4.14.10

A long post about SCUBA Diving.

Yesterday was Katie and my first excursion to Playa Giron to go diving and it was INCREDIBLE. I had been impressed with the corals just on the other side of the wall surrounding Havana city, but the sceneries below the waves at Punto Perdiz and by Cuevo de Los Peces were mind-blowing.
Katie and I got up early and drove with Eduardo (our chofe) to CIM where we met our diving instructors. We packed up the van full of air and wetsuits and set off...only to get a completely flat tire thirty minutes away. After searching for a tire-fixer (a ponchero) we replaced it with a spare but returned to the city to secure another spare. Admittedly, I was impatient to be back on the road; we had been hoping to fit two dives into the day and we seemed to be wasting much of the morning. It was past nine by the time we truly left the city. But, as promised, Eduardo drove quickly and we arrived just before lunch time. When we got off the main road we began to notice more and more large crabs by the road. A kilometer later, it seemed to get pretty bad. Eduardo had to jerk the van out of the way of the crustaceans. We tried honking at them to get them out of the way, but soon determined crabs have a poor sense of hearing. There were several casualties. Katie had driven in the region the week before and told us how it had been much worse for her, she had taken many crab lives and felt very bad about it. On the bright side, we didn’t seem to make a dent in their population numbers. When we arrived at our dive site we were told to watch out for the crabs- ‘what crabs?’ I joked. They crawled around and over our stuff, waving at us in a mean warning. I could not have been more excited to leave them behind and see the creatures in the inviting blue water beyond them.
We suited up, jumped in and swam out a bit. It was difficult to wait. The patch reefs came all the way to the rocky shoreline. Close to shore we saw beautiful parrot fish males and were surrounded by sturgeon fish (I think!). Finally, we were ready to dive. I have had some problems with equalizing my ears so we agreed to take an especially slow ascent but still planned to go down about 20 meters. Down we went, I followed our instructor Coco, and Katie and Orlando weren’t far behind us. We swam through some of the mixed -reef patches towards the terrace edge. It was spectacular! Abruptly the plate seemed to drop away to deeper than I could see. Open Ocean was before us, and a colorful forest behind us. We swam along the edge. It is impossible to take it all in. it is such a strange situation. Normally I hate heights, but here, there is no falling. You float on one plane that is controllable - in a way it is like flying. But if you look up to the surface you might have the same sensation. We dove down to 22 meters and from there the surface is a far away ripple of light. It is best to look forward however (isn’t that a truism for all of life…).
Coco got my attention and pointed ahead. There was a large fish (will look up English name when there is internet). It could have been three feet long (though evidently everything looks bigger underwater). It is a species that swims into the reef to be cleaned of parasites by other fish that live there. And just as cool, beyond the fish there was a submerged ship that we swam right up to. It is hard to know if the boat was used in the Bay of Pigs invasion (because some of those boats did sink) or if was placed there as a diving attraction. It felt straight out of a movie though, and I kept one eye open for a treasure chest just in case.
We surfaced to find another flat tire (the other side of the van) so we hooked up an extra air tank and temporarily filled the flat.
In the middle of our late lunch we joked around (mostly about very serious things like nitrogen asphyxiation giving the feeling of drunkenness) and talked about the plan for the next dive. In the middle of the lunch we spotted a Tocororo! The national bird of Cuba! I saw it first and felt very proud when a passing tour guide made a grand motion of pointing it out to her tour, pretending to be the original spotter.
After lunch we went to a different diving spot. Eduardo, who dove with us the first time, left to repair the leaky tire. As unbelievable as the first dive was, the second location was arguably better. I had a moment of unease when the clouds passed overhead, creating a giant shadow and sudden darkening in the water. I thought it might be something wrong with my vision… but in a few seconds the sun reappeared and I realized it was quite a natural thing. There was a shipwreck at this site as well. We swam over and I stood on top of the side railing. I was really surprised by what I didn’t see: there weren’t many anemones, I saw NO sea stars, and very few plain colored fish. We did see a sea cucumber, but it was not like the one in the touch tank in the children’s museum at home, no, this one was roughly a foot long. It felt pretty much the same.
The one creature I don’t like sharing the water with is the jellyfish. For some reason, perhaps because I have no experience distinguishing stinging jellies with non-stinging ones, jellyfish scare me a bit. We saw a few small ones but no stinging types. When you know they can’t sting and you look at them more closely, they are almost like snowflakes in intricacy. One minute I was examining the workings of the jellyfish that floated suspended above a beautiful parrotfish that explored some colorful coral below, and the next, I heard Coco signaling for our attention. I turned to see (to my astonishment) a sea turtle swimming not far off. We swam in the same direction as the turtle for a little while until Coco signaled that we were approaching or time limit. Time to ascend. ‘I’m not sure I believe in reincarnation’, I thought, as I followed Coco up a short distance to the sky and sand and sea breeze, ‘but if it does work that way, I don’t want to be a crab, but I certainly wouldn’t mind being a fish’.
We got out and waited for Eduardo to return with the van and all of our stuff. Katie and I went to the bathroom of our luncheon spot to change. Crabs had crawled into the stall. This, my friends, is how you get crabs from public toilets. It seemed, in fact, that crabs had pretty much taken over the town.
We walked back to the van and piled in. The crab-in-the-road situation had worsened. There was no longer the possibility of swerving out of the way. We let a larger bus pass us and it whipped by, scattering crabs and splattering crabs. It was really pretty gross; Crabs are scavengers that eat dead meat. We created a mass burial and an all-you-can-eat-buffet all at once. Eduardo believed the second flat tire was from hitting the crabs so when the bus in front of us turned to drive a different direction we had to be innovative. Eduardo asked Katie to drive and he and Orlando and Coco hopped out of the car and started walking down the traffic lane, kicking, poking and scaring off the crabs. At some points it was hilarious: there was a crab smack dab in Katie’s path. It was half squished already and Coco approached it with a staff-like-stick and brought it down upon the crab. ‘poor-thing was suffering’ he said. ‘Crunch crunch’, went the van over the dead shells. Eduardo saved one crab by kicking it like a football. We made it through the worst of the crabs and hopped back into the van. Every few kilometers we would debate whether we should get out again, and also joked about how the crabs wanted revenge for their lost relations. They got it in the end. A few bouncy minutes later we were stuck with yet another flat tire. We drove to the Panchero and had the tire repaired. ‘Lots of people coming in today’ he said, ‘Lots of crabs’. Lo and behold- two crab claw fragments were retrieved from our tire. We didn’t get to the hometel until 930 or so; we hadn’t been expecting so much extra-species traffic.

