Fidelity or Infidel?
(Impressions of Cuba)
November 1999
Mark Schmieder
Cuba is the first place I have visited outside the U.S. that I do not care to return to under the present conditions. I did not know why I felt this way until an unexpected layover in Cancun Mexico provided me with a stark contrast between two societies with similar histories but alarmingly different personalities.
While Mexico suffers from corruption, its people are hard working and inventive. Cuba is a welfare state where incentive is rarely rewarded and sometimes punished. Poverty is situational and somewhat escapable in the former, while it is enforced as the utopian ideal in the latter. Mexicans speak freely about what bothers them, while Cubans hide their thoughts and spout out pre-programmed propaganda.
The main thing that distinguishes Cuba from other Communist totalitarian regimes is that artists and musicians do not have the emotional content of their work censored. This is probably less a part of the "program" than a necessary concession by the government due to the absolutely central role that the arts play in Latin America culture compared to other regions that have experienced totalitarianism. Also the arts are seen as an outlet for people's frustrations and anxieties; thus taking the steam out of most undercurrents of dissent.
Ultimately, my conclusion is that I'd rather live with the evils of capitalism, which at least allows for the possibility of excellence and honours the most basic human right of the freedom to pursue prosperity and happiness, than to live with the enforced mediocrity of a socialist utopian society.
Rather than present a boring day-by-day travelogue of my nine-day visit to the Caribbean's largest island, I have chosen to comment on different aspects of Cuba in a thematic fashion; pulling in personal experiences to exemplify points.
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GETTING THERE & BACK
One day, getting to Cuba will be easy. For those who have relatives there (some that I met on the plane go EVERY WEEKEND!), there are now charter flights available from LA, NYC and Miami (starting this month). For the rest of us, we must go either through Toronto Canada (for east coasters) or Cancun Mexico (for west coasters).
I flew from Los Angeles on Mexicana, with a Southwest connection from Oakland to LAX. This gave me more latitude if things went wrong, as LAX to Cancun is non-stop and Southwest is very lenient about ticketing (SF flights all stop in Guadalajara and Mexico City, where things always get delayed). This also gave me the chance to have a quick visit with my friends and their two sons (my godsons). It turns out to have been a good plan.
The trip down was uneventful except for the five-hour delay in getting from Cancun to La Habana on Aerocaribe. Coming back was another matter. I was scheduled for an afternoon departure on Sunday (I could have taken the 7am flight, but didn't want a six to eight hour layover in Cancun as it wouldn't be enough time with airport transit time factored in to do anything useful outside the airport). The flight finally left at 7pm! This caused me to miss my flight to LA, so I had to be put up in a hotel overnight in downtown Cancun.
I was unable to find a phone that allowed me to use my US calling cards, and no one was open who sold Ladatel pre-paid cards for the state-owned pay phones. So my friends were at the airport in LA waiting amidst the post-Thanksgiving rush (Mexicana couldn't tell them whether I was on the flight, for "security reasons").
The unexpected layover turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Not only did I discover a side of Cancun I didn't know existed (an authentic crafts market in the downtown, far away from the tourist beach hotels), I was provided with an immediate contrast to Cuba with another Latin American culture with similar history. The Mexicans seem so much freer and full of zest and incentive, and more free with their speech and emotions (Cubans really are afraid to talk about much of anything openly). Besides, they loved me for speaking (bad) Spanish (most visitors don't even bother to learn "Hola"!).
I was rather emotionless while in Cuba (neither happy nor sad), but during my brief stay in Cancun was beginning to experience the ecstatic feelings that normally accompany my travels. I have to honour that my emotional state was telling me something about the communist system in Cuba -- even though people do have freedom of movement (as long as it doesn't involve a government building or government controlled area).
I took a glass-bottomed boat (actually a catamaran whose hull has glass sides) to see the coral reef. It got much too close and there were a few broken chunks here and there (and white areas) that I suspect represent damage from the boats or divers. It was a beautiful experience, even though they "cheated" by dropping feed to attract fish! The sea of course is emerald green along most of the Quintana Roo coastline from Cancun down to Chetumal.
