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      4     <title>Cuba on Chris Bracken</title>
      5     <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/cuba/</link>
      6     <description>Recent content in Cuba on Chris Bracken</description>
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      8     <language>en</language>
      9     <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor>
     10     <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster>
     11     <lastBuildDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/cuba/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
     12     <item>
     13       <title>Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba</title>
     14       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2002/03/trinidad-sancti-spiritus-cuba/</link>
     15       <pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
     16       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
     17       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2002/03/trinidad-sancti-spiritus-cuba/</guid>
     18       <description>&lt;p&gt;Looking down on the ocean from the rolling hills a kilometre away, Trinidad is
     19 a small, traditional town whose population of 50,000 takes great pride in its
     20 home. Founded by Diego Velásquez in 1514, Trinidad became a stopover for
     21 explorers and trading ships travelling to and from México. During the 17th and
     22 18th centuries, its economy largely depended on trading contraband with
     23 pirates. The buildings are in incredibly good shape for their age, most of
     24 which are at least two centuries old. It’s not too tough to see why Trinidad is
     25 now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.&lt;/p&gt;
     26 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-21-trinidad-street.jpg&#34;
     27     alt=&#34;Street in Trinidad, Cuba&#34;&gt;
     28 &lt;/figure&gt;
     29 
     30 &lt;p&gt;Trinidad is about five hours from Havana by bus, and as with everything in
     31 Cuba, there are two buses: one for Cubans, with a several hour long line-up,
     32 and one for people with dollars, with basically no wait at all. Upon pulling
     33 into Trinidad the bus was swarmed by masses of locals offering a room in a casa
     34 particular. We ended up being shown one house, but it had been freshly painted
     35 that afternoon and the fumes were pretty rough, so we set out wandering down
     36 the streets in the dark. By sheer chance, we ran into an old grandfather
     37 carrying a bucket and pushing his bike up the rickety cobblestone streets and
     38 when we asked him if he knew of any places to stay he said that in fact, we
     39 could stay at his house. This is how our planned two-night stay in Trinidad
     40 ended up turning into a week-long stay in paradise.&lt;/p&gt;
     41 &lt;p&gt;Roberto and Elda, their daughter Mercedes, her husband Eddy, and their
     42 11-year-old son Saúl made our stay in Trinidad one of the most relaxing visits
     43 we had to anywhere in our travels. We would have breakfast every morning in a
     44 little courtyard off to the side of the house, spend the mornings wandering the
     45 cobblestone streets in search of pizza, and the evenings falling asleep to the
     46 sound of Cuban salsas, merengues, and cha cha chas drifting through the window
     47 from La Casa de la Trova across the street.&lt;/p&gt;
     48 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-21-horse-cart.jpg&#34;
     49     alt=&#34;Horse-drawn cart driven by man and boy in Trinidad street&#34;&gt;
     50 &lt;/figure&gt;
     51 
     52 &lt;p&gt;While most of the old town is centered around the main plaza, cathedral, and
     53 clock tower, most of the action seemed to center around the plaza in the newer
     54 part of town down the hill. Old men sitting on park benches sharing a bottle of
     55 rum, school children eating peso ice cream, and the occasional black market
     56 cigar salesman trying to pass off some cigars smuggled out of the local factory
     57 all milled about the plaza in the hot, sticky heat. A bunch of us sat on our
     58 park bench watching the old men on the bench across from us get progressively
     59 more drunk from their homebrew, before eventually falling asleep. One thing
     60 that anyone visiting Cuba can be assured of is eventually being offered a taste
     61 of homemade rum. My guess is that neither the recipe nor the distilling of this
     62 rum has changed much over the past few centuries, so you can be assured that
     63 your experience will be as blindingly nerve-wracking as that of the colonial
     64 sailors plying the waters of the Caribbean in the 1600s. Following the initial
     65 jolt of fermented cane sugar hitting your stomach like a rock is the slow
     66 nauseating feeling of vertigo creeping over your body; after that, a strange
     67 queasiness, and finally recovery and swearing it off for life&amp;hellip; or at least
     68 the next day.&lt;/p&gt;
     69 &lt;p&gt;A few days into our stay in Trinidad, as we walked down a dark street off the
     70 plaza, we heard music pouring out through a half-open gate. Peering inside we
     71 were greeted with the sight of thirty or so people packed into a small dirt
     72 courtyard, and a small band of grizzled 80-year-old men playing salsas on their
     73 guitars and trumpets. People had pulled up some old wooden benches and were
     74 serving mojitos made (I swear) straight rum, some sugar, and crushed mint. A
     75 woman named Blanquita invited us in, offered us some mojitos and yanked us up
     76 off the bench to teach us some salsa while chickens scuttled around our feet.