4/12/10

Sunday Veronika and I went to the bus station to go downtown again- this time with more of a plan, and more of a back up plan. On the one hand, we want to take advantage of downtown Havana more while we are still here, but on the other hand, we find ourselves more and more occupied with classes, readings, and visits. Such is life, is it not? It is strange, but I find myself wishing we had a more extensive bus system in Portland and Boston. In Cuba, the bus costs about two cents per person- it is often packed(!) and unpleasantly stifling, but it is also always an adventure. Sometimes you see some really sweet, or really funny, or really interesting things on the bus. Of course, frequently, all you see is someone’s elbow dangerously close to knocking you in the face at the next abrupt stop. Anyway we arrived downtown and Veronika led me to this artist’s gallery. It was really cool. The buildings were covered with his colorful murals. Weird sculptures and benches were in the street and funny or bizarre sayings were painted all around. Evidently he has some gallery spaces in the United States. The artist updates the area from time to time. I really enjoyed it.
My half of our adventure was a little less successful. There is a café/ movie house called Fresa y Chocolate, which was featured in the eponymous classic Cuban film. I had heard it was a hangout for an artsy movie buff crowd so we walked there on the way home for some coffee. The place was empty. Inside they had advertisements for Havana club rum and an empty room with chairs that they featured in the movie. There were posters of movie scenes on the walls too, but it was certainly not a happening place. We walked on past the city cemetery (which was closed) and headed home. We did stumble across a bookstore/café on the way however. It seems like a good place to bring some reading to in the future.

Quick Recap of 4/5-4/9

Monday was pretty standard, and Tuesday I went diving with Coco. Katie was busy so we went alone and were under for about an hour, which is pretty long. Wednesday was not spectacular. At some point in the week, Veronika and I made a list of things we want to do before we leave Cuba. Surprisingly to me, the list is not very long. If I were to spend more time here, I would want to be more integrated into real Cuban life, and I would also like to travel around the island more. Many of the things on our list are activities to do downtown, some are larger than others. On thrusday Veronika and I went downtown to explore. We waited in line at Coppelias (the ice cream place) for half and hour before we were warned that they were going to close (it was likely they would close before we even got in, the line wasn’t moving at all). Downtown was a bust. We couldn’t find anywhere to go that wasn’t swarming with tourists and expensive. We walked home realizing that when we go out exploring like that, we need a backup plan for our backup plan. On Friday we went to a meeting at the Center for Studies of the Americas to learn about the recent developments in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The lecturers Spanish was extremely hard to understand because no matter how slowly he spoke, each word kind of blended in with the next.

On Saturday Veronika, Austin (a guy from Alabama) and I went downtown for the concert for the country (concierto para la patria). Compared to the Calle 13 concert, there were very few people there. The music was more traditional and it was generally an older croud. It was really pleasant though, we sat on the malecon (check!- off my list) and listened as the sea breeze cooled us and splattered us with a seasoning of salt. Downtown one always sees ladies carrying cones of paper filled with peanuts. None of us were really in the mood, but to buy ‘Maní’ was on our list, so we purchased them (for five cents) and tried this Cuban classic (check).