Aerocaribe was supposed to pick me up at the hotel at 340pm (this information was repeated at least five times), but when I got back from the market at 325pm they had just left five minutes prior. It took twenty minutes of arguing for them to agree to take me to the airport when they finally arrived at 410pm! They claimed I was supposed to be there at 3pm, and since I was flying Mexicana I wasn't eligible for the ride (even though Aerocaribe had promised me the ride due to their screw-up the previous day). I was persistent but polite, and we worked it all out.
Still, I wasn't out of the woodwork yet. My flight was scheduled for 540pm, and the driver made three unexpected stops along the way with no explanation. The first was the bank, the second was the pharmacy, but most disturbingly he stopped at the Cuban consular office for almost forty minutes! I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be allowed out of the country (and this was Mexico, not Cuba!). I have no idea what it was all about!
Only after I got home did I hear about the Cuban boy and the fight over his custody. It turns out my flight was delayed from La Habana to Cancun because almost everyone on the plane was Miami-bound, and they were doing a background check on the entire passenger list before allowing it to depart. I have been told that the flights to and from Cuba are normally on time, so the delays I experienced must have been politically motivated. I suppose the stop at the consular office in Cancun was also related, but I'll probably never know what it was about.
At any rate, even though international flights normally require a two hour advance check-in, I got to the airport ten minutes before my flight was scheduled to take off, and it was delayed by forty minutes so they were just beginning to board. I was quite relieved that there were no more stops before LA, and that my friends had managed to get Southwest to switch my missed Oakland flight to the next morning with no trouble.
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GOVERNMENT
Cuba has elections. They even have competing candidates. Not all are members of the Communist Party. Issues such as urban planning, farming policies, etc., are debated. Stalin was never the model for Cuba's revolution. On the other hand, no one is allowed to challenge the State, or the System, or the Revolution (which still "lives"). But there is much more accountability and visibility of what politicians do, so corruption is not a major problem.
There are three systems of money. Tourists will rarely see the Cuban peso, as it is rarely used in business anymore. Dollars are the currency of choice, and the government has minted special "convertible pesos" which have a 1:1 correlation to US coins and bills and which are meant to ensure an adequate supply. I have no idea how this supply is regulated in order to achieve the proper balance with the "real" currency (the Cuban peso). The convertible pesos are on their second generation; the first had a hummingbird and the new series of coins have engravings of famous architectural monuments. The coins are quite pretty -- nicer than our own!
Cubans are not allowed to own property, but they own the units in which they live. At the time of the Revolution, whoever was living in a house or unit became its owner (thus there were many opportunistic "squatters"). It is legal to exchange houses, but this rarely happens. The idea is to prevent speculation, which Castro believes results in some of the worst injustices towards poor and middle income people. But if someone from the country wants to move to the city, the only way to do an exchange is to "bribe" the city dweller with a "supplemental incentive" (since there's little work in the provinces to motivate anyone to do the reverse move), and no one has the money. So, the dark side of this policy is that it is designed to prevent migration from farm to city.
It is not true that everyone makes the same salary. There are four tiers; the lowest of which is unemployment. Menial labour is next, followed by clerical work and finally by government or professional services. There is roughly a 2:1 ratio between professional work and unemployment. Since there are no taxes and the government provides free education and health care, this probably compares to a 4:1 ratio in the US.
Although the health care system is free and there are many scientists working on cures for cancer/AIDS/etc., the hospitals in Cuba are quite frightening and health care is not good by our standards. Quite recently though, the government has moved more towards holistic practices, and there are several experimental centres for holistic and alternative medicine. We visited one, and were astonished at the depth of knowledge and advancement of techniques that we have not had access to in the states; especially regarding preventive care, herbs and acupuncture.
English is widely spoken in Cuba, surprisingly -- especially by the professional class. Russian was never encouraged as there were few visits by Russian leaders and not much of a presence (they sent money but didn't have on-the-ground advisors, etc.). French is also studied, because of the Creole contribution to Cuban culture.
