Wow it has been a long time since I have written an entry, so I’m hoping this one will fill in the gaps of what I’ve wanted to say/express over the past weeks/months/time doesn’t really exist here (plus I broke my phone which was my one and only portable clock so basically everything is a guess). Time flies when you’re having fun! Or something like that. I decided to call this entry “El Cubano Inventa Mucho” (in English it’s difficult to translate… it’s saying essentially the average Cuban person invents a lot) because it applies to pretty much every aspect of society and culture here. As for me, I am doing fine. I have read 1984 while being here and let me warn you if you’ve read the book you might find a lot of what I say eerily familiar, and if you haven’t, well I don’t want to spoil anything but IT’S JUST TOO WEIRD.
Just walking through the streets you notice just random things here and there that just don’t seem to actually fit the original design and architecture of the place, but any subtle adjustment and additional fixture flows almost flawlessly into any building as though it was some organic thing that grew from the building (I’m reading The Fountainhead right now so architecture is like rammed into my brain). But it’s true. A house turns into a museum, a pizza shop, a restaurant; most houses that were once simple houses have been turned into government agencies, schools, organizations (my favorite one is the governmental division for vegetable conservation). The mini-mansions of the early 20th century became government agencies almost instantly after the revolution triumphed (whenever ANYONE literally anyone talks about the revolution they say “cuando triunfo la revolucion” = when the revolution triumphed… 1st 1984 reference, more later). Most of the people that lived in these huge houses or had any wealth fled the country (mostly to the US) and took with them all their money, but leaving their country and belongings. There’s a building down the street from our hotel that a worker here joked about. He said the building was owned by a French man, who, after the revolution, said that the building was a gift to Fidel. The building nowadays is falling apart and they’re trying to do renovations, but since being here, it looks as if no progress has really been made. This story is “funny” because basically everything that was foreign-owned in Cuba was nationalized, so essentially the French man had no choice but to hand it over to Cuba. His last jest was calling it a present for the Cuban Revolution.
This same situation, less easily I assume, happened with a Hilton hotel here in Habana that was taken over by the revolution and was henceforth called the Habana Libre (the free Habana). It is a beautiful hotel and right up the street from me and it’s so bizarre to think that something like could happen so quickly, although definitely not easy (Bay of Pigs everyone). But after the revolution triumphed, Fidel used the upper floors of the Hilton hotel for his official offices; a bit of twisted irony or something of the sort: a revolutionary regime fighting to overthrow the deep roots of external-based capitalism in their country in turn use the building built by such roots as their base… but maybe it’s more of a middle-finger-esque gesture as such? Dumb connection. And of course nowadays the hotel functions as, well, a really fancy, tourist-based, capitalist hotel. While every employee earns probably $20 a month, with the amount of tips and gifts that flow from guests to employees, socialism basically ceases to exist. While a doctor is casting a broken leg or performing heart surgery for $15 a month, a maid in the Habana Libre could be blessed with $1 tip everyday from every room the maid cleans. If you work 4 days a week and have 4 rooms to clean you have $16 dollars right there, on top of your other salary. It’s literally the exact opposite of the US in this sense. How many pre-med people are in college right now and are hoping to earn a doctor’s salary? Hint: everyone it seems like. But here, if you study medicine, engineering, anything like that you’d be better off selling pizza out of your house or being a waiter. Where’s the motivation? Hint: missing. The people love to study and love what they do, but at the end of the day if you’re a doctor you don’t have a car or often not enough food, but the average waiter can live more comfortably than the a doctor in Cuba. Anyone can just as easily, if they invent.