4/12/10

So it may seem like I haven’t updated the blog for the entire last week-It is april 12th and all is exactly as it seems; I haven’t updated in forever. Instead of going back to try and remember the day to day- I’m going omit unimportant events and details and try to focus on the interesting stuff from the last week.

I would like to give April Fool’s Day justice however and describe it independently of the last week. SO, if you’re interested to know how I’m feeling as I approach the t-3 week mark of my trip skip the following post for the next one. If you have interest in the Sierra Maestra, Mountain Guerilla camps, or trail riding on horseback, you’re in luck! Keep reading.
April 1st, 2010
Veronika and I had put my backpack on our hotel porch overnight to let the cockroach leave to bother someone else- and so I awoke from a much improved sleep early in the morning and we filed off into the dining room for complementary breakfast. We know what to ask for now, (I haven’t gotten sick here since the first month really) so we get some natural juice, eggs, coffee, bread and butter. It was really quite a feast. More recently, we’ve begun to wonder what it is like to have a waitstaff position for a job here in Cuba. There is no tipping to speak of, or very little. And as I may have said before, there is no job mobility, so if there is a waitstaff, they will remain a waitstaff for YEARS. Now, I love waitressing at the diner, but I can’t imagine not being able to take time off, not being able to be promoted, not being able to move around a little in any career I’d be interested in. However, I acknowledge that this mobility is a privilege I have in my society and not something necessary for happiness or health in life. We have also had a few discussions about the stereotypical American. Here is what we concluded- the (bad) stereotypical American consumes a lot, talks loudly, sweats a lot, and chews gum constantly. As with all stereotypes, sometimes they are true. We ordered refills on the coffee from our waitress who scowled at us and walked away. We thought it a bit cold, until she clarified when she returned with the pitcher: ‘you know’ she said, ‘you girls are drinking four cups of coffee each right now, we don’t normally fill these cups more than half-way’. Cuban coffee is often prepared as a strong brewed espresso cup-size dose, with a Starbucks latte sized dose of sugar- but I felt like I deserved some coffee to keep me awake after staying up late hours to the chirping cockroach the night before. Oh well, sometimes one can’t help but fulfill the stereotypes.
The group drove to the Sierra Maestra mountain range. Most of the time we had to turn off the air in the van to have the power to muster the steep climbs. We arrived and were assigned a guide for the hike to the comandancia, the guerilla camps where armed rebels stayed and organized. In general I don’t like having a guide. I think it is unfortunate that we must travel with the havanatur company on our trips because there is always a narrating guide attached with the program- they don’t know how much we know, our interests, and they don’t seem to understand that we are not tourists but students. The reason I am so touchy on the tourist vs. student distinction is because of the rigid dichotomy between local and visitor life here in Cuba. In any case, we left Professor McKelvey at the base lunch spot and took a taxi a good ways up one of the mountains. Together we began to climb the comandancia trail. It was steep! I can’t imagine hiking up the trail to the comandancia with supplies, food, and radio transmitting materials as the Guerrillas did back in the day. We walked through some of the constructs and I tried to picture myself there during the revolution. I am pretty surprised that Batista never found it- I guess there were more trees back then, and fewer well-groomed tourist trails. We talked with our trail guide- he liked having us because we ‘walked quickly’ (I think he was having a hard time keeping up!). Veronika and Jenn decided to wait at one of the buildings (it may have been the generator building?) while Katie and I climbed to the summit. It was pretty grueling. Native oranges had fallen all over the path, but they very acidic and the smell was a little nauseating. On the way up we passed the radio center of Radio Rebelde and also saw some of the tiny hummingbirds from the region (‘zumzumitos’). The view was worth it though, as was the satisfaction only achievable by making it to the top of a mountain.
All of us stopped to look at Fidel’s house, which was pretty cool, though not surprisingly, simple. Celia Sanchez is said to have stayed there too, though this must be a mistake, said our guide, since there was only one bed. We were sitting to rest by his house (partly because a large group of German tourists was before us and we wished them to gain some distance on us before we continued) when we began to talk about relationships. Our guide- he shall remain nameless (I honestly don’t remember his name…) openly admitted to cheating on his wife 3 times. I am astonished by the blatancy about infidelity here. This is not the first man to speak openly of the habit and normality of cheating. It is a bit off-putting.
When we continued walking again, I glimpsed from the corner of my eye a dash of red and blue. My first Tocororo spotting: the national bird of Cuba. Upon return and after lunch, we were quite pleasantly surprised with horses! He took an awesome trail ride across mini-streams and through the woods a bit before returning, happy and tired, to the hotel.
The next day we drove to Holguin the city where the beer factory is located. We have a running joke now because the Cristal beer can says, with questions, email bucanero.com. We pretend that it is the same as saying, with any complaints about your coca-cola, email pepsi… of course it is very different because the companies are nationalized and owned by the same body… government. In any case, there is not much to do in Holguin. We explored some cool plazas and found a private paladar to eat in that we enjoyed immensely. That was pretty much our day, we drove to the airport late that night to fly back to Havana by midnight.