     77 It was probably my most vivid memory of Cuba.&lt;/p&gt;
     78 </description>
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     80     
     81     <item>
     82       <title>La Habana, Cuba</title>
     83       <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2002/03/la-habana/</link>
     84       <pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2002 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
     85       <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author>
     86       <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2002/03/la-habana/</guid>
     87       <description>&lt;p&gt;Havana is a city of contradictions. It’s simultaneously one of the most
     88 beautiful and most run down cities in the world. It’s hard to imagine how
     89 things could be any worse, or any better given the Cuba’s political past and
     90 present.&lt;/p&gt;
     91 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-19-old-havana-street.jpg&#34;
     92     alt=&#34;Run-down street in Old Havana&#34;&gt;
     93 &lt;/figure&gt;
     94 
     95 &lt;p&gt;Havana, along with the rest of Cuba, is the way it is almost purely because of
     96 politics—some of the most complex politics on the planet. If you like history
     97 or politics, Cuba is for you.  Cuba’s troubled history begins long before the
     98 Cuban Missile Crisis, or even before the Revolution of 1959. Ever since
     99 Christopher Columbus set foot on the Isle of Cuba on October 29th, 1492, one
    100 nation or another has been fighting over the country. For over half a
    101 millennium now, politics have affected almost every aspect of life in Cuba.
    102 It’s amazing that despite all this, Cuban culture is felt worldwide through its
    103 music, dance, and artistry.&lt;/p&gt;
    104 &lt;h3 id=&#34;fast-facts&#34;&gt;Fast Facts&lt;/h3&gt;
    105 &lt;p&gt;Before we get started, here are a few quick facts to clear up a few common
    106 misconceptions about Cuba:&lt;/p&gt;
    107 &lt;ul&gt;
    108 &lt;li&gt;The US embargo was put in place on October 19th, 1960, two years before the
    109 Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the result of the US Eisenhower Administration’s
    110 plan to overthrow Castro. This was the result of Cuba nationalizing a lot of
    111 property sold to the US by Cuba’s former dictator, Fulgencio Batista. In
    112 1963, after the end of the Missile Crisis, the Kennedy Administration imposed
    113 a travel ban on US citizens, preventing them from visiting Cuba. Here’s an
    114 &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/embargo.htm&#34;&gt;Economic Embargo Timeline&lt;/a&gt;, if you’re interested.&lt;/li&gt;
    115 &lt;li&gt;In 1959, a group of Cuban revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro and Che
    116 Guevara, led a popular uprising to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, the
    117 totalitarian dictator who led Cuba from 1934 to 1959. Under Batista, more
    118 than a third of the land in Cuba was sold off to US interests. In several
    119 cases, teachers who worked to alphabetize rural villages were tortured and
    120 killed by Batista’s private police force, for fear that a literate population
    121 of farmers would be more likely to favour local land ownership, and oppose
    122 the dictator. Cuba is now a communist country, and Castro is the elected head
    123 of state. Elections are supervised by international monitors. They work very
    124 differently from other western electoral systems, however, since there is
    125 only one party. Like Canadians, Cubans elect local representatives, who
    126 select a party leader. In practise, Castro has been re-elected President by
    127 party officials in every election since the Revolution.  Here’s some more
    128 information on &lt;a href=&#34;http://dodgson.ucsd.edu/las/cuba/1990-2001.htm&#34;&gt;elections in Cuba&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
    129 &lt;li&gt;Today, Cuba’s population is highly educated. The current literacy rate is
    130 approximately 97%—the same as Canada’s. Before the revolution, the overall
    131 literacy rate was 23.6%. Castro’s guerrilla manifesto of 1957 included an
    132 immediate literacy and education campaign, with the slogan &amp;lsquo;Revolution and
    133 Education are the same thing.&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
    134 &lt;li&gt;It’s illegal to form a party other than the Communist Party, and people live
    135 under fairly strict supervision by the government compared to most western
    136 nations.  The movement of Cubans is restricted by the government. The
    137 Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs maintains a &lt;a href=&#34;https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/cuba&#34;&gt;fact page&lt;/a&gt;
    138 on Cuba, as does &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html&#34;&gt;the CIA&lt;/a&gt; in the United States.&lt;/li&gt;
