOT to be traveling that way, jammed into a big tour bus and stuck on someone else’s itinerary. My wife Dina and I are the only clients on our tour. As 100% of our two-person tour group, we were able to review Cuba Educational Travel’s original itinerary and tell them we wanted more time on our own, less time in Havana, a second destination where there’d be enough to do (which meant we skipped a national park in the opposite direction), at least one hike, and a different kind of agri-tour than the tobacco farm they’d originally planned. And they came back with an itinerary that met all of our requests. Dinner was a few blocks from our lodging at Mediterraneo Havana, a small Italian farm-to-table restaurant. They brought us a complementary appetizer of spinach-potato croquettes along with amazing homemade fresh ricotta and two other cheeses served with garlic focaccia, a first course of spinach ravioli, a second course super-savory pesto, a mojito for me and wine for Dina, a half-liter bottle of sparkling water, and homemade strawberry ice cream. In the US, this would have run at least $50 per person. In Cuba, it was about half as much. To meet the US government requirements for people-to-people travel, we met with several experts and attended two private performance. If we were sitting in one place with an expert, I generally took detailed notes on my laptop, and render them here more or less as they were spoken, with some clean-up for grammar and clarity. If we were walking around or at a performance, I reconstructed the highlights later, and these sections are much shorter. This narrative is approximately chronological, so these encounters are mixed in with activities on our own. Miguel Coyula, retired architect and urban planner: Havana: past, present, future How did Havana become the most important place in the Americas of the past. It’s the center point. Everyone had to come here before sailing back to Spain. They built the first aqueduct built by Europeans in the Americas. Finished 1592 (started 1565). Most fortified city in the Americas. 5-6 corsairs at a time. Attacked by French pirates in 1555. First fortress, La Real Fuerza, built of coral in 1558. Two more the next year. And a 1.4 mile chain across the bay that had to be removed for every ship. Started building a wall in 1674, finished in 1790. But they neglected to occupy the hill across from the city. June 6, 1762, 200 British Navy battleships with 28,000 men came and occupied the city (then 30K) by walking to the hill. Cuba was already a sugar producer and had the most important slave market in the area. But Cuba was not allowed to trade with anyone but Spain. Brits brought lots of trade, including trade with New England and the American colonies. Molasses from Cuba to Rhode Island. Manufactured in Massachusetts, Havana’s cobblestones were the ballast for the ships. In the 19th century, everything came from North America, including food for the slaves. Cuba only grew sugar. The wooden barrels and crates for the sugar came from North America. But the British only lasted 11 months, because of malaria and yellow fever. But they negotiated Florida and part of Georgia from the Spanish for returning the one square mile of Havana. So Florida was Spanish, then British, then American, and now it’s Cuban (1.5 million Cuban’s in Miami-Dade County). The largest fortress in the Americas, 22 acres, is La Cabana, 1763. They used cannons to warn people they were closing the gates. They still have re-enactments in colonial dress, and there are great views rfom there. Criollos: Cubans’ own name for Spanish descendants who were born in Cuba, vs. Peninsulares from Spain. The Criollo valued education, sent their kids to schools in non-Spanish Europe. They came back worldly and grandiose, built palaces like Santovenia (1748). They developed steam-powered plows in 1794. In the continent, the architecture was influenced by the indigenous cultures. But here, no. 250,000 indigenous were exterminated in just three years. Only in the far Oriente can you find traces of Taino Indians. So our church architecture is more European. Main cathedral, 1748-1777, carved coral. Many of the Colonial-period buildings include fan-shaped stained glass arches (fanlights), wooden struts instead of metal. Spain’s best shipyard was in Havana, using local mahogany, etc. 1837: Havana is the 7th city in the world to have a railroad (island-wide), 11 years before Spain. They saw it as a way to expand the sugar industry inland. At that time, 500,000 slaves out of 1.2 million total pop. They brought more workers: 10,000 Indians from Yucatan, 160,000 Chinese, 10,000 Irish. It was the first time Cuba had slaves and paid workers working side-by-side. The sugar producers were very early to organize as a trade, into a cartel. As they got wealthy, they started buying titles of nobility, building grand palaces. By the end of the 19th century, Cuba produced 1/3 of world’s sugar. Cubans have a tendency to exaggerate about everything. 1871, Havana built the Christopher Columbus Necropolis, a cemetery of 65 city blocks, full of Italian sculptures all in Italian Carrara marble. That’s bigger than a golf course. Go see it. 1902: Cuban independence from Spain. But the Cuban republic was very turbulent. My grandfather was Speaker of the House. There was a lot of tension between liberals and conservatives. 1912 revolt by former slaves. 3000 were massacred. 1926, Capitol Building, modeled on US but 6 feet taller and had a rounded end. It contains the 3rd-largest indoor statue in the world (Lincoln memorial is second). Statue of a woman symbolizing the new republic, 40 tons of bronze. Also a 25-carat diamond signifying Mile Zero.This was the Dance of the Millions (of dollars), when sugar wealth funded a huge boom of ornate buildings. Another boom around WWII, wave of modernist architecture (Guggenheim style), and also classical styles. 3rd boom, Mafia-funded, 1950s. Mafia decided Havana is the place to make a gambling mecca, close to the US but not under the IRS. Batista (President form 1940-44) seized power in a 1952 coup and opened the doors to the Mafia, who built casinos and hotels. Dozens, all built by hand. No cranes, no pumps. But the prosperity was only for a few. In January 1959, the dictator fled and people were in the streets, celebrating. That morning, all the belongings of the casinos were burned in the streets. And the high-rises became public buildings. (He showed a photo of Fidel and Ché playing golf at the former Havana country club, which became the new university, now a celebrated Cuban architectural model, with influences from African villages, Gaudi, others.) But then came Soviet prefab architecture. Even that has some nice examples. To create a new social order of justice and equity in a city built under other principles—not always easy. They wanted to eliminate housing as a business, eliminate eviction and gentrification. 80% of Havana built 1900-1958. So the city is aging and 3 houses or more collapse every day. 17,000 in 260-sq-ft temporary housing, but demand (people who would want or need to move) is 140,000 living in precarious conditions. Total pop in Havana 2.2 million, in Cuba, 11.5 million, 1959: 50% rent reduction, but private sector stopped building. 1960: nationalized housing and turned renters into owners. Former rent payments redirected toward ownership payments (same cost). 1970s: Microbrigades: self-help housing, people built their own houses. They were paid to build their own house! (coop model with group equity and pressure to make the payments, but state-sponsored). Long before Grameen, etc. You paid with sweat equity. No market price for housing. Value is set by age, size, condition. location. maximum ownership per family: one city and one vacation. Twenty years to pay, no interest, no mortgage. If you miss payments, you are forced into a smaller house. So today, 96% of the housing stock is private. You own the individual apartment, but not the building. Owners are responsible for care and maintenance, but no one feels responsible for the whole building. And there is no building management. 56% are apartment buildings. Average state salary CUP 848/CUC 34 per month (about USD $30). But parts prices for homes are way out of scale with salary. A toilet tank is CUC 2000. 1972-90, Cuba was part of the Soviet COEMCON. Foreign trade was 80% barter, 2-3% interest, 30 years to pay, 3 or 4x market price for exported sugar. Because the Soviets were so thrilled to have an outpost so close to US. But USSR collapsed in 1990, devastating Cuba in “the special period.” GDP was 36% of what it had been, but US Cubans flooded the city with dollars. Huge underground economy. So the government legalized the US dollar and started the CUC. And remittances became a new source of income. But also a source of social disparities. All you need is faith (fe): familia extranjera (Cuban joke). Havana is 0.7%of land, but 1/5 of population. Generates 50%+ of Cuban GDP. 40% of tourism income. Population is aging, plus migration. 