4/12/10

On tv today there was a question: what hip hop artist recently performed in Havana with an audience of 500 thousand. Wow. I guess there were 500 thousand people at the Calle 13 concert.

4/12/10 just watched the BBC world news- they had a short story about Cuba privatizing hair salons. Evidently the economy is stagnant, and the privatization is beginning, first in some small private farmlands, and now hair salons. Even the communist china has privatized businesses. Very interesting.


** later note after discussion in class-
This is not the first privatization to occur in Cuba, nor, likely, will it be the last. BUT it should not be suggested that a 'series of privatization' is beginning. Cuba is not undergoing dramatic reformations from nationalized to 'private enterprised'.

12 Abril 2010

4/12/10- just watched the BBC world news- they had a short story about Cuba privatizing hair salons. Evidently the economy is stagnant, and the privatization is beginning, first in some small private farmlands, and now hair salons. Even the communist china has privatized businesses. Very interesting.

April 12th

So it may seem like I haven’t updated the blog for the entire last week-It is april 12th and all is exactly as it seems; I haven’t updated in forever. Instead of going back to try and remember the day to day- I’m going omit unimportant events and details and try to focus on the interesting stuff from the last week.

I would like to give April Fool’s Day justice however and describe it independently of the last week. SO, if you’re interested to know how I’m feeling as I approach the t-3 week mark of my trip skip the following post for the next one. If you have interest in the Sierra Maestra, Mountain Guerilla camps, or trail riding on horseback, you’re in luck! Keep reading.
April 1st, 2010
Veronika and I had put my backpack on our hotel porch overnight to let the cockroach leave to bother someone else- and so I awoke from a much improved sleep early in the morning and we filed off into the dining room for complementary breakfast. We know what to ask for now, (I haven’t gotten sick here since the first month really) so we get some natural juice, eggs, coffee, bread and butter. It was really quite a feast. More recently, we’ve begun to wonder what it is like to have a waitstaff position for a job here in Cuba. There is no tipping to speak of, or very little. And as I may have said before, there is no job mobility, so if there is a waitstaff, they will remain a waitstaff for YEARS. Now, I love waitressing at the diner, but I can’t imagine not being able to take time off, not being able to be promoted, not being able to move around a little in any career I’d be interested in. However, I acknowledge that this mobility is a privilege I have in my society and not something necessary for happiness or health in life. We have also had a few discussions about the stereotypical American. Here is what we concluded- the (bad) stereotypical American consumes a lot, talks loudly, sweats a lot, and chews gum constantly. As with all stereotypes, sometimes they are true. We ordered refills on the coffee from our waitress who scowled at us and walked away. We thought it a bit cold, until she clarified when she returned with the pitcher: ‘you know’ she said, ‘you girls are drinking four cups of coffee each right now, we don’t normally fill these cups more than half-way’. Cuban coffee is often prepared as a strong brewed espresso cup-size dose, with a Starbucks latte sized dose of sugar- but I felt like I deserved some coffee to keep me awake after staying up late hours to the chirping cockroach the night before. Oh well, sometimes one can’t help but fulfill the stereotypes.
The group drove to the Sierra Maestra mountain range. Most of the time we had to turn off the air in the van to have the power to muster the steep climbs. We arrived and were assigned a guide for the hike to the comandancia, the guerilla camps where armed rebels stayed and organized. In general I don’t like having a guide. I think it is unfortunate that we must travel with the havanatur company on our trips because there is always a narrating guide attached with the program- they don’t know how much we know, our interests, and they don’t seem to understand that we are not tourists but students. The reason I am so touchy on the tourist vs. student distinction is because of the rigid dichotomy between local and visitor life here in Cuba. In any case, we left Professor McKelvey at the base lunch spot and took a taxi a good ways up one of the mountains. Together we began to climb the comandancia trail. It was steep! I can’t imagine hiking up the trail to the comandancia with supplies, food, and radio transmitting materials as the Guerrillas did back in the day. We walked through some of the constructs and I tried to picture myself there during the revolution. I am pretty surprised that Batista never found it- I guess there were more trees back then, and fewer well-groomed tourist trails. We talked with our trail guide- he liked having us because we ‘walked quickly’ (I think he was having a hard time keeping up!). Veronika and Jenn decided to wait at one of the buildings (it may have been the generator building?) while Katie and I climbed to the summit. It was pretty grueling. Native oranges had fallen all over the path, but they very acidic and the smell was a little nauseating. On the way up we passed the radio center of Radio Rebelde and also saw some of the tiny hummingbirds from the region (‘zumzumitos’). The view was worth it though, as was the satisfaction only achievable by making it to the top of a mountain.
All of us stopped to look at Fidel’s house, which was pretty cool, though not surprisingly, simple. Celia Sanchez is said to have stayed there too, though this must be a mistake, said our guide, since there was only one bed. We were sitting to rest by his house (partly because a large group of German tourists was before us and we wished them to gain some distance on us before we continued) when we began to talk about relationships. Our guide- he shall remain nameless (I honestly don’t remember his name…) openly admitted to cheating on his wife 3 times. I am astonished by the blatancy about infidelity here. This is not the first man to speak openly of the habit and normality of cheating. It is a bit off-putting.
When we continued walking again, I glimpsed from the corner of my eye a dash of red and blue. My first Tocororo spotting: the national bird of Cuba. Upon return and after lunch, we were quite pleasantly surprised with horses! He took an awesome trail ride across mini-streams and through the woods a bit before returning, happy and tired, to the hotel.
The next day we drove to Holguin the city where the beer factory is located. We have a running joke now because the Cristal beer can says, with questions, email bucanero.com. We pretend that it is the same as saying, with any complaints about your coca-cola, email pepsi… of course it is very different because the companies are nationalized and owned by the same body… government. In any case, there is not much to do in Holguin. We explored some cool plazas and found a private paladar to eat in that we enjoyed immensely. That was pretty much our day, we drove to the airport late that night to fly back to Havana by midnight.