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SOCIETY
One of the many positive accomplishments of the Revolution is the achievement of total racial equality; unparalleled anywhere else in the world except for perhaps Botswana (which does not recognise race or ethnicity as a valid distinguishing characteristic when it takes census). There is also much intermixing/intermarriage. Blacks in Cuba refer to themselves as Cuban, and whites insist that they all have black blood and that regardless of skin colour every Cuban is of one culture -- a combination of Carib Indian, French Creole, Yoruban (West Africa) and Iberian. American blacks love to visit Cuba as they are treated better than elsewhere.
Children are incredibly anxious to learn, as we saw from visiting a school and observing the classrooms. Discipline is not a problem simply because the kids WANT to be there!
In spite of the embargo, in-line skates have made it into Cuba in a big way, and are popular as a mode of transport as well as for sporting. Surprisingly, I saw no "old-style" skates, nor many skateboards.
Dominoes is the national past-time. People love to slap them down on the table noisily, like the Mah Jongg players in Hong Kong. It is also a betting game, as long as people think no one is watching.
Cubans do not wear the drab uniforms associated with most communist regimes. Just recently, they have even discovered Fashion Shows -- although they don't quite have the hang of it yet! We watched a fashion show at the Hotel Ancun near Trinidad, where both male and female models went through the entire wardrobe of a famous fashion designer from Sancti Spiritus (the nearby provincial capitol). As they left the stage to come out into the audience, they were enshrouded in darkness! After the intermission, they figured out a spotlight would help! Disco music alternated with salsa. I do hope they don't know English and were naive, because the choice of a song whose refrain is "I'm so horny" certainly made one wonder if this was a fashion show or a "swimsuit pageant".
Prostitution is on the rise. Additionally disturbing is that women are not choosing the path out of survival (as in Thailand and many other places), but merely to give themselves some extra spending money so they can afford to support a nightclub lifestyle (which is very expensive in Cuba). Most of them are in professions! Some just act as escorts (someone to talk to over dinner), while others are true prostitutes.
Drugs are also on the rise but are still relatively under control. They are mostly a problem in bad urban renewal projects from the 60's/70's. We visited one, where a "neighbourhood watch" program has helped a lot. They host regular socials and dances/etc. to keep tabs on how people are doing and to provide encouragement and build esteem. Those neighbourhoods have also been targeted for tree plantings and other beautification projects.
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RELIGION
Most of Cuba is Santeria, not Roman Catholic. The irony is that one must first be baptised into the Catholic Church in order to pass the initiation rites in the Santeria religion. Santeria is a combination of Christianity with the Nigerian Yoruba ancestor worship. All of the saints and icons have parallels in the Yoruba tradition. The Madonna and Christ-child are usually portrayed as a black woman with a white baby. This is not seen as odd or implausible but rather as an affirmation of the Santeria's dual identity and the unity of the two cultures.
We visited the national centre for Santeria culture for several hours. There's a lot of animal sacrifice as part of their ritual, so I wasn't too keen on checking out all the details. The women wear beautiful, colourful silk clothes with high headdresses and usually a fruit basket on top. They do not like having their picture taken.
Only since the Pope's visit has Christmas been a national holiday in Cuba. I went to a church service, and the sermon was printed and the same for every church in the country. It had to first pass government censors. Still, the church was packed. Similarly with a cathedral I popped in during a Baptism the previous weekend.
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MUSIC
No report on Cuba would be complete without comment on its amazing musical heritage. Nowhere else but Salvador (in Bahia, Brasil) have so many cultures (African, Iberian, Amerindian, Caribbean, Creole) come together to create a jambalaya of musical genres and rhythms.
Much to my surprise, Cuba has just as much to offer in the "classical" genre as in the folk/jazz/dance idioms. The national ballet is of course world-renowned, but there is a coterie of modern composers writing quite melodic but uniquely Cuban works for chamber ensembles, opera, orchestra, classical guitar, etc. It is a shame that the embargo has prevented these marvelous compositions from being shared with the rest of the world.