65 of outmigration is of habaneros (people from Havana), half of them women (often young women. Educated people ages 25-35 are leaving for the US in droves. In-migrants from elsewhere on the island are living in shanty towns, seeking better living conditions. There was a long process toward independence. Cuba and Puerto Rico were the only remaining Spanish territories in the Americas. Spain sent 200,000 men to preserve the colony when there were only 50,000 Cubans. many independentistas were former slaves. Money + bad taste + zero zoning control = ugly. Dual currency introduced 1993 1.8 billion in remittances from US (as situation became more desperate AND US Cubans climbed the ladder). I remember making $2 a month in 1993! Food rations were distributed and no one went hungry. But we lost a lot of kilos walking and bicycling. Medicc (Cuban-American magazine): I wrote an article for them on the role of the bicycle in maintaining Cuban health. [Yet, we saw surprisingly few bicycles in our week in-country.] Sugar is down but tourism is way up. 10x increase in non-state workers vs. state: 0.12million1990, 1.3 million 2018. Now, US Cubans are sending money to invest, and even some Cubans are sending money to US. Real estate market reopened in 2011. 4.6 million transactions vs. 0.3 million in 1990. Urban agriculture came to stay. One of the best urban farms is across the bay. When the land crisis was severe, every rooftop, etc. was used. And they were trained how to grow organically because there were no chemicals. I was taught how to protect sweet potatoes from pests with pheromones. The farmer will carry a stick and come out with the stick covered with bugs. US tourism re-established in 2015. You can still come in a school group, etc. The new US restrictions on travel are more noise than damage. It hurts those depending on cruise ships: convertible drivers, carriage drivers. But the cruise ships don’t really help the local economy. they dock right in Havana, and the passengers go back to the ship to eat lunch. Future: 1.8 million US will travel to Cuba within 2 years after the travel ban lifts. 30.7% increase just from that. The day after lifting the embargo, there will be a tsunami of US investors and developers. In an interview with CNN, I said let’s do it but according to us, and with sense. We need to include the environment. We need to develop real estate without segregation. I call Havana the last virgin city: no drugs, no homeless, but it’s decaying. For some people, we have to preserve this heritage jewel. Others want to turn it all over to builders to tear down and rebuild. “the human being is the only animal that stumbles twice on the same stone.” I don’t want us to be Dubai, Panama City, Shanghai—a city without personality. I tell myself, do whatever you can to preserve Havana as a Cuban city. US Golf Association: 1 golf course = water for 400,000 people. But they are building them here. In Florida, you have a lot. Let them golf there. A Spanish company wants to build a huge golf resort with 20,000 dwelling units and marinas in the national park! The common tourist is an intruder. They don’t see the real value, just take their selfies. Venice is being destroyed by tourism. Everything is very expensive, contaminated, and lately, they are allowing cruise ships into the canal. Las Teraces: nature reserve near Havana. You can see the Atlantic and the Caribbean, ruins of a coffee plantation. But now the locals are living more on tourism than agriculture and have to import food. They control the number of visitors. And you don’t hear a baby crying or a dog barking, because local people are not living there any more. All the travel restrictions [on Cubans] are lifted. I have a five-year visa for the US, but I know people who got there and found their visas were canceled. Last week I was in NYC, working with the Pratt Institute, Friends of Havana. We had a meeting to see the next steps. We are considering a pilot project to demonstrate new ways of cooling a building. We need to think about hydro footprint. Think about all the toilets in Havana still flushing 5 gallons. I participated in an interdisciplinary think tank to advise the city on planning, urban development. My role was in community development, starting the process at the bottom. I spent 20 years working with them, but the group is only a shadow of what it was The people who work for the city government are too dull, reactive, not proactive. When we lost all the Russian buses, they brought in Chinese bicycles for $1. The city was so silent, big masses of bicycles, no honking, no fumes (there was no gas for vehicles). But when the buses reappeared, people left their bicycles and went back. Bikes were seen as a remedy and not a solution. Nobody planned to incorporate the bicycle. We used to have two lanes just for bicycles on the Malecon. One day, they disappeared. US cities have bikeshare programs.We should have an intermodal system. There is no public transit between Havana and the airport. Vedado (“Forbidden”—because the Spaniards feared enemy troops attacking from the west) was the first planned neighborhood, 1859. First to incorporate green space with planters and medians. It incorporated the porch and the garden. In Old Havana, the houses are right up to the sidewalk, they never considered green, never considered the humidity. You can’t bury in a catacombs because a body rots underground in two years. Cuba has a linear way of thinking. Problem: solution. They don’t think systemically. They bring in buses but they don’t think, where are the drivers? Who are not paid enough to take that job. People think access to education means education. All the children go to school, and you don’t see them on the streets. Mandatory for first 9 grades. And it’s free through Ph. D. But you need to complement that education with other things. People think they can dump litter because someone is paid to clean. We dump a lot of things that we could be dealing with better, even car batteries. They don’t think about what else you can do with it. How can we harvest gray water? What can we do with plastic bottles? How do we keep cattle from contaminating water, creating methane, taking up huge acreage for pasture, using up the water? Cuba is 94-96% oil/gas powered. We need to be less dependent on imported oil. We didn’t learn the lesson when the Soviet bloc collapsed. Back then, 95% was from USSR. Today, we create about half of our own gas and oil. Oil up from 200,000 to 4 million tons. The government is going from 4 to 24% renewable in ten years. I was looking for a water heater, but a solar heater cost twice as much. And you need to tighten it down on the roof to be hurricane-resistant. In the 1950s, the middle class was already using homegrown solar water heaters. The government gave every family up to seven CFL bulbs, but it’s still $4 for one LED. They should give them for free; everybody wins. But at least we have a factory creating solar and wind components. We don’t have hydro because the island is too narrow to have big rivers. But there is microhydro, microwind (vertical-axis). You can buy a vertical-axis 130-watt wind turbine for $130 on amazon.com. What are we waiting for? I want to write for the lay audience. We have had energy independence since the taming of fire. We should have industrial-scale solar thermal. For the first time, we have electric and hybrid buses and vans. It’s so simple, and they save so much diesel. This should be an everyday thing. I will trade my car for a hybrid or electric, for sure. By 2030, all cars in Norway will be electric. We need to learn, don’t impose—incentivize. The next step will be self-driving cars, community-owned. Smoking is probably far more dangerous than 5G. You have an excellent health care system, but you don’t educate people to eat healthy, to stop smoking. School lunches don’t include salads, because “it’s too complicated.” Presentation source material and other stuff: www.theholmteam.ca/HAVANA.WORKSHOPS.Dec.2011.pdf Dr. Marcelino Feal, Professor of General Surgery at the biggest center in Cuba, 36 years. I’ve been there my whole career, since I was a student. 