31 Marzo 2010

Today the morning couldn’t come fast enough seeing as Veronika and I were clearly sharing our hotel room with a cockroach. After an early breakfast we all climbed into our monstrous tourist van and drove to a museum in Yara. After the museum, we drove to a primary school in Yara. At the school the students sang for us and presented us with Cuban history. They were so cute! All of the children seemed very disciplined and well behaved. My favorite part was when they preformed some traditional dancing to Son music. We applauded their talented skills when the song ended. They came over to us and I thought they wanted a kiss on the cheek. Then, with an iron grip upon my hand and a immediate feeling of horror I realized we were being asked to dance by the young professionals. It was fun in the end though. My 10 year old dance partner spun me around and was patient as I botched the 1,2,3 step timing. Thank god we took even just the one lesson with the FEU kids. At the end of the visit they shared some desserts with us and gave us a cake for the road.
We departed for our next museum. Normally, I find the birth houses pretty boring; usually they have the exact same things (some traditional Spanish colonial wood and tile work, an outfit worn by the person, and revolvers or swords they used depending on the epoch of their life. Today’s was a little more interesting however. Today we went to the birth house of Celia Shánchez- she is a leading woman in Cuba’s history and worked alongside Fidel for many years of the revolution.
Our last stop today was the Museo desembarco del Granma- basically the location where the Granma ship first disembarked which is now commemorated by a small museum. We took a relaxing casual stroll to the water, which took us 20 minutes and originally took 5 ½ hours because Castro and his rebels had to bushwhack through thick mangrove stands.
The museum guide ended up staying late to answer our (mostly our professor’s) questions so we decided to give him a ride home to the nearby countryside in our monster truck of a tour bus. We asked if he had any children and found out he had one young son. As he left us, we decided to give him the cake we had received from the primary school. We watched as he walked with the giant pink cake into the cluster of palm=thatched houses. A small shirtless boy approached him. We bent down to show his son the cake which elicited a joyful leap a quick hug around the knees before the two of them waved and walked towards their house with the boy carrying the cake happily. It was much more sweet than the cake would have been.

30 Marzo 2010

More museums (Birth-house of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes) and a walk around Bayamo.
Unrelatedly, I’m beginning to get very concerned about the little time I have left here- I can’t believe how quickly the last few months have passed.

29 Marzo 2010

Today we went to the house where Antonio Maceo was born and to the house where Frank Pais lived. These are two very interesting (and different) revolutionaries in Cuba’s history. Unfortunately, the Santiago heat made the traditional houses very hard to pay attention to. In the afternoon we walked down to the harbor and then back up to Santiago center for lunch. This heat makes me forget that it is March. It must have been about 90 degrees. Today is our last day in Santiago. Tomorrow, Bayamo.

28 Marzo 2010

This morning we went with the program to the cemetery where Jose Martí’s remains lay. We saw the changing of the guards of his memorial and some other noted tombs of figures from Cuba’s history. It was a really beautiful cemetery, though I’m a bit strange and find them to be very peaceful places in general (I recommend people in Boston visit the Arlington cemetery- it is a really nice arboretum). Then we traveled to the Moncada Barracks, which Fidel Castro Ruiz attacked in the event known as the 26th of July movement. I’ve really enjoyed supplementing all my class learning with trips to these museums: it helps put pictures to all the histories (even though often, I can’t look at the pictures because the violence depicted in them is extremely unsettling).
In the afternoon we drove to the church of la cobra. It contains an emblem of the patron saint of all of Cuba and many people leave offerings including Hemingway’s Pulitzer which got stolen years ago. It really reminded me of Thailand. Normally, Cubans are not very religious (as I’ve said before, the most common religious affiliation is atheism). Here, however, I saw a very superstitious and pious people. Our driver in the city even requested that we bring back some copper from the mine for him, for good health. A few years ago, a buddist monk in Thailand gave me directions to follow to ensure good health past 30, and so, with my shoes on the left side of the house and budda in my window, I did not feel appropriate as an agnostic and with my fulfilled duty to the thai monk to participate much in the offering/fortune ensuring rituals here.