Additionally, there is a sort of operetta idiom unique to Cuba, called zarzuela, which includes elements of folklorica and theatre, dance, vaudeville, musicals, and formal classical opera.
Of course most people know that Cuba has continued to invent new rhythms which have found their way into American Jazz, pop and dance music: salsa; son; conga; rumba; guaguanco; danzon; changui; guaracha; descarga; bolero; etc. On the island, most concerts involve audience participation, with random onlookers selected to dance or aid in storytelling/enactments or stunts. I was called upon once and had to dodge my "partner's" machete!
One evening several women were invited up in a "competition" to learn the guaguanco, using a washer-board and a shirt as a "prop" since the dance apparently started with housewives moving their bodies in rhythm to distant music while doing their house chores! It was a lot of fun, and after using the audience response as the judge, it was announced in typical Communist fashion that "all (had) won"; though clearly only one contestant really had!
My only negative comment about the music is that, in the tourist zones, Buena Vista Social Club has dictated what tunes people play (especially "Chan Chan"); similar to the effect of Los Lobos' "La Bamba" on Mexico. Santana has also had a huge influence on the island; probably because he blends so many Latin and jazz styles together.
I was hoping to get the chance to hear Gonzalo Rubalcabo play (my favourite jazz pianist), but he has now moved to the Dominican Republic. Unbeknownst to me, his father Guillherme (also a musician) was hanging out in from of Hotel Inglaterra our first night talking to our trip leader (Joseph), with whom he is good friends.
Several of us went to the Jazz Cafe at the Galeria one night and heard some incredible straight-ahead jazz that threw in elements of salsa. The group had their own sound even though paying tribute to Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, etc. Unfortunately, most concerts in Cuba are "anonymous", and often involve throw-togethers of musicians from other projects, so it isn't always easy to find out who you're hearing.
The jazz cafe has wonderful abstract sculptures of invisible musicians playing their instruments (the clothes are sculpted but no faces or hands -- though they have gloves so you can see them playing!).
We heard a salsa band at the main fort ("Coto") whose guitarist was also in Cubanissimo and had played Kimball's East in Oakland CA earlier in the year.
We were invited to a private rooftop concert by the famous singer Dulce Maria. A uniquely Cuban element to this concert was the presence of a famous artist, who painted his impressions of her music as she sang!
Most jazz and salsa groups play from charts. This is again testimony to the quality of education in the country, in spite of all the other shortcomings of the inefficient and stifling communist system.
There are a surprising number of all-female bands as one wanders about town. In almost all cases, groups (whether male or female) wear identical uniforms within a band.
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ART
Cuba is not only a nation of musicians, but also one of artists. The level of proficiency is remarkable everywhere you go, and there is a uniquely Cuban flavour to the stylings and many truly visionary points of view that move art forward into the 21st century. Artists borrow heavily from the cubists, impressionists, symbolists and expressionists, but none of the work is derivative.
Artists work playfully and creatively with form and function in ways that elevate the intellectual consciousness much as the Parisian school did at the turn of the 20th century. Once the embargo is in the past and has been forgotten, I am convinced the Cuban "school" will export its ideas and revolutionise art the world over, with traveling exhibits that bring the kinds of crowds normally reserved for the French Impressionists.
Another popular form of art in La Habana is tile art. There are many places where large tiles are part of the sidewalk, used as tabletops, or in the walls of buildings. All of these become canvases for artists, most of whom employ a very whimsical style -- somewhat along the lines of Tomi Ungerer.
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ARCHITECTURE
La Habana is probably one of the world's three richest architectural gems. Like Prague, it has never been touched by war, and its periods of ascendancy were mostly in the 1600's and late 1800's. As a result, there are a lot of colonial buildings as well as art nouveau, and the money was never there to redevelop so nothing was torn down.
Visually, there is much in common with Macao, which similarly has Iberian architecture and saw its heyday at the early part of the colonial era and the late 1800's, with little upkeep since WWII.
Only in the past three years has work begun to revitalise the old core of the city. Most of the money comes from outside sources (Europe and Japan in particular). A small section has been cleaned up and refurbished, while the remainder of the old town requires much imagination.