Basically everyone is said to do “something” to get by; no one gets by on their government salary alone. What they “do” can range from selling cigars illegally on the street, baiting dumb tourists, selling something (pizza, jewelry, ice cream, etc.), stealing, getting remittances, whatever it may be. People complain/say that theft is fairly common, but everything here is bootleg, so if anyone can complain or talk about others stealing, they should look at their own consumption. Movies premiere here a week after they show in the US, whether they be filmed in the movie theater or gathered from whatever way, but haphazard subtitles are slung up on the screen and the DVD menu screen says something along the lines of: wWwXXBLACK.SWAN.2010SubsESP.DiVx and every time I’m just like mmm yeah that’s legal. But movies cost about 8 cents here so, I’m not going to complain/think that Hollywood is getting ripped off in any sort of way. Movies like that usually only show for 1-2 weeks, but Cuban movies usually show for weeks and weeks. Back to inventing. A friend of mine sells cigars on the street as her job while going to school. Another friend on the program explained she is a waitress and the Cuban friend explained she sells cigars illegally, but being a waiter is legal. Yes. Very legal. Cigars are so expensive here I just don’t understand how Cubans can even smoke them, but mostly old men smoke them. I think they might buy from illegal sellers on the street/they’re really crappy/they’re from a friend who works in a factory and gets a box to take home every month for free. Most of the people who get to take a box home usually sells the box for extra money. Cigars < disposable income… yes, even for a Cuban! Just kidding, dumb joke.
But yeah, everything is bootleg here. I met a family through the girl who did the program last year and they have two sons, both are computer whizzes. They have tons of games and programs loaded onto their communal laptop and a very dismal internet connection. They were playing Diablo II (Eugene Kim shout out) and I was like
AHH I USED TO PLAY THIS! One of the sons even asked me what it was like to play online and how it must be so much fun… I had horrible visions of the hours spent in front of my computer playing hours and hours of games; I responded with yes, yes, it’s a lot of fun. They had gameboy games, tons of books (especially Harry Potter), a plethora of games, programs, whatever all electronic. How it happens: someone downloads something/gets it from someone else then it just spreads from person to person from USB drive to USB drive from computer to computer. If you want a movie or music, don’t bother paying for it, just ask someone and bring a flash drive. Even the programs used in education are bootleg. I have a few friends who study/work in design and all their adobe programs are free/illegal. They can complain about the blockade but a free Photoshop program that is justified here under the government sounds like a perk. Also every bootleg CD/movie on the street is legal. They sell bootleg Cuban movies and CDs also… so I’m confused how this is justified when it just hurts the industry? But in reality, since it’s socialist I’m pretty sure the only perk to being an actor is the fame; the salary is just as dreary as anyone else’s. But of course with fame, comes several other perks so I’m sure they all live as kings here. Who knows!?
Fishermen are always lined up on the Malecon, another one of its famous qualities. The thousands of touristy pictures taken with men hunched over the wall fishing with a sunset in the background (yeah I got some of those pix); but really, to actually fish well, they use bobbers made out of condoms. They blow them up and tie them to their line and the wind carries them out further into the water. Two functions: as a bobber and pulls their line out deeper. Wonder who thought of that use and what they were doing when it came to mind…….. but what’s really odd is that the condoms look like the jellyfish here. They’re both: blue, clear, and plasticy looking. Super bizarre. When we first went to the beach, everyone just thought they were washed up condom-bobbers on the shore… but no, they were dead jellyfish carcasses. They dry up and become well, like little balloons… hence the confusion. Really weird.
About 20 years ago, with the fall of the USSR, came the “special period” in Cuba’s post-revolutionary history that consisted of an economy in shreds. They lost 80% of their GDP in a year. They lost the thousands of goods that were shipped to the island for cheap, cheap prices such as potatoes, building supplies, industrial things, etc. Fidel warned the Cuban people after the fall that they were about to head into a “special period”. Imagine if Barack Obama told us that an economic crisis/depression was going to be a “special period”… I would be fairly upset. It’s amazing the regime still headed on as strong as ever. As a Cuban in the special period, you would typically find a lack of food and a lack of… everything I suppose. Especially building materials, hence the amazing decay seen all over the country. What the period is especially known for is the crazy diets and dishes invented out of necessity and shortages. Some examples: grapefruit rind fried steaks, street cats and dogs, squirrels and rabbits, pets L, towels ground up into other meat to add more sustenance; all around, bellies were shrinking and the Cuban cuisine took a dive for the worst.