Then, at 8 tonight we all met up again to go to another Committee for the Defense of the Revolution.

There are Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in every neighborhood dispersed throughout every few blocks in Cuba. They are non-profit, democratically elected committees that work to defend the revolution and fix community problems. The one we visited was working to eliminate Dengue fever from the city and also focused on donating to the national blood bank. Similar to the other CDR we visited they had a presentation planned. They sat us down in chairs gathered in the street near a table filled with fresh fruit. They proceeded to inform us about the goals and formation of CDRs in general. Then, interestingly and uncomfortably, they began ‘telling’ us about the injustice of the embargo and the damage it has done over the years to the economy and the people. One man even called us (Americans) criminals; I didn’t see him later, he must have left early. A woman defended Cuba and reinforced that it is not a terrorist nation. We sat silently and listened. It was a difficult position to be in. on the one hand, I really appreciated the neighborhood people’s sincerity with us. On the other hand, the embargo began decades before I was even born, and I don’t think they realize necessarily just how little power three students in the United States have to end the embargo if they could convince us to petition it. The president of the CDR redirected the conversation (thankfully) by addressing the crowd to say that our presence in their CDR was appreciated and that our efforts to come to Cuba are an example of the distinction between the people and the government of the United States.
After this dialogue the atmosphere lightened considerably. They wanted us to say something because we had been very quiet until that point. We turned to Veronika (the most proficient at Spanish) and she began to say that we have felt very welcomed and are learning a lot as we try to gain a more complete understanding of this country. It was funny when she faltered before the word ‘welcomed’ because the CDR members were suggesting ways to fill in the blank: ‘Like family?’ they asked. ‘yes, like family’ we agreed.
For the most part this is true. The women show us which houses are theirs so that if we are ever in the area again, EVER, we can go and find open doors to welcome us. They shared the fruit with us and then brought out some Cuban rum and coke to drink (a Cuba libre) before turning a speaker towards the street out of an open window and demanding we join them for a street dance party. It was fun. We piled back into our embarrassing tourist van and drove back to our over-comfortable hotel to sleep.

27 Marzo 2010

We arrived early in Santiago after a pleasant one-hour flight. We drove in our monstrous tourist van to the hills of San Juan and also to the scenic castle of Morros. We were exhausted from our 4 hours of sleep the night before so we napped for a little while at the hotel before we went out to Casa de La Trova, a music house of traditional Son music, for our after dinner entertainment. As we were walking back to the hotel we passed by a massive crowd of thousands of youth leaving a concert or some event. We were annoyed by the number of guys who asked us ‘where are you from’ in English and I have never in all my travels experience that number of people who would veer into our path to touch our hair or say ‘beautiful ladies’ (in English). The street was loud with hissing. We have been warned that we would receive compliments and invitations, and that we should take it lightly- “it is just a joke- a complement”. I hate that the only thing they ask us is where we are from. Normally we ignore the question. I hate it because it is a reminder of how much we stick out no matter how hard we have tried to integrate ourselves into Cuban culture and regardless of the language we are speaking. Also, as I’ve said before, I never feel physically unsafe in Cuba, but I often feel uncomfortable because the Cuban men can be very sexually aggressive. They nearly never immediately accept our rejections – either to dance, or to leave with them to other places.
The experience of male foreigners, and the experience of our male professors who told us to take the compliments lightly are very different than those of four girls walking together without a male. They have no way of seeing what we are subjected to. The Machismo has sparked conversation among the group as to whether women are or are not treated with respect here in Cuba.