6 years of med school to become a general MD, residency in specialty, 3-6 years. I do a lot of cancer, so I work closely with plastic surgeons. We receive a lot of people (medical tourists) for treatments, and also to train. Patients and doctors from all over come to Cuba because they know that when you train here, you really practice. In some other countries, you’re watching surgery on a video. But here, they practice with a Cuban professor in front of them. And I am responsible for anything that could happen. And of course, our training and treatments are cheaper. For Cubans, even plastic surgery is free, even cosmetic. Foreigners pay, but less than in the US. In Europe, they may have to wait a few months, but most surgeries are free in the public hospitals, and they’re very good. In Cuba, if you have a cancer, you could have surgery this week. If it’s not an emergency, you will have to wait, maybe 2-3 months. Before the revolution, health care was also free, but there were fewer hospitals and a lower level of skill They also had private practice back then. Doctors make very little money, and that’s why many go away. The education is free. But in the US, they can pay off their loans in ten years and make half a million a year. It’s not a problem of too many doctors, because there are many people who practice medicine because they love it. But economically, it’s a disaster. Specialists make less than $60 a month. For a professor in a specialty like me, say $70/month, before 5% tax (deducted automatically). It’s true of all the professions. An engineer gets $20 a month, and can make that in tips in one day. And nurses get even less. And their husbands say, I’m not going to be home all day with the kids. The biggest challenge is to create people with good skills, professionals—and here we have many professionals going away or doing something else. I don’t know how people manage on just a state salary. Cuba is an expensive place. The ration card covers maybe half a month. So Cuba is aging because the young people are leaving. More than 1/4 of our population is over 60. In five years, that will be 1/3. It’s too much. Doctors usually don’t retire. Doctors’ shifts are eight hours, but twice a week on duty 24 hours at a time, on premises and treating, on top of the regular shifts. We have 100-hour work weeks. But I am never on duty with a shift like that. I haven’t done that for five years. Now I have some privileges. Of course, they can call me to check something, but it’s very seldom. I spend a lot of time teaching. Sometimes I’m receiving patients with my students or my residents. It’s not the same as if you’re by yourself. A sole practitioner would see 20 patients in the morning, 20 in the afternoon. But when you’re on duty, it’s whatever comes in. But you are not on call. You are there at the hospital. We never leave a resident alone in the OR. Surgeons have to compete. Sometimes it takes them several years before they pass or give up and try a different specialty. If they offer 12 places for surgeons this year, next year could be five or 20. In US, sometimes the shift is 36 hours. I think it’s too much. Now in US, residents are more protected than specialists. In Cuba, the opposite. Organizing for better working conditions is completely forbidden. In Havana, very few people grow their own food. At my house, I won’t do it. It’s now more difficult to get a job as a letter carrier than a science carrier. People who work for the army might get a pension to equal their salary, never less than 90%. But other government workers might get 60-70%. If you want to rent out your car or your house, you have to apply for a license and pay your fees and taxes. You pay an annual fee based on the number of bedrooms, plus a tax on the revenue. I have friends in Mexico who are on call in five or six hospitals, even out of your city—if you have that reputation where people will wait for you. In the US, you belong to one hospital. If a patient comes to my office, and I say, you need this, this, and this, and they think “he’s too aggressive,” they go to a second or a third and they don’t tell about the previous consultation. So they waste a lot of resources and time, and it’s all free. And we are not connected with other physicians, and we can’t check or even access the records. So the next doctor has to order the same tests again, not knowing they’ve been done. And meanwhile, the cancer spreads. We’d like to get them in urgently, two weeks at most. In-hospital meds are free, not at a pharmacy, though. We have problems with shortages, but not with prices. Even though we import many drugs. We are the only country in the world to produce Heberprot-p, the only drug to treat a diabetic foot. So how can we have a shortage? It is sold in more than 100 countries. If you could design the perfect health care system? The first entrance of currency in Cuba is Cuban doctors working abroad, woking in Venezuela or Africa or elsewhere. 90% of that money goes to the government, 10% to the doctor (varies by country). South Africa pays doctors the most, Qatar is second. It gives more to the economy than tobacco, sugar, anything else. But if you go on an Medicine Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) emergency humanitarian relief mission for a month or two, you don’t get a cent, just your regular Cuban salary. You could use that to improve physicians’ pay. I spent two years treating Nicaraguans during the war. I didn’t get a cent and it was risky. But I was young and it was an adventure. And you see things you won’t ever see in civilian life. How can you afford to travel? First, you have to ask permission. I am old and they give permission, but many of the young ones are denied. The government is worried that they won’t come back. Many go to someplace like Venezuela and slip over the border to Colombia. But many doctors can’t work as MDs anymore once they leave. They might be a medical assistant or a nurse. They can’t pass the boards for US certification because of the language issue, and because the board exams are very hard. You have to be young and have a family to support you when you arrive. If you work 6-8 hours a day, you won’t be able to study. Sometimes I have 50 people coming to a lecture and they have to divide into two groups. Then I do a Powerpoint. Colin Laverty, founder of Cuba Educational Travel [the agency that arranged our trip], is concerned about the impact, not just about making money. He’s always on the phone, what do you need, how is the contract going? I have a lot of respect for him. In Cuba, college is for commuters. I never know what to do on a university campus. I get confused because some buses are only for students, I don’t know what building might be a private home. I make my living writing scripts for movies, TV, radio, drama, everything. It’s a difficult world to enter. Sometimes I speak about Cuban culture. Or ghosts in the famous houses. All subjects. Mainly comedy and detective stories. This is private and I pay taxes for that, but my clients are the state for radio, TV, and film. Live theater and cabaret, I sell it to the actors. If they hire a comedian, they have to bring their own scripts. Miguel acts (comedy) and writes, I only write. But he’s always traveling. My kids tease me because I still use a paper calendar. But I have everything organized.
Jorge, Air BnB Host We also had a brief meeting with Jorge, a former economist who now operates a three-room Air BnB. He charges about $40 per night (variations depending on the room, the season, etc., pays a monthly license fee based on the number of rooms, and pays 10% of his revenues. Most of our talk was him asking about our lives and US politics. Leo told us there are only 600,000 cars on the entire island for 11.5 million people, and even a used car is out of reach for the typical Cuban family. In order to even take the written test, you need to prove you have access to a car. So even though public transit is way under capacity to fill the demand (the buses always seem packed), he’s one of many people in Cuba, and especially Havana, who don’t know how to drive. Surprisingly few people bike around Havana, though oddly, I’ve seen more of them during one of the frequent but severe brief rainstorms. Cell phones, though, are ubiquitous. Day on Our Own Our second full day in Havana was an open day. While Leo had given us a brief walking tour of Habana Vieja (Old Havana) between meetings on the first day, we walked back there on the harborside Malecon boulevard and did a self-guided tour of the Fine Arts Museum, which totally surpassed our expectations. Of the two buildings, you can tour either or both. We chose the main building, with all Cuban artists, and the two hours we spent was plenty for us. The art included a broad range of eras, styles, and painters, including a number of women. Much of the art was social/political commentary, favoring the revolution, pointing out the sins of capitalism and the bravery of workers or peasants. There must have been at least 80 pieces that depicted Fidel, Ché, or both—and another few dozen likenesses of the 19th-century poet José Martí. Although a lot of the subject matter was gruesome—depicting massacres, executions, slavery, etc.