The inventing comes down to 1984 levels here with: their history! Literally I haven’t heard the same story twice from anyone. Details change and in turn the story becomes completely different. Our teacher was talking about the Bay of Pigs invasion and how it was “unfortunately” backed up by the US, which yes, it was an incredibly awful thing for us to do, but, and a large but, most of the soldier/guerrillas who were part of the invasion were Cuban exiles. When I brought this up to my teacher he was like yes that’s true, it completely changes the story. It wasn’t fully backed by just the US government, it was heavily perpetuated by Cuban exiles who wanted to recapture their country and several rich Cuban exiles backed them up. This changes the situation from a US attempt to install another dictator in Latin America to a joint effort from both the US government and Miami based hardliners. It’s unfair to not include every single detail; especially about something so decisive in Cuban history as Playa Giron/Bay of Pigs. With this same topic, the 50th anniversary for the victory happened to be this year. We don’t really know the exact date because they celebrated the victory on Saturday, but I’m pretty sure the actual date is April 19, my birthday! But whenever we asked employees at the hotel… no one knew… it was very eerie and 1984-like. But really, I don’t know enough about the education system here to make any definitive statements, but when books, movies, etc are banned in a country, it tends to make education seem pretty censored and inadequate. However, with all the bootleg mania and the internet, Cuba is opening itself up stronger than any tourism jurisdictions would ever allow.
Well enough of this for now, I’m talking sort of in circles and a tad nonsensical. Anyway! The 1st week of April we had our big excursion as part of the program. We went to three different cities in the middle of the island: Cienfuegos for 2 nights, Trinidad for 4, and Santa Clara for 1 night. Cienfuegos is a beautiful city, very clean and surrounded by water. Cuban singer Benny More (one of the most famous) who was born in Cienfuegos declared the city to be “la ciudad que mas me gusta a mi” the city I like most. So that is the city’s slogan. We stayed in a nice hotel kind of far from the actual city, but definitely walkable. Apparently where we stayed is the same place that Fidel Castro stays when he comes to Cienfuegos. Woah maybe I slept in the same bed as some random Cuban dignitary; the closest I can get to Cuban politics. This is where I broke my phone. It slipped off the balcony of my room and fell 3 stories…. So sad. We didn’t really do anything there… Lou and I went to a club the first night, but it wasn’t that good, it was a little awkward so we left. The next night we went to our friend Heriberto’s sister’s house. He came to visit her the same time we were coming so that was fun. We got to see a colonial-Cienfuegos-style house. It’s basically a long house with rooms behind rooms behind rooms. A Canadian bought the house a long time ago and was going to renovate it and turn it into a 2 story ordeal, but he didn’t finish so now the house has a very strange entry way. Heriberto’s sister has a son in Canada so whenever she can, she gets to leave the country and travel there to see him. She even visited Niagara Falls and kept the poncho as a souvenir. She is currently debating whether or not to move there or not, but I think she’ll try to stay in Cuba as long as possible just to keep both options always open. A house in Canada and a house in Cuba.
In Trinidad, we stayed in an all-inclusive hotel on the beach that was designed to be like a small colonial village… basically it was a pseudo-old folks home. There was a bar open 24-7 with food and drinks that were free (well, paid for already). It was crazy, I’ve never been at an all-inclusive resort. It was kind of ridiculous though. it was basically a giant tourist attack-trap. But it was worth it. I loved the city (even though we were like 20 minutes from the actual city). We went snorkeling and climbed a mountain/went to a natural pool (there should be a picture on facebook of the pool). And I chatted with a lot of the hotel staff/made friends… but not real friends. It’s hard to reason the positives and negatives of these places. They employee essentially a group of young women who can dance and they are basically the hosts for every activity such as pool aerobics, dance lessons, etc. that are always with old people. They also had performances almost every night and they had to dance and be dressed up (there should be 2 pictures on facebook of this also…), and it’s hard to reason if they actually like doing this or if they feel used or if they don’t care or what. I meant to talk to them about it, but they were always exhausted after the performance and booked it back to their rooms. We chatted the first night a bit and we explained what we’re doing here and all that, and then it turned into a singing circle and everyone started singing random songs. Normal.
