When we arrived in the Havana airport, I was seriously interviewed twice. They pulled Peep and I aside, mumbling, "Quien es de los Estados?" So that's what it must be like when foreigners get hassled by US immigration. It's scary.
Into the taxi, down the road surrounded by palm trees and flowers and blue sky... ready to see historic habana, try some cigars and mojitos... and then... the Welcome to Cuba billboards:
I had never seen anything like that before. I am used to hearing how the world hates Bush, but this kind of shook me. I felt unsafe. But the taxi driver continued driving and eventually talked cheerfully about the sites we were driving by, as if unperturbed that he was harboring his worst imperialistic enemy. The hotel let me in, gave me a place to sleep. We walked around and a restaurant let me in and cheerfully gave me a meal. The first days, I felt like Hansel and Gretel in the witches house: the signs were everywhere that this place was out to get me, but they were so nice and kept taking care of me.
I was helped a lot because I was traveling with Peep. He grew up in the Soviet Union and had real experience to share with me about regime propaganda. He assured me that even though the signs are everywhere, it doesn't necessarily mean that the people feel that way. He said everyone knows they are being told lies. And even the ones that are thoroughly "brainwashed" would not hate you: they would feel sorry for you that you had to live under those oppressive terrorists (the American government).
Apparently, Venezuela is also part of the Communist Boy's Club.So shaken, but determined, I continued to explore Havana. This is what I learned and saw:
Havana is breathtakingly, awesomely gorgeous. It compares to the grandest cities in Europe: there is nothing else like it (that I have seen) in Latin America, nor in the United States. All of this grandeur, of course, was built by the Spanish, not the communists. But as if a metaphor for the communist ideology, the carved marble mansions are now cracking slums inhabited by poor Cubans: no rich people here - everyone is equally poor as it should be.
So I continued to oscillate between two Cuban experiences: one of the old, romantic Cuba of Ernest Hemingway, wide-brimmed hats, the finest cigars and music; and the new, concrete block military communist place that said I was evil.
Tourists exist in a Parallel Universe.
There is a separate currency for tourists (CUC). Restaurants, hotels, nice stores only accept this currency. Foreigners can come eat steak and lobster (inexpertly cooked), watch CNN and use the internet (in the most expensive hotels), and pay very high prices for everything. Cubans are not allowed to use the internet, have only4 channels on their TV (as one Cuban described to us: "Fidel 1, Fidel 2, Fidel 3 and Fidel 4". Even if they save their money to stay at the $200 a night hotel just to access the world for a day, they will be asked for their passports first and then turned away.
They are not allowed to eat beef. Cuban farmers grow Cuban cows on Cuban soil and only the foreigners are allowed to eat it. Even if the Cuban can afford to buy it, if a policeman catches him, it's 5 years in prison. When I heard this, I thought, "Where is the communist sentiment? This sounds like Feudalism."
There are special airlines, bus lines and rent a car companies that are only for tourists. They are expensive and all require passports. Cubans are not allowed to leave their district without special documents. Essentially, they have to apply for a visa to go to the beach that's an hour away.
Us below the tree where the document was signed that gave Cuba to the communists. It is an old and beautiful tree.It was weird, walking around in the happening old downtown with great music, drinks, restaurants, everything - but its not the real Cuba. The Cubans are standing around: some employed wearing black ties, some trying to sell illegal cigars, some at the doorway of the restaurants they're not allowed to enter, swaying their hips to the music. It's like if the non-resident line in the US immigration emptied out into Disneyland and said "Welcome to the United States"
Peep at the Museum of the Revolution. A museum about the glory of the revolutionaries and the martyrs who triumph in spite of the atrocities of imperialism.Cigars are Expensive and treacherous
Of course, when in Cuba, we had to try and buy them. We took a cool tour of the Paragas Cigar factory and watched the leaves be processed and dried and then hand rolled. The most expensive cigar available is the Cohiba Esplendida. One costs around $20, which is about equal to one month's salary of the worker who makes 1200 of them a day. It seems one of the major industries in Havana in the black market cigar trade. Workers are allowed to keep 2 cigars a day (and whatever else they manage to slip into their pockets), and then they have their "brothers" and "relatives" who work as hotel security guards or waiters sell them to tourists. Most of the underground market though, are not the "back door" cigars, but rather whatever they can wrap up and package to look like cigars.
We knew to expect to be hassled to buy these, but we were surprised at their skill. "Hi, where are you from? Estonia! Nooohhh! I am going there next month to play music! Will you come see me play tonight? I have been married 11 years and today is my anniversary: I love my family!... I would like to give you free tickets. It's at the Buena Vista Social Club. Come in (to this shady non-descript bar) and I'll write you a VIP pass. 20 minutes of charming conversation, a few salsa dances, and three 5$ mojitos later, we were being offered the "best price" of $200 on a box of 25 Esplendidos because he liked us so much. When I looked over and saw another guy bringing in 2 white people and writing them a "VIP pass", I figured it was time to get out of there and hope the drink wasn't poisoned.
Apparently if you buy from someone with accountability (e.g. you know the name, where they work, where they live), you will probably buy the real thing. This is because selling fake cigars to tourists will get you 15 years in prison. So my boyfriend, the overnight cigar connoisseur, after spending some dough on the real thing, took a chance with a box of Esplendidas from a security guard at the Plaza hotel for $50. We smoked one. It was pretty good.
Cuba is a treasure beneath dust
The big Sports Center. Fidel puts his face on everything good and says it is all the fruits of revolution. There is another sign on this building that says "Beijing! We can do it!" Maybe this will encourage olympic athletes to work in place of money and individual glory.It combines the best of the Caribbean with the best of Europe. Like in most socialist countries, the literacy rate is almost 100%. The climate is excellent; the beaches are breathtaking; the architecture is awesome; the Cuban people are proactive (for Latin America), friendly, dignified and diverse.
As soon as they kick off the dust, the foreign investment will pour in and it will be one of the most fantastic nations on the planet.
It will not be easy to be friends...
Being here really opened my eyes about US foreign policy. I've lived in the Middle East and all over Asia and Europe and what I always see is that if the US were less ignorant and disrespectful of other nations and cultures, most of our problems and enemies would subside. We are an arrogant clumsy elephant in a world of varied, ancient and precious porcelain statues. But with Cuba, it's different. It is especially important now because we are about to choose the next president and Cuba also is getting a new president. (By the way, Raul Castro will not be much of a change. He has been alongside Fidel since the very beginning, in charge of the army and receiving Communist Glory. Freedom will have to wait.)
The thing is, if the US extends friendly diplomacy of any kind to this government, they will take the right photographs and twist it around and tell their people that the Imperialism is finally backing down to the power of the Revolutionaries. And how will they know the difference? No internet, TV, satellites... Then it will be harder for change to happen.
There is a challenge for the future among Cubans and Americans of my generation. We will live to see freedom in Cuba, and when that happens, we will have to put pride down and have a dialogue with lots of international exchange (tourism, study abroad, AIESEC). Because Cubans are made to believe that the USA is as backwards and twisted and wrong as we are made to believe that Cuba is. The gap between these two nations is way way bigger than the gap between the USA and any Middle Eastern country.
Us with Our Cuban friends: two University students who showed us around and gave us insights into the Cuba beyond the tourist circuits. They said, "Take our picture that way we can finally travel the world," and then laughed.