The national capitol is a replica of the US capitol; only it is larger. There are almost no guards, but since very little of government is carried out there it is more of a museum these days.
Most intriguing is the scale model of the city, which is not mentioned in any travel guides. It requires a special permit, and we also were treated to a three-hour lecture by its designer. There is no other model like it in the entire world! Every building, tree, street, etc. is painstakingly recreated in detail, and land contours were built up along with ocean contours. This model is used as an aid in city planning, so that the results of a planned change can be readily visualised before some damaging development has already moved forward.
Still, the maintainer of the model must always fight for his cause, and there is no guarantee that the top-down government will always be sympathetic to his viewpoint. Cuba suffers little from Soviet-area apartment blocks, but there is one outside the city centre that is currently being "improved" with tree plantings and parks. More recent developments have considered quality of life issues as being more important than housing capacity, and unlike places like Russia where winter poses life-threatening consequences, Cuba has all the time it needs to relieve housing issues.
All of the buildings in the scale model are made using recycled wood from cigar boxes! When new buildings are designed, a scale model must first be built so it can be placed on the city model for evaluation. The scale model is also used as an aid in assessing preservation status: as old buildings are cleaned up and refurbished, so are their models! Colour coding is used to quickly identify the era that the building/neighbourhood is from.
The national botanical garden similarly has a scale model at its headquarters. Pretty impressive, since it's the largest botanical garden in the entire world!
The only other city we visited was Trinidad, as flights to Santiago had doubled in price since the Cuba trip was first planned. Trinidad is in terrible shape and has seen almost no development in several hundred years. It is now a UNESCO site and is slowly being refurbished. Most of the money and expertise is from Rhone-Poulenc (France), who is also responsible for the reconstruction of Le Pavillon Hien Lam Cac in Hue, Viet Nam.
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AUTOMOBILES
There are many proud owners of vintage American cars from the 30's through the 60's, but these are not quite as dominant as one would expect. Perhaps a few years ago that was the case. There are also quite a few Lada's and Russian trucks as well. But there is a wide mix of new and old: surprisingly many cars from South Korea (in view of the animosity between the capitalist south and the communist north, I would not expect them to be doing business with the Cubans!). This is more in line with what I saw in Warsaw and Prague a few years ago.
"Art Cars" occasionally are found; especially VW's that have been affectionately turned into storyboards for Alice in Wonderland or some hippie dreamland.
Broken down cars are littered throughout the streets. Almost every Cuban has to be their own mechanic, and they are quite inventive in coming up with substitutes for the spare parts that they cannot get from the U.S. But it is quite clear that if they had more money they would soon toss their vintage cars for modern ones. And certainly selling them is no problem, as the Germans are buying them up by the hundreds, as antiques.
The average Cuban probably spends roughly half of their "free time" working on their car!
There is very little traffic. Due to the "special period", there are only 500 buses in La Habana (vs. 2000 earlier), as there is not enough fuel. Many buses are the "camel" style, with the inverted hump in the middle and a semi tractor up front pulling the cabin! The average work commute takes two hours due to the bus shortage, and as people get money more and more are buying cars.
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FLORA
Visually, Cuba most resembles Belize. It is a tropical country; though it is very mild in the winter due to constant island breezes (I even needed a jacket several days!). Most of the farms (other than for the huge tobacco and sugar plantations) grow bananas, coconut, papaya; the usual suspects -- not many vegetables. It's a rich red clay soil, and the island is also very mountainous.
One of the more popular shade trees is the buhinia tree, which produces red-violet orchid-like flowers. It actually is from Asia originally, and was brought over by the Spanish by way of Hungary.
Coniferous trees predominate in the mountains. Our trip was far too urban-centric in general for me to get much exposure to what the flora of Cuba is like, except for our visits to the national botanical gardens.
The national botanical garden outside La Habana is the largest in the world. We barely scratched the surface on a half-day visit. You have to get a permit to visit, from high-ranking officials (as with almost everything else), and some people petition for a weekend camping trip so they can take in the entire garden.