—much was uplifting: happy campesinos cutting cane (and one photo of Fidel cutting cane), lovers, weddings, and families, marches against injustice… We felt we’d chosen very well, because this museum covered the subject matter of many other Havana museums we’d considered. In search of a lunch spot and with no access to the Internet (meaning no Yelp, no TripAdvisor), we tried the old-fashioned method of finding a restaurant by walking around. After trying to go to one Indian restaurant (our favorite cuisine) and being turned away because the electricity had failed, we happened to walk past Paladar los Mercaderes, Mercaderes 207 at the corner of Lamparilla/Amarqura. When the tout downstairs told us they could make a vegetarian version of their Sri Lankan fish curry, up the stairs we went (and he rang a big bell to let them know people were on their way). Upstairs, our waiter told us about a gazpacho special made with homegrown organic tomatoes. We ordered both dishes to share and two bottles of sparkling water. Both were amazing—enough so that we ordered a flan for dessert that came with vanilla ice cream and rum soaked grated fresh coconut and raisins, and this was also delicious. It was definitely a splurge (the above plus two sparkling waters for 45 CUC pesos, our most expensive meal in the country), but totally worth it. There were a few other vegetarian items including a black bean hummus. But the person at the next table ordered it and it was minuscule, so we were even more glad we’d gotten the curry. After our pricy lunch, we were delighted to find the California Café,#3, 19 and O Streets in Vedado, just two blocks from our apartment (and one from the Hotel Nacionál. For dinner, we shared three cheese quesadillas with homemade fresh salsa as well as a Tabasco-style homemade picante sauce, a very different gazpacho from the afternoon’s, a particularly good chickpea (garbanzo) veggie burger, and a wonderful “mango spring” cocktail with rum, mango juice, coconut and Triple Sec liqueurs, and blackberry juice. Total cost: 19.20 CUC including a 10% service charge, and all of it was great. Friendly staff, too. CaliforniaCafeHabana on Facebook, Instagram, and TripAdvisor. Farm Visit: Finca Tungasuk, Artemisa The following morning, Leo showed up with Omar and his 1957 Chevrolet Belair, because Raul’s car was being repaired. Omar told us he does much of the maintenance himself, that many of the classic cars have not much original left (his has a Hyundai motor, as well as a/c and power windows—but that he’d much rather drive a modern car. However, he clearly has a lot of interest and knowledge; he could identify the make and year of every old car we saw. Stopping at Fusterlandia, a village done over playfully in Gaudi-like style by a mosaic artist named Fuster, we drove about 40 minutes to Artemisa, a fishing and farming village, and turned up a dirt road to arrive at Finca Tungasuk, a 13-hectare organic farm-to-table farm. Annabelle and Alfredo Cantarero, the owners, toured us around the mixed plantings of vegetables (multiple kinds of squashes and beans, tomatoes…), fruit trees (see below), and herbs (fennel, a tall oregano, rosemary…), and gave us a fairly detailed history before serving us a wonderful meal. They’re both immigrants: she’s from Nicaragua (where they met) and he’s Peruvian. He had a long career in information technology and has worked as an election monitor and relief worker in countries recovering from wars, under either UN or EU auspices. She is a trained chef. They have a baby daughter, Cecille, who—as a Cuban native—could become the actual owner of the farm down the road (as immigrants, they are not allowed to own the land). They learned about farming originally by reading books, had no practical experience before taking it on, and made lots of mistakes. When they took over the property, it had been abandoned for a long time and was overrun with an invasive tree called aroma, which grows tall, is very hard to cut, and is covered in sharp thorns. These had to be dug out and removed by hand, and they are still creeping back in. They’ve planted more than 3000 trees: banana, kumquat, citrus, coconut palm, avocado, mango, mamay… They tried raising animals, but as Alfredo described it, “the goats would stand on their hind legs and eat all the leaves of the baby trees. The chickens needed special feed that we had to cook for them.” He also told us that during the Soviet subsidy era, many farmers were raising Russian breeds of cows, but as soon as the Soviet economy collapsed, the ships with the special feed stopped coming, and the cows refused to eat the local grasses and corn. And that because first the Americans and then the Russians saw Cuba as a place to monocrop sugar, much of the ancient knowledge about how to grow other crops has been lost and has too be relearned. He also told us that the information we’ve been told by multiple people about all Cuban agriculture being organic is not quite true. There are shipments of agro-chemicals into the country, and some farmers like to use them. However, their availability is erratic, and some years none come in. Thus, many farmers have gone organic because it’s reliable; it’s a big problem for a farmer who commits to chemiculture if there’s no more availability during the crop cycle—but organic farms set up systems to manage pests and resources naturally. At Finca Tungasuk, they keep the bugs away with citronella, add lime from lobster shells, etc. Their water system both for irrigation and for household use is mostly gravity-fed, with a few pumps supplementing. They’ve just dug a third well, 50 meters deep (one of the existing ones is six meters), and they’re very excited about having a much better supply of water and water pressure. Annabelle and Alfredo operate the farm on a model similar to US land trusts, where an organization (in this case, the Cuban government) owns title to the land but they own the house and the crops they produce. Some they sell at a local farmers market, at low prices set by the government. Some they trade for yogurt and meat, use of oxen for plowing, or other necessaries. They can buy subsidized petrol for about 1/5 the price for non-farmers, and they trade some of that with truck owners who bring their goods to the market. Some they sell at good prices through other channels. They have about ten employees, plus short-term volunteers through various agencies. The government also subsides the purchase of the tree stock and many other agricultural items. In the summer, it gets hotter than 104°F/40°C. In August, the workers work 7-11 a.m. and then go swimming in the adjacent lake. In mid-June during our visit, it was over 90 in Havana but cooler in the hills. Alfredo is 45; Annabelle is in her 30s. Both are very friendly, have excellent English, and welcome visitors. Annabelle prepared a wonderful meal that started with a squash soup sprinkled with chia seeds and topped with a yogurt cheese, continued with avocados stuffed with quinoa over a kale salad with yucca and taro fritters with a particularly nice salsa fresca (and her taro was by far the best of the three times we were served taro fritters), then a main-course buffet that included rice, beans, pico de gallo (tomato-onion-chili relish), a traditional Cuban green sauce, chopped beets, and a few things for our meat-eating guide and driver. Mango, watermelon, and pineapple juices (all homemade) to drink, and a wonderful flan for dessert, drizzled with a passion fruit garnish and accompanied by cortados: strong black coffee in tiny cups, served with sugar (in this case a lovely coarse raw sugar, not quite white but much lighter than brown). Flamenco Drummers From there, another treat: a private performance by eight members of the Compás Dance Company, which combines Afro-Cuban and flamenco influences. The dancers all played various percussion instruments (including congas—several with ornately sculpted faces on the wooden parts—bongos, percussion sticks, castanets, a certain kind of traditional Cuban wooden chair with calfskin seat, and a shaker (calabash covered with a netting of cowrie shells). They are the first professional performers I’ve seen who combine dance and percussion in the same performer at the same time. The half-hour program consisted of several short bits, each introducing a style of dance and different instruments—and all delivered with huge smiles. Flamenco footwork serves as another percussion instrument, and their swinging arms and torsos and pounding drumsticks were definitely part of the dance. The dancers offer classes—a full training program of eight hours a day for teenagers, and also a four-hour after school program for younger kids. Most (maybe all) of the ~25-member company came through the education program. It is a private organization, not funded by the government and reliant on performance fees, merchandise sales (a DVD of their performance in the US, t-shirts and tank tops, little carvings, paintings), and donations. Carlos Alzugaray, Latin American Studies professor, former Cuban Ambassador to the European Union I first went to Miami in 1989. It was right after the fall of communism. Now the hard right no longer controls the streets. I teach Cuban/US policy, Latin American relations. But I don’t teach much now In Havana, I teach US foreign policy; in the US, I teach Cuban foreign policy. I’ve been visiting professor at Queens College, Beloit, visiting scholar at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and I give lectures here and there. The diversity of the US is hard for Cubans to understand. We are a type of people—Havana was the base of the Spaniards’ fleet system. To protect the treasures they were shipping, they would gather a convoy of ships here and go through the Gulf Stream, protected by the Spanish navy. Havana is very cosmopolitan, and the architecture is eclectic. Havana has always been in the forefront of any major cultural movement. I was educated by Jesuits. A kid said to me, why do you talk so much about nationalism. It’s a reactionary concept. I served in Bulgaria, very close to Yugoslavia, right in the conflict. One day, traveling from Sofia to Belgrade, I was going close to Nis, Serbia (pronounced Niche). I realized that one problem with the Balkans is that the people tend to reject the other Balkan peoples. Bulgaria is not as backward as Albania but it’s very agricultural. They eat very well. And the Bulgarians didn’t hate the Russians. So I told this guy, in Europe you are defined by an “I hate the other” kind of nationalism. In Cuba, it’s more, I want your respect. We spent more centuries under the yoke of Spanish colonialism longer than any other. Spain had centralized government (and we inherited that). They made laws that were very difficult to comply with, and they sent them to Cuba, where the governors-general would accept the law but not comply.This created an attitude. The relationship between Cuba and the US, for centuries. I was explaining this to Pres. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia. He responded with a Swahili proverb. The grass doesn’t care if an elephant is making love, fighting, or just horsing around—he will trample the grass. That’s how we feel about the US. The US doesn’t recognize that we have interests. Book: On Becoming Cuban. The author is US born, of Cuban origin. He argues that Cuban national identity has risen within this dialectic. That we respect but resent the US. But if you are an American politician, business man, military guy, you think, these Cubans love us. They don’t realize that yes, we are friendly, but we hate it when they don’t respect us. My father and grandfather were both politicians. They had relationships with the embassies, admired the US but hated the way politicians and the Mafia took over. The Mafia achieved enormous power, especially in Batista’s time. In the 1950s, the country was in trouble. The US had a small group of wealthy supporters in Cuba. They started to see that the revolutionaries were going to take over everything, let’s get out; we’ll be back. I was 16 in 1959. I had a girlfriend from a rich Catholic family. At the beginning of the Revolution, I had to leave with my father, who was the first Cuban Ambassador to Japan under Castro. Suddenly I stopped receiving letters from her. When I returned in 1961, all my friends, my fellow students, my cousins, aunt, uncles—everybody had left. My father died that year. I decided to stay, but all contact with those people was cut. Many years later, I found her though Facebook. In Omaha! She came back to see me when the Pope was here. She told me that her mother had taken the six girls to Germantown, PA, dropped them off at convent school, and told them they’d be there for one semester. She left her address book and everything else at her home in Cuba. They were convinced that the revolution was too radical. I studied at a Catholic school. I was not surprised by the radicalism of the revolution. I had worked [in the poor neighborhoods] and I saw that change needed to happen. And my father and grandfather had been part of every reformist movement. Everyone recognized there were several issues that needed reform. Land primarily, but education, urban reform, corruption of the whole political class. At times I think people don’t understand. We tell this narrative about Fidel that he was an SOB who destroyed everything. I think that was Batista. He took power in a coup in 1952 after what should have been the 4th fair election in a row. He destroyed the political system. The parties were never serious about their programs, didn’t comply with their promises. Fidel was the only one who challenged Batista. He was a lawyer. And the whole system came tumbling down. Fidel became very popular. First, he eliminated corruption, boom. Then thee was the land reform, very popular among the peasants. The education reform, the one-year literacy campaign. He recruited young high school students to teach backward peasants in the mountains. They thought it was an adventure, but they also learned about a Cuba (very poor) they didn’t know existed, and it created a social conscience. So we had an honest government, but full of neophytes with great ideas but who didn’t know how to rule. That’s how the Revolution became embedded and popular. That’s how we resisted US encroachment. Bay of Pigs, attempt to assassinate Fidel made him bigger. When he gave his famous first speech in the UN in 1960, four hours, and Nehru, Nasser, all these leaders sat in front of this 30-year old guy who said exactly what they wanted to say. The US was very concerned by the neutralism of the 3rd world. And that was the era of rights for the 3rd world. The UN had 45-50 members, half from Latin America. But within 10 years, 150 members, many African and Asian and Middle Eastern. They all felt very close to Cuba. But the US succeeded in isolating Cuba from Latin America. Their diplomats and leaders started going around the 3rd world in search of allies. We learned that we had allies. We immediately became members of the nonaligned movement. The US didn’t understand. They thought, if you are not against Russia, you’re against us. Kennedy, Johnson—long before George W. Bush. The first conference of nonaligned took place in Belgrade, 1961. Next in 1964, then Africa, Guyana, and then Havana. Cuba was the first Latin American country to join the nonaligned movement, and Cuba exercised a lot of influence. The first place Cuba sent doctors and soldiers was Algeria. They sent doctors to the hospital that handled wounded combatants from the war against France, and to help Algeria defeat a Moroccan incursion. That was the beginning of many. Cuba helped Angola defeat the South African army 1975-89. The first one Mandela wanted to see was Fidel. All the Cuban martyrs who fought South Africa are on a martyrs’ wall in Johannesburg. Cuba survived the American embargo thanks to the Soviet Union. But we became very dependent on USSR, which subsidized Cuba big time. We became the pampered child, and we thought socialism was like that. But we had to become self-sufficient. Cubans are proud of this story. Proud that Cuba solved some of these many problems, including racial segregation—even though we haven’t solved the economic problem. people have to recognize that the American embargo hurts us, but also we have made mistakes and we are stubborn. Also, we’re in the middle of a very important generational transition. The kids who grew up in the 70s-80s are now taking over. But Bolton and Trump are making a mistake if they think they are pushovers. And Cuba is not without resources. we can expand our relationships with China, EU, Russia. I think we can survive the Trump storm. Obama era: there was hope but also realism. We knew the lifting of the embargo was going to take time. A long road always requires a first step. But now Trump has turned it backward for the most absurd reasons. The Venezuelan exiles are becoming very powerful in Florida. They have a lot of money, buying property, aligning themselves with the old Cuban crowd. Trump’s policy hurts us both economically and because he reinforces the conservatives here. He is making them very happy. We have only one party, but you can identify that there are people who are conservative and don’t want to change anything. Every time Trump does something, they say, you see, we cannot change. They have a siege mentality. Circle the wagons, no dissidents. In a country under siege, ending dissent is seen as crucial. In Cuba, the US has supported dissidents, and we have fallen into the trap of calling every dissident an ally of the US. What would you design? We have created some documents for a roadmap: increasing the private sector, decentralizing the state, recognizing that the economy has changed the rules. I don’t think we should do exactly like China did. But we should approach economics with the same state of mind. What kind of economic policies do we have to foster? Those that foster development and creation of wealth? Or do we worry more about the conscience of the people, promoting a new culture of people who are not so consumer-oriented. Cuba has tended to foster development of conscience. I think there must be a balance. You have to work with the two, but at times you have to pay the price. You’ve to accept that the market exists, you have to promote the activities that take advantage of the market, but don’t let it rule. I became a diplomat by chance. My dad was not a professional diplomat. In Japan, I attended a Jesuit university in English. Classes were 6-10 p.m., so I had the whole day free. I was usually hanging out at the embassy. They had typewriters so I could type my reports. I took a typing course and I was very fast. I started typing letters, translations from the Japanese newspapers. A Cuban inspector said, this guy is working 8 hours a day, he should be paid. So I became an official employee of the embassy. Then when I returned to Cuba and my father died, I had to make a choice to go back to school. I majored in