    139 &lt;li&gt;Cuba’s media is not entirely restricted, and Cubans can tune in to Miami and
    140 Mexican radio stations. The national newspaper, Granma is published by the
    141 Communist Party and is &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.granma.cu/&#34;&gt;available online&lt;/a&gt; in several languages.&lt;/li&gt;
    142 &lt;/ul&gt;
    143 &lt;p&gt;I was going to include a quick whirlwind tour of the history of Cuba here. I
    144 started on it, but by the time I got to the late 19th century it was already
    145 ten paragraphs long. Instead, if you want an excellent point-form history, have
    146 a look at &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.historyofcuba.com/&#34;&gt;A History of Cuba&lt;/a&gt;. If you want something more in
    147 depth, specifically focusing on US-Cuban relations, the multi-volume set &lt;em&gt;A
    148 History of Cuba and its relations with The United States&lt;/em&gt; by Philip S. Foner is
    149 excellent.&lt;/p&gt;
    150 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-19-old-havana-door.jpg&#34;
    151     alt=&#34;Crumbling doorway in Old Havana&#34;&gt;
    152 &lt;/figure&gt;
    153 
    154 &lt;h3 id=&#34;arrival-in-havana&#34;&gt;Arrival in Havana&lt;/h3&gt;
    155 &lt;p&gt;The flight to Cuba was probably the craziest flights I’ve ever experienced. We
    156 boarded the ancient, Soviet-built Cubana Yak-42 jet in Cancún and took our
    157 seats. The first thing we noticed as we sat down was that the safety
    158 instruction cards were printed in Russian. The second, and more alarming thing
    159 we noticed was that smoke was slowly filling the cabin. The flight attendants
    160 assured people that it was just steam, and that it was totally normal. By the
    161 time we landed in Cuba, The cabin was filled chest high and we couldn’t see our
    162 knees anymore. We got off the plane as quickly as possible, were packed into a
    163 rickety old East-German bus and carted off to immigration.  Once in Havana, we
    164 checked into Hotel Flamingo where we stayed for our first two days while we
    165 explored Havana. Across the street were a bunch of featureless, utilitarian,
    166 crumbling apartment buildings, which are apparently identical to the ones that
    167 were built across the Communist Block countries during the Soviet era. You’re
    168 surrounded on all sides by relics of the Soviet era: East German and Polish
    169 buses, Russian radios and record players, and tons of North Korean equipment.
    170 It’s fascinating to see a country that exists almost entirely apart from the
    171 US. When it comes to the States, it’s as though time stopped in 1959. The only
    172 Chevys and Buicks to be seen are 1950s models. All new cars are Ladas, Yugos,
    173 Polski Fiats, or Chinese and North Korean imports. Supposedly push-by shootings
    174 from Ladas aren’t as big a problem here as they are in Russia.&lt;/p&gt;
    175 &lt;p&gt;Old Havana La Habana Vieja is something amazing to see. Walking down the
    176 streets of Old Havana, you’re surrounded by some of the most incredible
    177 architecture you’ve ever witnessed. What’s even more incredible is that it’s
    178 crumbling all around you. Ornate gargoyles and balconies have decayed and
    179 collapsed with age; the paint is peeling, and everything is covered in a thick
    180 layer of dirt and grime. Broken windows are everywhere, and yet people continue
    181 to live in these buildings that elsewhere in the world would have long since
    182 been condemned.&lt;/p&gt;
    183 &lt;p&gt;Another thing not to be missed in Havana is sitting in the park in front of the
    184 Museo de la Revolución and eating freshly roasted peanuts out of a rolled up
    185 newspaper. For one peso, you can buy salted peanuts from street vendors, rolled
    186 up in an old copy of a page from &lt;em&gt;Granma&lt;/em&gt;, and sit back and watch kids play
    187 baseball in the street.&lt;/p&gt;
    188 &lt;p&gt;Baseball is everywhere in Cuba. You can’t turn around without seeing a game
    189 going on. Baseball equipment, on the other hand, is hard to come by. This
    190 doesn’t stop anyone from playing the game, however. A rock wrapped in rubber
    191 bands makes a pretty decent baseball, and we saw a lot of kids who could hit
    192 some amazing runs with a broom handle baseball bat. If you visit Cuba,
    193 something that’ll make any kid’s day is a baseball. Pencils and pens make nice
    194 gifts too.&lt;/p&gt;
    195 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-19-vintage-american-cars.jpg&#34;
    196     alt=&#34;Vintage American cars&#34;&gt;
    197 &lt;/figure&gt;
    198 
    199 &lt;h3 id=&#34;dollars-and-pesos&#34;&gt;Dollars and Pesos&lt;/h3&gt;
    200 &lt;p&gt;There are two things that everyone who visits Cuba should do. The first is to
    201 experience live Cuban music, which you can read about in the Trinidad section.