In Santa Clara, the one day/night we were there, we walked around the city for a bit and then went to our weird hotel. All the rooms are built into a hut like larger building. All the rooms are also sort of curve shaped. Another tourist attack/trap. But Lou and I went to a club called Club Mejunje. A crazy, crazy club that hosts every Saturday Cuba’s only “official” drag show… I’m not sure what makes a drag show official or not, but it’s their claim to fame! That night was a concert and we met these two women who became our best friends for the night. We met them when Lou mistook an employee, who was getting change for us, as a random woman from the street who was possibly stealing from us. Lou in a rush of adrenaline ran after the woman and everyone there was just so confused. The two ladies then talked to us and we bonded the whole night. They knew the owner of the place so we got front row seats to the show of a group called: Trovulunitis… or something like that. It was fun, I was talking a lot; we met these two English people, well a muchacha from Germany who lives in a London and a guy from London in Trinidad and they were at the club so Lou and I called them over and we hung out with them all night. There was a dance party at the end of the performance and I got to practice my Cuban salsa: casino. Crazy night. People that I’ve emailed know how that night ended: holding one of the women who was passed out in my arms on a staircase. Normal.
We returned from the vacation fully rested and basically sick of each other. Cabin fever… or really: Cubin Fever… puns are so fun.
This past Saturday was my birthday party and I have to say it was one of the best birthday celebrations I’ve ever had in my life. All we did was talk and eat, but it was so much fun and I basically have a family here. It’s going to be really hard to leave; but asi es la vida! Less than a month left… :-/ lot’s of mixed emotions and confusion. It’s so hard to even remember what it was like at the beginning of the trip…. So much has changed physically, personally, emotionally for all of us that going back is for sure going to be an attack of return-culture shock which is definitely stronger and harder than culture shock of traveling to another country for me. It varies from person to person. Some people just miss home so much they can’t wait to get back and when they do they re-assimilate perfectly well. We’ll see what happens with me! I know after Nicaragua, I left a piece of me there that I wasn’t fully capable of understanding and still am not completely sure of what I left behind, but for sure when I came back I was different. Maybe I didn’t leave anything, but rather gained something. Reverse-culture shock is very strong and makes you question your reality, everything you’ve known and lived your whole life. You notice new things, you notice cars on the road, streets, buildings, people; everything is in a new light and it’s almost frightening and shocking to have this new perspective that you didn’t have before, but now it’s impossible to not overlook. Enough of reverse culture shock; travel everyone! And travel wisely.
With the return from the infamous “large excursion” the Pitt in Cuba program promises, the Ingleses were in Habana for a few days before the big return overseas. Lou and I decided to go out with them, but unfortunately Lou got a migraine attack so she had to stay home and I went on a very strange journey through a different side of Habana I’ve never seen before. I met them and a Belgian friend of theirs and then we went off to the Malecon to chill and enjoy the “outdoor living room” that the Malecon is apparently called (according to my guidebook). I met a random man who thought I was from Spain, but after hearing my English and my accent, he knew I was from North America somewhere. He started telling me basically his life story. It started out in English and then he was like wait you speak Spanish? And I was like si! So he continued to tell me about how his father is an Estadounidense who came to Habana to work in the US interests section which is down the street from our hotel. He met a young black Cuban woman who was working in the “embassy” and from this relationship came this random man who decided to talk to me on the Malecon. Unfortunately, this man who worked in the interests section returned back to the US to his actual family and left this poor woman pregnant and alone. This man didn’t meet his father until he was 15 and got the opportunity to travel to the US and he met his other “siblings” that were the same age as him or older.