diplomacy. My first choice would have been economics. I always kept studying economics informally. What was it like as ambassador to countries that are allies of the US? 1998, we received 50 heads of state. In Ethiopia, I handled Cuban presence in the OAU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Whenever we had a summit in Addis Ababa I could go and talk to the presidents of all those countries. When the US was isolating and embargoing Cuba—I did my Ph.D in that—at discussions of the UN Security Council, they were so convinced that France, UK, Canada etc. would join in isolating Cuba.They went to a summit in Canada and came back, “you know what, the Canadians said no!” This was under [Canadian Prime Minister] Diffenbacker (Eisenhower era). He told Eisenhower, we have no reason to embargo Cuba. Harold Macmillan told Eisenhower, we have interest in Cuba and we believe you are wrong. We tried to do it with Nasser, and that gave opportunity for the USSR to fund the Aswan Dam and Nasser’s weapons. Our people are telling us that you will not be able to isolate Cuba. DeGaule, the same. Only Germany [supported the embargo], because we had relations with GDR. Japan bought half a million of sugar from us, and pay a stable price. We had been selling 4 million tons to the US. The US thought Castro would be overthrown in one year and that everyone would support the US. They were stuck with a policy, and they complicated things by pushing Cuba into the hands of the Soviet Union and being considered fools. And it is more and more difficult for the US to impose its will. Edel Bordón and Yamila Pardo, Visual Artists Edel: I have had a long and varied career. It’s difficult as a visual artist because there is no national market. Leo: Even if you have money, you wouldn’t spend it on art. Edel: it’s very difficult to arrive at the highest levels. There are many artists who don’t get the promotion and exposure. Buying art is like buying a beer. But there are people in Europe who have been producing beer for centuries. In Cuba, we don’t have a tradition of beer. Other countries promote their beer heavily. We don’t. Corona is the best-selling beer in the world, but not the best. It’s all in the marketing. I have a good friend, an agent in Montreal, Don Thompson. He is a great connoisseur of art. He wrote two very famous art-market books: $12 Million Stuffed Shark, The Supermodel and the Brillo Box. They’re very interesting because at auction—he’s an old guy but he’s really funny. He explained how ladies’ black sun hats changed the culture. A white one signifies millions. For example, when they criticize something, they talk about the outfit. People pay more attention to fashion than art. It’s just a part of the show. It’s a bubble (burbuja, in Spanish). We think buying art is not an emergency. The way they educate this generation. We make the art to better the lives of the people. They used to make art for hospitals, infant centers. It has a spiritual value. In the 1990s, when we entered the “special period,” when socialism collapsed and we faced pressure by the US, the necessity to introduce dollars, we opened doors to international tourism. Before that, we had none. Only domestic tourism. With the beginning of international tourism, commercialism started growing. And the Cuban artists started exhibiting around the world. The world discovered that there were awesome Cuban artists, and there was a boom. There was a lot of curiosity. I like it better now. But with the arrival of tourism came the evils: prostitution, some drugs, commercialism. But now it’s better. We have the interchange. We lived in a bubble, a paradise island. Now we live kind of like the rest of the world. But the difference—Cuba, like other countries, there are many levels of artists, and the highest level [most successful] is not necessarily the best. There are countries in the Third World that are more or less equal to us. From Africa, Latin America—but they have a national market for artists. The US is a big consumer of art. It’s the mecca. And NYC is the mecca of the mecca. In three weeks, we are all going to the US: LA, NYC, Boston. We think we can make something happen. You can count the famous artists of the world on your finger. It’s a joke that almost 11 million people (entire population) are involved in some art form. We have to remember that art in the rest of the world is expensive, but in Cuba it’s free, like everything else. When we give a painting to a hospital, it’s a donation. It’s a spiritual thing. In Cuba, artists have to study four years in middle school, four in high school for arts, and five in art school. We have to choose at 16. Yamila: I started studying art in middle school, but then I stopped. In high school, I studied biology. Then I studied library science. And then I returned to art. And now I’m in university for art. Edel: For art, you can change your mind until you’re 40. There are universities for elders, but not in art. You can decide what you want to study at any age. Yamila: If a good critic writes well about you, that’s more important than credentials. You get paid for teaching art or when you sell your work. The government only pays when you work with them, but you can be an independent. Dalila Castro Fontanella (Edel and Yamila’s son Pablo’s girlfriend) An extra bonus of this visit was meeting Dalila (introduced to us as Delilah), a TV and print journalist/anchorwoman who covers health, science, and the environment and publishes scholarly articles in Latin America in Context about US-Cuban relations and their intersection with environmental issues. Swimming in the Bay of Pigs What a beautiful beach! And hardly anyone to share it with. Caleta Buena, within Gran Parque Natural Montemar—in the Bay of Pigs! We stopped there for a swim and picnic on our way from Havana to Trinidad. Currents were strong and the beach had neither lifeguards nor a roped-off area, so we kept to a fairly narrow stretch between a coral outcropping and the entry/exit ladder. In this area, we saw many individual monuments to some of the Cubans who were killed fighting off the April 1961 invasion of 700 Cuban reactionaries and 800 foreign mercenaries, mostly from other parts of Latin America. Cuba was expecting to be invaded from the north, and we saw some of the defenses in Havana—but this force came in from the south. According to Leo, volunteers swarmed in from all over the island, along with pretty much the entire Cuban armed forces, and several hundred locals were killed. The defenders had only 72 hours to defeat the invaders before the UN would consider the invasion to have popular support. They did it in 65. We saw many big billboards in this area, with Spanish-language messages like “this is as far as the invaders got” and “this is the location of the first place where Latin Americans vanquished the Yankee imperialists.” A little farther east, we encountered farmers using the asphalt of the road as a drying area for rice. I found it really odd that they would spread rice out on a public road, where vehicles would drive over it and horses (there are many pulling carts and wagons) would stomp—and poop—on it. Apparently, it’s an easy way to separate the rice from its husk. But it makes eating rice in Cuba considerably less attractive to me. However, as a vegetarian, I’m encountering rice constantly, and I’ll just eat it. Trinidad likes music. The streets are hopping at 9 p.m, and we went out to hear an Afro-Cuban music and dance performance that was different from any Cuban music I’ve ever heard; I could really hear the West African influence. All of the singers had great voices, and they did a lot of goofy play-acting that could have been kitch but worked. It must have felt like this to see the Buena Vista Social Club around 1970, long before they got famous in the US. The club was called El Paleque de Congo Reale, and also served interesting and inexpensive mojitos made with yerba buena instead mint, and a much rougher rum than what gets served in the tourist restaurants. This was a place for locals. There’s also music every evening at the Casa Musica on the steps at the Plaza Mayor, at various clubs around town, and from buskers or casual musicians in the squares. And since we happened to be there during a carnival, big-stage concerts in the central park. Nancy Benítez Vázquez, historic preservation architect in Trinidad, has been working in Trinidad since 1986. Founded in the 1500s, Trinidad kept its colonial buildings because it lost its place in the Cuban economy when sugar went bust, and thus was left undeveloped. She is a government employee and leads a team of preservationists. They constructed a model of this city of 47,000 (metro area)/9,000 (city) on the same block as our hotel, the 400 block of Calle Maseo. She showed us where the city started, how the rich people built up the Plaza Mayor area where they could view the sea (some 10 kilometers away) while staying safe from the numerous pirates that worked the southern coast, and how that area has been restored now. Then the city spread toward and beyond the