    202 The second is to convert some dollars to Cuban Pesos. Cuba has three official
    203 currencies: Cuban Pesos, US Dollars, and Cuban Convertible Pesos. The Cuban
    204 Convertible Peso was introduced to reduce the dependency on actual US dollars,
    205 but are worth exactly one dollar in Cuba, and exactly zero dollars off the
    206 island. Cuban Pesos are a soft currency, and as such, have no practical value
    207 as an exchangeable currency; however, exchanges do happen at wildly fluctuating
    208 rates. We got 26 pesos to the dollar.  Cuba has two economies that don’t
    209 overlap even remotely. Hard-currency stores charge US prices in US dollars and
    210 sell high-end items. Bottled water is about $1.00 a bottle, soap is $0.50 a
    211 bar, and meat and cheese are similar in price to what they would be in Canada
    212 or the US. However, Cubans are paid in pesos at a rate of about 200-400 pesos a
    213 month — about 8 to 16 dollars. That makes a bottle of water worth somewhere
    214 around 10% of your monthly paycheque. Try the math with your paycheque. Soft
    215 currency shops sell local goods, such as fruit and vegetables, for pesos.&lt;/p&gt;
    216 &lt;p&gt;The reason you should convert some money is that finding a place to spend your
    217 newly acquired pesos will force you to discover a whole part of Cuba you might
    218 otherwise never have seen. Cubans buy things in soft currency at markets or
    219 shops that sell in pesos. The items you can buy for pesos are universally
    220 locally produced items such as locally farmed foods, small pizzas baked on the
    221 street in oil drums converted to wood ovens, and some ice cream. A pizza, which
    222 is basically a piece of bread with a little tomato sauce, some oil, and bit of
    223 salt on it, sells for 3 pesos, which is about 12 cents US. The reason it’s so
    224 cheap is that peso goods are subsidised by the work you do for the state. Basic
    225 food staples such as beans and rice are part of your government supplied
    226 rations, and can be obtained with your ration card at certain shops. When you
    227 can find it, food sold on the street is usually in pesos. Food in paladares¹,
    228 hotels, and touristy places is almost universally in dollars.&lt;/p&gt;
    229 &lt;figure&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2002-03-19-camelo.jpg&#34;
    230     alt=&#34;Camelo bus&#34;&gt;
    231 &lt;/figure&gt;
    232 
    233 &lt;h3 id=&#34;the-rich-and-the-poor&#34;&gt;The Rich and the Poor&lt;/h3&gt;
    234 &lt;p&gt;The one thing that struck us immediately was the uniformity of income in Cuba.
    235 In México, there are two extremes: the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
    236 The middle class is tiny compared to Canada, where the middle class is the
    237 norm. In Cuba, almost everyone lives in something that is not exactly poverty,
    238 but at the same time they have basically no buying power. They have what the
    239 government gives them, and little else. The income difference between a street
    240 sweeper and a specialist doctor is about $7 a month vs. $15 a month. No matter
    241 how you cut it, the $8 difference doesn’t buy much. It’s hard to get imported
    242 goods no matter what, and what you can get is often on the black market.
    243 Although under communism employment is universal and housing is provided by the
    244 state, there are still people who turn to begging because it can be far more
    245 lucrative than work in a factory for $8 a month. As a result of the incredibly
    246 tiny incomes in Cuba, jineteros² have become more numerous, and will follow you
    247 wherever you go, trying to drag you to a restaurant or shop where you’ll spend
    248 your money. A lot of people on the street beg for soap or toothpaste when the
    249 police aren’t watching. One man told us he’d do anything, even get down on his
    250 knees and beg if it would make a difference.&lt;/p&gt;
    251 &lt;p&gt;Given all this, was the trip to Cuba worth it? Without a doubt. We met some
    252 absolutely wonderful people, and learned a ton about Cuban history and
    253 politics. The government isn’t the oppressive dictatorship many people would
    254 like to believe, and it’s certainly an improvement over Batista’s brutal
    255 dictatorship; however, things could certainly be a lot better than they are,
    256 and Castro isn’t exactly known for his spectacular record on civil liberties.
    257 The Cubans we met were friendly and welcoming, not to mention incredibly good
    258 dancers. When we ran into difficulty getting cash out of our Mexican bank
    259 accounts due to the embargo, one family we stayed with offered to reduce our
    260 room rate, and give us a cheap ride to the airport so we didn’t have to pay the
    261 taxi fare. Falling asleep to live Cuban music every night was worth the trip
    262 alone.&lt;/p&gt;
    263 &lt;h3 id=&#34;glossary&#34;&gt;Glossary&lt;/h3&gt;
    264 &lt;ol&gt;
    265 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paladar:&lt;/em&gt; a small independent restaurant. One of the allowed forms of
    266 capitalism in Cuba.&lt;/li&gt;
    267 &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jinetero:&lt;/em&gt; Literally a &amp;lsquo;jockey.&amp;rsquo; Jineteros will approach you and offer to
    268 show you a restaurant or store. In exchange, the restaurant charges you
    269 extra for your meal and the jinetero gets to keep the surcharge.&lt;/li&gt;
    270 &lt;/ol&gt;
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