Cuba

Why Go to Cuba?
Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritu, Santa Clara, Pinar del Rio
January 29- February 5, 2012

Havana in low light, especially at dawn, beguiles like a beautiful apparition, with her silhouette framed by a pink and orange sky and her face reflected in the shimmer of the breaking surf of the Malecon. But alas, the sun rises, and she’s exposed in broad daylight. Her bones are broken, her sinews anemic, her skin is peeling and scarred with deep cuts and discolored blemishes, and her body is draped in the plebeian fashion of the hoi polloi. She tries hard to please. Some parts of her have been restored and there you can imagine that she was once elegant and beautiful. She moved with the infectious rhythms of the salsa and bolero. She was desired by the mighty and the powerful, and the unscrupulous. Yes, she had an ignominious past, and it still informs her behavior today.

On my second day I was tapping my feet to a rumba and this young man asked me to dance. Soon he was hustling me, said he’s 26 years old and how old am I? So I told him I’m 36 years old and he nodded his approval, and intensified his lobbying for my company. These jineteros and jineteras are everywhere. They offer to take you in their taxi, to the best restaurants, to the shows, to your hotel bed and to have sex with you. But there’s no prostitution in Cuba, that’s the official line. If you hit it off, they’ll ask you to buy them presents, tell you their grandmother or child is sick and ask you for money, and then if you have lots of money, they’ll marry you.

Life in Cuba, as they say, es no facil. The minimum wage is around $20/month, and though they get food ration coupons, it’s not enough and they have to buy other necessities from the CUC (convertible Cuban peso) stores. I CUC is $0.87. The local peso is worthless (1 Peso=$0. 24) and Cubans only use it to pay their water and electric bills. The black market thrives but can only serve you if you have CUC currency. Goods are smuggled from Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic. There are spies to report these illegal activities, but life is hard for everyone, so this is not enforced rigorously, but of course with some favors exchanged. In the past 3 months, there were monumental changes. Whereas Cubans cannot buy and sell property in the past, can only swap them, now they can with limitations, like they can only own 2 houses, one in the city and the other in the coast or the mountain. They can also now borrow money from the bank. How Cubans with $20 monthly wages can do this is mind boggling, but there’s money coming from somewhere. Obama had eased money remittances to relatives in Cuba and also opened unlimited travel for US relatives. As limited family entrepreneurship is now allowed, mostly to serve the tourist industry, Paladars (restaurants) and Casa Particulares ( B & B) are opening up. At first they were extremely regulated, because they should not compete with government run establishments. They were limited in the number of tables, limited menu, and can only employ family members. But things are changing at dizzying speed for Cubans though at a snail’s pace from our perspective.

Tourism is now a major industry since the Soviet collapse in the early 90’s, and Cuba was thrown in economic hardship. The revolution must keep it’s paternalistic promise and was forced to adopt capitalistic practices to feed the people. Tips are expected everywhere, you quickly get the impression that the economy runs on tips. You can’t use the toilets without dropping your spare change in the collection plate, or you won’t have toilet paper and soap, and you must straddle it, because they are without seats or lids. As much as excellent universal health care is touted, water is unsafe unless boiled, so you must buy bottled water. Food safety can be suspect, as 6 of us went down with GI upsets, including me, and one had required IV infusion. One soon becomes wary of people’s friendliness, as a tip is expected for every small helpful gesture. I was chatting with a young mother admiring her 2 small children, and she wasted no time in asking me for my hotel toiletries after I check out. I was asked to pony up 5 CUC (!) to get my photo in a vintage car. Disembarking from the steam train in the touristy former sugar plantation of Iznaca, we were overwhelmed by swarms of women importuning us for soaps, lotions, and other gifts. Tourists who don’t understand poverty are guilty of shaping this behavior, they make beggars of poor people, and rob them of their dignity.

As much as I fell in love with the dashing rebel Che Guevarra, and Fidel in his own way has charm, their revolution had gone on for too long, and though it might be hard for Cuba to have an Arab spring, as they are very limited in their cyber connectedness, it won’t be long before an upheaval takes place. The revolution ironically, made education a priority benefit for the people, and now these educated young men and women are looking to test their wings in the big world, and Cuba is too small and narrow now. There are underground bloggers taking root and spreading their message in cyberspace.They are finding a way, despite crackdowns and being roughed up by government goons. What do you do with doctors and lawyers, multi-linguists, historians and artists and engineers forced to work in tourism as guides, bartenders, waiters, as it is the sector where one can earn serious money through tips? Soon they will get ideas and will want to test them. Just you wait.

It’s dusk and the the gentle breeze is soothing, the musicians (for tips) are playing a bolero. I’ll light up my Cohiba and sip and savor my 15-year old Santiago in the gardens of my legendary hotel overlooking the crashing surf and the Malecon, now filling up with Cubans strolling after a day of labor in perhaps a dead end occupation. Would I return? Nah!

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