central square where City Hall (a relatively new building) faces the park. Perhaps it’s surprising that not so long ago, Trinidad had 5 restaurants, and only a couple of hotels. Now there are at least 56 restaurants and more than 1000 new lodging beds, in dozens of hostels, small hotels, and casa particulares, and many families have given over their living room to some sort of retail enterprise. The boom in tourism of recent decades caught Nancy and her preservation team by surprise; the town was not prepared to control development and it’s been challenging to maintain the very authenticity and history that makes it a desirable tourist destination. And most tourists have no idea of their impact—both positive and negative. She also took us to a local embroidery shop—a co-op of women textile artists—as well as to the Conspirators Cafe, where local feminist artist Yami Martinez shows her series of coffee pots and bras with various themes: “This one represents the good wife making coffee for her husband. That one represents the strong woman who doesn’t make coffee for her husband; he makes the coffee for her.” We ended our brief walk at a cafe that served iced coffee over ice cream. Later, we made a photo stop at a canopy tour (ziplining) center with a terrific view of the whole sugar mill valley and the beautiful mountains behind it, then continued up to San Isidro de los Destiladeros, a museum being slowly built on the ruins of a sugar plantation and processing factory. While it’s open to visitors, they hope to showcase a lot more about life on the plantation over the next several years. Our guide, Reinier Romero (“Ray”) Hernandez, provided a great deal of context and made it clear that despite the beauty of the place, it was hell for the 150 slaves who worked there through the mid-19th century in deplorable conditions—shackled at work, locked into crowded barracks at night, constantly whipped. And unlike the American South, if any slaves did manage to escape, they had no way to get off the island and wouldn’t make it to a free land. The best they could hope for was to hide out in caves up in the mountains Currently, there’s almost no signage, so a guide is essential. It’s the difference between looking at a formation of bricks and knowing that these were the ovens to heat the sugar into molasses, and that the slaves were burning their skin with the hot liquid and choking on the fumes. Archeology is continuing on the site, with an annual dig bringing in archeologists from many other countries. In knowing that one structure was strategically positioned between the main house and the grim slave barracks so the owners and masters wouldn’t have to look at the misery they were causing. The park also expecting to restore the main house and show the contrast between their wealthy lifestyles and the despair it was built on. Hiking and Sipping Wonderful full-day excursion to a rainforest hike in Topes de Collantes/National Park of Guanayara, transported in a 29-year-old Russian jeep with no seatbelts and no rear headrests. Scenic lookout en route with views of Trinidad and the ocean followed by several hours of hiking with Irelio, an expert on local plants (including their medicinal uses), through not only the general rainforest but also several sets of waterfalls and pools, including one particularly nice one that’s set up as a swimming area (the water was perfect). The hike ended at a lunch spot where even the bathroom sink areas had picture windows to show off the lovely gardens. A stop on the way back to get a big glass of fresh-pressed cane juice and then walk next door to artisanal coffee grower Don Pablo, where we were served espresso with rum, lemon, and honey after getting a tour of the roasting process where everything is done by hand in batches of well less than a kilo. General Observations Overall Assessment: Cuba is a terrific destination, despite falling short in many particularities (see below). There’s a lot to learn, it’s quite different from anywhere else we’ve been in Latin America and even among other present and former Communist countries we’ve visited, people are amazingly friendly, good accommodations are available, and it has plenty of non-commercialized attractions. It’s even better if you speak Spanish, but a huge percentage of people, especially those under 40, speak English. Exception: It’s not so good if you have walking disabilities. We were very glad we went. For US residents, 11 of the 12 reasons to go still apply; only people-to-people trips have been eliminated. You still need to work with a travel company, and you can no longer come by cruise ship. But both Southwest and JetBlue fly from Fort Lauderdale. We were very happy with our choice of agency: CubaEducationalTravel.com, which tailored its itinerary specifically to the two of us and then modified it as we suggested—and who set up our trip as a private tour. Politics and the Way of Life: The many Cubans we met, both in formal meetings and just hanging out on the streets and squares, share remarkable agreement on several key issues.
Arts: Cuba has the soul of an artist. Music and dance are everywhere, streets are named for famous Cuban writers and painters, public art (often political) is always around, even many very small towns have at least an art gallery or performance space. Tourist destinations like Trinidad are brimming with them. Even visiting in the off-season (June), there was music every evening in Havana, although much of it was too late in the evening for us. And tiny Trinidad was overflowing with music earlier in the evening, as noted earlier. Crafts exist, but they’re not a main reason to come to Cuba (as they are in, say, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, or Ecuador. Hat making is very common. We saw very few textile shops. Souvenirs might be small painted-wood sculptures of Afro-Cubans, little kitchen gadgets of wood, metal, or ceramic, coffee accoutrements…And the cigars are extremely well-regarded around the world. Food: Although the Cuban diet is heavily meat-centric, we never had difficulty finding food we could eat. Tourist restaurants can generally figure out something, and in both Trinidad and Havana, many had options on the menu. We really didn’t see many restaurants for working-class locals; when you’re making $20 or $30 per month, you’re not like to spend even $5 on a meal out. We did see the occasional burger joint, and plenty of places to buy a drink for between $1 and $3.50. We ate a lot of eggs and cheese (far more eggs than we do at home), but also had many plates built around fresh vegetables and the wonderful tropical fruits. Pasta and risotto are widely available in vegetarian and vegan versions. We were lucky enough to get dinner invitations from two families (one as part of the lecture program) as well as the home-cooked lunch Annabelle prepared for us on the farm. In all three cases, we had multiple fresh vegetable dishes (which might include green beans, okra, carrots, beets, cabbage, lettuce, etc.), rice and beans, yucca, taro fritters, and more—though often, Cuban cooks put meat in their beans, so if you’re a vegetarian, ask before you order. Vegans will have a harder time, but it won’t be impossible. It might take some arranging ahead. As we looked at what others around us were eating in restaurants, we saw huge steaks, plates of fish or seafood, pasta and rice dishes with small bits of meat, shredded beef (ropa vieja—literally, “old clothes”), omelets, some salads with chicken or seafood…plenty of variety, in other words. Most of it looked quite well-prepared. Drinks: Tap water is not considered good to drink, even by the locals. The government Cuban bottled water brand is Ceigo Montero, which is available both sparkling and plain, and doesn’t seem to have any island-bottled competitors. The sparkling version is quite pleasant. I didn’t care much for the non-gas version, although it wasn’t bad at cold temperatures. Italian waters are also available: San Peligrino for sparkling, and a couple of other brands for plain. Water is inexpensive on the streets, typically 1-2 CUC for the 1.5 liter and half that for half a liter. It costs significantly more in many restaurants, of course. Besides bottled water, colas and citrus sodas are quite popular. Fruit juices are often home-made (and wonderful). Cocktails are delicious, using fresh fruits and of course, Cuban rum. While the bars will have a small stock of whiskey, rum is far more popular. Havana Club is the most popular brand, and even some cheaper varieties (such as the seven-year aged) are quite good. At least two brands of Cuban beer are available, along with some European imports. We saw no evidence of any artisanal beer brewing community, but with all that sugar cane, I bet a lot of people make their own spirits. We ordered a few glasses of wine in restaurants. As far as I know, none of it was Cuban. Lodging: For us at least, Cuba deserves a much better reputation for lodging. While I will not generalize from my very limited experience, I can say that both the apartment suite in Havana and the large