26 Marzo 2010

This morning we had a very interesting visit to a media broadcasting station where we met with the production team for a daily program called Mesa Redonda (the Round Table). If there is one part of Cuban society that I have not come to appreciate, or at least understand, it is mass media. It must be understood that many Cubans cannot afford to own a television, even though cable bills would be quite subsidized I imagine. Those that do have it, have access to some Venezuelan programs, Mesa Redonda, and not much else. It is hard to say exactly because the hotels have cable and receive HBO, Showtime, ESPN and CNN in Spanish and English, just to name a few. Cuban citizens certainly do not receive all of these channels. It is simply another aspect of the tourist vs. local structural dichotomy of society here.
The producers of the program talked about its objectives and origins. It began during the Elian Gonzalez debate. Fidel Castro sponsored the program to inform the people about the discussion by bringing child specialists and other experts to talk at the round table. The idea was very popular and the program continued with varying discussion themes. But, like all the other programming on television here, it is extremely leftist, and is not meant to be a platform for debate but instead to represent the revolutionary view.
My problem with the media in Cuba is that I don’t see any opportunity for an unbiased publicized debate between experts, officials, or specialists. Of course, I don’t think that the news-system in the United States is worth much either. The national corporations are biased towards the right, or if they present both sides, they do so with restrictions from the powers above them. I believe and understand that it is impossible to have a private fund for support and (whether consciously or unconsciously) to NOT be working to present the story for those supporters.
Honestly, I’ve come away from this visit with a fair deal of pessimism about mass media in general. I think it is an important branch of cultural society that needs some major repair and transformation.
Directly from the visit Veronika, Jenn, Katie, and I went to the stadium for another Industriales game. They are in the equivalent of the ‘world series’ now, so the crowds were fuller and more enthused. We were more prepared too- decked out in blue and white and even sporting some Industriales gear. Go home-team! (The score was something like 12 to 9, a really good and exciting game).
In the evening Veronika and I met an Italian classmate from our Spanish class. We met him in Old Havana for dinner at a Portuguese ( I think!? ) owned brewery in the main square. It is one of the few, if not the only, privately owned business in Havana, and, dare I say, Cuba. To be truthful, I am not sure how it coexists and functions within the city. I’d like to look it up online if I can find some Internet soon.













Feelings: Baseball in the stadium, dinner in the plaza: it is good to be outside. Tomorrow we leave by plane for Santiago de Cuba (as far away from Havana as possible) at 430am so I’m a bit nervous (and already tired) for the journey.

25 Marzo 2010

US/Cuban relations class, History of Cuba class, a quick nap and then perhaps the Ballet tonight?

We did indeed go the National Cuban ballet, which I really enjoyed. The performance was a selection of pieces directed by Alicia Alonso before her death. My favorite thing about the Cuban Ballet is that any Cuban can attend. In the United States, the Ballet is considered a high art form, and really only a ‘sophisticated’ minority of the population attends performances of the professional companies. Ballets in Boston are about 20 dollars for a ticket with a student discount. Here we paid fifty cents. Cuban nationals pay even less, though of course, this is all on a relative scale.

24 Marzo 2010- The Motorcycle Photo-Diaries.

Lucky blog followers! Today consisted of classes and reading so I’ve decided to make a long overdue picture entry. (Of course, I also haven’t gotten Internet in forever, so who knows if you’ll ever receive this gift of a day free of poor writing).

Here is a collection of photographs of the Motorcycle one sees here in Cuba.

March 22-23 Classes and Concerts

22 Marzo 2010
Monday was full of class and reading. This is quite a heavy workweek with long hours of classes and longer readings.
23 Marzo 2010
Today we had the morning off and I did some reading, and then went to the vegetable market with Katie. It looks like Guavas are coming into season. Some species of mangos were new too. We walked back to the hometel with four bags full of fresh fruit and vegetables for $ 3.50. I am now trying to get all of my work done early (slim chance) because this afternoon I have a marine biology tutorial right before an outdoor concert by Calle 13 that I expect to be packed. One friend in FEU told us there were likely to be tens of thousands of Cubans there. This may be an exaggeration, or perhaps will be true. We’ll see.
Also, evidently, there was an earthquake in Santiago de Cuba. We’re going there for a week starting this Saturday (the 27th) but there doesn’t seem to have been much damage or any death as a result and there have been no repercussions on our part of the island.

Calle 13 was awesome. I expect that there were 10,000 people there. Katie thought it was more like a quarter of a million. The band performed a mix of trova, rap and reggaeton and the entire crowd got really into it. It was also highly politicized: Calle 13’s songs demand “Puerto Rico Libre” (like Cuba Libre) and talk about Puerto Rico as a colony of the US. We just walked back to the hometel (it took more than an hour) and now its back to the books.

21 March 2010

Wow. March 21st already? Is anyone else in shock because of how quickly time is passing? Today was a relaxed reading day until the evening when I took a maquina into town to meet Katie and some friends from FEU by the Capitolio building. About halfway through the ride we stopped to pick up another passenger. He stepped in with a HUGE cake which read ‘Happy Birthday Josefín’ in Spanish. It was covered in frosting roses and was very pink. My guess is that it is for a quinceañera, a 15th birthday party. Quinceañera are celebrated seriously here. The girls wear really detailed gowns of pink or pastel colors and ride on the back of the old convertible cars through the town accompanied by the loud honking from the driver. They also take pictures in the squares or by the most iconic sights. I have never been in a place where they were such a big event, and it is a lot of fun to see them and be reminded of them.
I got there a little early and was reading Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival on the steps. A tourist walked by (probably Canadian, or perhaps American and commented: “good book, isn’t it?” It is and I would recommend it to all.
Anyway, I met up with my friends and we went to the national theater, a gorgeous antiquated theater, home of the National Ballet (and I think the opera as well, though I’m not sure). These places didn’t open their doors to Cubans until recently, which is a little hard to swallow. Now Cuban’s pay a small fraction of the 20 dollars the tourists pay. The show we saw was folkloric dance. The African influences were very strong in the music and movement. It was entertaining and a needed break from the reading which I returned to at the hometel.