The Japanese garden is particularly impressive, along with the row of five connected "greenhouses". These are made of dark wooden beams with high pitch (three floors high at the centre), and don't use traditional greenhouse glass. There I saw the world's smallest bird (the Bee Hummingbird) nesting atop a cactus, and a white frog on a white cactus. The fern and orchid collections are particularly impressive.
The botanical gardens were founded in 1984 and employ 350 full-time workers! The showpiece is the palm collection, of which they have over 200 varieties. They use home grown software for registration of the plants, called "SISPLANT" in Borland C++ for Windows, using DBASE III, FoxBase and FoxPro as the databases.
Afterwards we drove to the edge of Pinar del Rio province (skipping the famous Vinales pine valley wine region as it's a long turnaround drive for just a couple of camera shots and not much else), for Las Terrazas. This is a planned community (quite recent) a la the Arctopia project near Sedona AZ. It is socially, ecologically and architecturally planned. The tourist facilities are far away from where the people live, to protect them from the impact of people visiting the national biosphere park that surrounds the community. The inhabitants are of French Creole stock intermixed with Carib Indians indigenous to the island, and had been living quite primitively.
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FAUNA
Cubans LOVE animals and treat their dogs EXTREMELY well (as a result their pets have great dispositions), and will almost cause wrecks in order to avoid even running over the smallest creature.
So, it is no surprise that there are many nature preserves on the island, and that "bush meat" is illegal.
While the bus drove through a mangrove swamp, I saw a canine of some sort, but the only one listed in my wildlife guide is some sort of grey fox. Most of the wildlife that I saw was avian, though.
I spotted the world's smallest frog (indigenous to the Bay of Pigs), but didn't get a picture in time. I was able to identify it later from a book. They are quite rare. It's about 1/2" long.
Many people went snorkeling at Playa Giron (near Bay of Pigs), but I felt too full from a late lunch so walked along the edges of the grotto instead. I was able to see plenty, and there were many beautiful coral fish (and coral) visible near the water surface. Some of the fish were as large as a human head! All were quite colourful. I was glad I hadn't gone in or taken my shoes off, as everyone else itched for days (chiggers?).
I walked along the sound that separates the Ancun spit from Trinidad towards dusk, and saw several flocks of ibises, as well as a few kingfishers (brown body, white head, dark grey ring around the neck), and of course herons and egrets. Near the Bay of Pigs we had gone birding in a marsh area and saw lots of interesting and colourful shorebirds and ducks, as well as eagles, hawks, vultures and ospreys.
We also visited a caiman crocodile farm near the town of Australia. They are very aggressive and have to be fenced in (unlike alligators).
My favourite missed photo op of the trip (the bus was going too fast) is an abandoned volleyball court just outside of La Habana, which was filled with cows. The kicker is that they were facing each other across the net!
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FOOD
Quite simply, Cuban food is awful! The vegetables (the few that are available on the island) are cooked for hours English-style. As a vegetarian, I can't comment on the meat, but since the government controls all the restaurants they all serve the same dishes, and there's just three choices.
Fortunately for me, the trip leader was also a vegetarian, so he was able to cut through the red tape and get the chefs to vary from the government-dictated menu to provide me with a balanced meal.
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AGRICULTURE
The crops have been mentioned elsewhere. One of the unexpected things we learned though is that La Habana city limits (which extend well past the urban core) contains 350,000 urban gardens which produce 1 million tonnes of food each year; enough to feed half the population of the city!
Recently there has been a move towards sustainable agriculture, due to the embargo. There are many experimental organic farms in the city, and we visited one. The primary source of fertiliser is bat dung gathered from caves at the edge of the city along the ocean drive. Bat dung is one of the most nutrient-rich organics around.
The garden we visited was small and run by an NGO (although the government still exerts much control even on NGO type activity). Because this was "off-agenda" and spontaneous, our bus driver had to fill out over ten pages of paperwork! This to me said more than anything our leaders can say about whether Castro's socialist vision "works" or not!