room in Trinidad, as well as the three hotel lobbies and grounds we visited for some of our meetings, were both elegant and eat-off-the-floor spotless. The apartment had excellent air conditioning in the two bedrooms, but relied on cross-ventilation for the public spaces and bathroom. The room in Trinidad had great air conditioning that did not include the bathroom. Smoking: You’re never far from the smell of a strong cigar, and a much higher percentage of people smoke cigarettes than at home. Fortunately, it’s a hot climate and an open-air culture so generally, there’s enough ventilation. Our guide, Leo, had recently switched from paper cigarettes to vaping, but I didn’t notice any businesses catering to vapers. Smoking is allowed in many restaurants and bars, though a pleasingly high percentage were nonsmoking. Commerce and Advertising: Large companies are government monopolies or near-monopolies: bottled water, beer, Internet, bus transportation, etc. Construction seems to be a mix of private and public. While Havana Club is the most visible brand of rum, several others are available. I don’t know if they are all state-run enterprises but I expect so. Small private stores are very common, some of them fairly well-stocked, others with a fairly small selection. I saw one doorway that claimed to be the entrance to a shopping mall, but I don’t know what that means here (I didn’t go inside). Cuba has two currencies: CUC, which were worth about USD $1.10 in June, 2019 and can be converted to and from foreign money, and CUP, worth about 1/25 as much, which can’t. Many stores post prices in both. For US citizens (and many Cubans, too), it’s an all-cash economy. US credit and debit cards don’t work here. European cards work, but few stores have credit card terminals. And we were told repeatedly that there’s no such thing as a bank loan to buy a house or car or start a business. The absence of commercial billboards—and of using young, good looking models to sell products—is truly refreshing, and a big contrast with Shanghai or Beijing, which despite their Communist government, are highly commercialized. Billboards and message murals are plentiful here, but they’re about the revolution, people power, etc.—not selling stuff. Restaurants do have small sidewalk or outdoor wall signs listing the choices of the day, and we saw a few low-key signs announcing souvenirs or art galleries. Attitude Toward US Citizens and US Government: Universally, we were greeted with warmth, affection, interest, and gratitude that we’d chosen to visit. Often, people were surprised to meet travelers from the US—and even more surprised that we could converse in Spanish (we’re not fluent but we can carry on fairly complex conversations). We were asked a lot if we were Canadian or even French. Also universally, everyone hates the current US government, and feels that ordinary Cubans are bearing the brunt of the economic impact. People kept asking us worriedly if we thought he would win a second term. Obama, on the other hand, is venerated like a god. Not only did he open up US tourism, but he was the only president to visit the country since the revolution. Media: Every family seems to have a TV (walking around Trinidad at night, we would see into people’s living rooms where people would be gathered around one). Every adult seems to have a cell phone. Land lines in residences are even less common than in the US. While we heard plenty of people playing music, none of it seemed to come from radio. Granma, the national newspaper, is still published daily, though we only encountered it once: in the lobby of our hotel in Trinidad. Touch: The Cuban culture is very huggy. People who only met half an hour earlier will often hug, shake hands (especially men, who grasp the wrist and extend fingers into the palm of the other man’s hand), pat each other vigorously on the back, and generally exchange cursory one-cheek kisses—especially when at least one person in the encounter is female. But it’s not rare for men to move quickly from the handshake to the hug and light kiss. Green Energy: Although Cuba is a natural for solar energy, they are just beginning to develop it. Cienfuegos (the biggest city between Havana and Trinidad) has two solar farms and more are planned around the country. I saw a scattering of rooftop solar hot water systems. Of course, with the low salaries, mass conversion to solar would have to be a government initiative (either a lease-back program or shifting the present electric bill to pay for solar over time, most likely). Several people complained about the price of the current oil-fired electricity. Leo told us that a few large businesses are also using solar. Cuba has had less incentive to develop its own green energy because petroleum has been subsidized, first by the USSR and more recently by Venezuela and Brazil. But with Brazil electing a rabid pro-capitalist who is actively hostile to the environment (far more extreme than the current US government), the US threatening Venezuela’s leftist government, and a rightward trend around Latin America, I’d say this is the right time to switch the entire country to green energy. According to Irelio, our guide for the national park hike, Cuba already gets 36 percent of its electricity from renewable energy (about 2/3 of that hydro, with solar and wind filling in most of the remainder. That number seems high compared to what I observed. And even if it is that high, this is not enough. The potential to switch to renewables is enormous. I think Cuba could easily develop massive solar (on hurricane-reinforced roofs plus solar farms). Vertical access wind, tidal, and hydro would also work here. While the capital investment would be significant, phasing in an island-wide conversion over a decade would have several advantages. It would:
Disability Access: Poor. Many restaurants and attractions are up multiple flights of stairs. Curb cuts are rare, as are pedestrian crosswalks and even traffic lights (we walked over a mile along the Malecon, one of Havana’s main streets and a favorite of the classic-car taxi divers, and encountered exactly one traffic light). In some places, sidewalks are quite narrow. The only blessing is that traffic is surprisingly light, and if you have a PCA who can push you, you’ll make it across easily. I did not see a single person using a motorized wheelchair, though I did see a number of chair users. Internet Access: Also poor. In my first 3 days, I tried probably about 40 times to get on. I succeeded three times. Two of those, I got tossed off within minutes. I managed to stay on for half an hour in between, but it was so slow that all I got done was answer about three emails and one Facebook text, and upload two pictures to Facebook (out of I think eight that I was trying). The following day, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and was online ten minutes later, and the connection was smooth. And then my five-hour access card somehow got used up in two hours of actual access. Traffic: Very light, with only 600,000 cars on the island. But stinky with all those pre-pollution control 50s cars. Classic Cars: Many have had major parts replaced to the point where there’s not much original. The 1957 Chevrolet we had on our farm day had a Hyundai engine, retrofitted power windows and air conditioning, and the crank windows (and inside rear door handles) were disabled. Their condition ranges from okay with significant signs of wear to showroom-sparkling. The few US cars from after the embargo were probably built in other countries, according to Leo. More modern cars could cost as much as $65,000 for the simple 28-year-old Peugeot sedan that took us to Trinidad. Perhaps because the cars are so expensive and so few people have licenses, Cuba’s drivers are world-class. They navigate the sharp curves, deep potholes, mountain dirt roads, and city streets crowded with pedestrians, horse carts, roaming dogs, etc. with great aplomb. And a good thing, considering the vintage cars have no seatbelts or airbags. Poverty: Everyone we talked to complained that Cuban government salaries are not enough to live on, and many had a side hustle or full-time private employment. Many had left skilled professions to work in the tourist sector, which pays much better. We saw a few beggars, mostly elderly men and a few old women, but far fewer than in a comparable American or European city. The government provides everyone with subsistence food levels, housing, education, and healthcare. And whenever we asked what kind of system they’d prefer, every person responded that they liked the system, but just wanted a living wage. This was true both for people who had traveled extensively beyond the island and for those who had never gone anywhere else. Shel Horowitz, Editor of Global Travel Review, writes and consults at the intersections of profitability, social change, and environmental healing. His award-winning tenth book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, is available at his main website, http:// |
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