20 Marzo 2010

Knowing there is soon to be another cold front moving through, Katie and I took our reading to the western beaches yesterday. Nice. Breezy. Sandy.
On the bus back I was charmed by other passengers who could not help but sing along to the music the driver was playing on the radio. I need to learn the Cuban classics.

19 Marzo 2010

On march 19th in the morning we drove to the Ministry of Agriculture. Agriculture, like all other large scale ‘projects’- or systems in Cuba, was nationalized after the triumph of the revolution in 1959. This implies a couple of things.
1. There are no large land owners or US companies with massive plots like the United Fruit Co. etc. One can only imagine the rage of these companies when they were kicked out of the country
2. The crops that farmers grow, and the cattle they raise, all of their agricultural products belong to the state.
There are exceptions. Much of the land was redistributed by breaking it in to much smaller plots and giving it to already farming individuals or campesinos, but some was distributed to a collection of farmers for cooperatives- and the cooperatives have ownership that is more similar to private ownership. After our meeting at the Ministry we drove to see one such cooperative (and because of the general idea of cooperatives and my time in Guatemala, I fell in love in and didn’t want to leave- but that is a different story).
I’ve written before about the rumor (joke??) that it is worse to kill a cow than another human here. Again, I’m not sure that is true. I can’t imagine working my whole life to raise cattle and then giving them to the government for national distribution, when it is likely as a farmer with a low salary I can’t afford to buy meat- that meat goes instead to the slightly sunburned tourist from Portland, ME. Agriculture is another aspect of life here that is difficult to wrap one’s mind around.
The only other thing I’ll say- as this entry is entirely too long already- is that a lot of the agriculture here is done in a very green way. This is out of necessity, not by choice. As we walked through the coop. the director said, “careful, watch out…that’s from our tractor”. He was referring to oxen droppings. The produce and profit from urban gardens goes directly to the gardener, and they must be organic if they are in the city.
Another difficulty is that all Cubans have equal access to education. This is the only country I can think of- and Fidel Castro has said something similar- where there is a problem because of the fact that everyone is highly educated. In short, there is a shortage of job applicants in the farmland.

19 Marzo

whew, almost caught up on the blog- this is hard! Even harder, is to write a blog I would want to read. Here goes an honest effort!!

18 Marzo 2010

Another first class: US/Cuban relations. Our teacher, Rosa, was wonderful. I haven’t this much fun in a history class since high school and I took 7 pages of single-spaced typed notes to show for it. Now, I’m left with a brain full of new information and a reading list to the ceiling.
At two, we had a visit to the Escuela Latino America del Medicino. Scholarship students from all over Latin America (and even some from the United States) come to Cuba for a rigorous seven-year program in medicine. They spend three years at the school in classes, and then four years dispersed in practice in all the provinces of Cuba. All of it is free for the students. I REALLY wish I were interested in medical biology or being a doctor.
Oh! Also, in the evening we went to a public neighborhood election and after we walked our friend from CESEU home and talked over tea. I think people in the United States aren’t fully aware that Cuba is a democracy. I, certainly, was a bit misconceived.

17 Marzo 2010

Today was our first History, Politics and Society of Cuba class. It is incredible to me that I hadn’t started it before the 17th, and it really just entails long classes every day of the week and, of course, more reading. As you can imagine, it was great to learn about the history (we started with early history too: we learned about the indigenous Cubans then moved to the 13 US colonies, our civil war, and the Cuban transition to freedom after the North won).

16 March 2010

Diving was canceled today. There was another cold front system moving through and we’re trying to move to the actual ocean. It is very frustrating; I want to dive!!!.
In the afternoon I had a class with Prof. Julia Azanza called ‘Marine Sea Turtles’. I LOVE sea turtles. These living dinosaurs are so incredible and really so much of their lives are not yet understood. The lecture really reignited my interest to do more work with sea turtles in the future.

15 March 2010

Bright and early we had Third World Underdevelopment and Politics Class for which we read a collection of essays by Fidel Castro called “Globalization in Crisis”. I would highly recommend reading some of Fidel’s essays and speeches to anyone interested in international politics. They are very well written and interesting regardless of your position on the man himself. Again, I really should not discuss politics on my blog, but one thing I feel entirely comfortable standing behind is that Cuba should not be on the United State’s list of terrorist nations. Really, that proposition is preposterous. Also, I would encourage any reader interested in US Cuban relations to research the Cuban 5. I have not been able to look up the American perspective yet, HOWEVER, you cannot go anywhere in Cuba with out seeing references to the Cuban 5 and their trial in the States.

Okay enough of that.