Now he works in several places doing different things. He kind of, sort of illegally works for Non-governmental Organizations as a Cuban liaison and gets random amounts of money to then channel into social projects in Cuba, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. He does all this in conjunction with his official job in Cuba. He has only traveled to the Dominican Republic, but hopes to get to Guatemala to continue his work. I’m not exactly sure what he does, but he gets money from other countries and sort of oversees a bunch of NGOs in both those countries. He is extremely intelligent and we talked about US culture, movies, directors, art, everything; he said he never tires from speaking of culture. My other friends were kind of doing their own thing and I was like well it’s their last night so… if we see each other again woo! And he was like oh.. okay…. The hardest thing one might ever have to do in their life is end a conversation with a Cuban/interrupt them to say something. They have so much passion for everything they talk about, it’s unbelievable.
Anyway, so we continued to this little café called BimBom. It happens to be a hot-spot for gay culture in Habana where transvestites, pingueros (male prostitutes), jineteras (female prositutes), random people, and of course tourists come to experience this aspect of Cuban culture. We were there for a bit then went to a different club which was something else completely insane and then we came back to BimBom. Remember what I said: travel wisely. Well, there was a German man there: old, fat, wearing sweat pants, sweaty, and just overall bad news. He was talking to a friend of the Belgian guy and then 10 minutes later he was surrounded by boys who literally looked like they were 15 years old. They were smoking and assuring him they were “18”. He was buying whoever drinks, cigarettes, and was overall being an awful participant in the sex trade (essentially) of Cuba. He was taking pictures of the boys and being a disgusting creepy, old tourist. This issue is of course double-sided. The pingueros/jineteras basically play a role and see how far it gets them in the game of the sex-trade. Who can get what money, who can get what vacations, what jobs, whatever thing from a rich tourist. This overall issue is of course two-sided: there are tourists who come to find someone and they are genuine people trying to find someone compatible on a personal level and there are prostitutes who genuinely look for good people to entertain for the tourists’ vacation and are just trying to live a better life in a fun, almost carefree sort of way. It is joked that the one thing that Cuba can’t ration is sex.
Well today, as in April 20th, the day after my birthday and a day infamous for various reasons, we took a ferry across the Bahia de Habana to a little neighborhood called Regla. Their claim to fame is a small, but beautiful church honoring the only black saint in the crazy Christian-african based religions of Cuba. I’m not exactly sure of the details, but this church was beautiful in such a profound sense. I couldn’t even take pictures because I felt like it was too… spiritual in a sense that I was invading in the thriving essence of religion that was this church. There were people praying to different saints, doing different customs; overall actually utilizing the church in a beautiful way. Every person part of this religion exited the church backwards; crossing themselves and walking backwards until they were a good 5 feet away. Outside, a woman called me over and we chatted and she wanted to read my palm. I said I didn’t have any money and she asked for a dollar, then 20 cuban pesos; and I said no, sorry. I asked her what she was going to tell me. Her answer was simple: the truth. I said no, no: about my past, my future, love, friendship—she said yes, yes all that and more. I was really intrigued, but I didn’t feel like spending a dollar, although next time I might….
And so my birthday has come and past and I am another year, officially, older. I have escaped the teenage years hardly scathed, but nonetheless all the more wiser. I have four looming projects to complete and a lifestyle I need to take advantage of, all in the next 20 y pico days. I want to live here; become integrated in the culture; know where to take a bus; get up and go to work; do real school work; have a purpose…. I would have loved to volunteer this whole time, joined a club, done something more productive and time consuming; but, things are literally always up in the air and when an opportunity falls into your lap, you gotta roll with it or not. Make up your mind fast, keep the journey flowing, keep learning, keep experiencing, keep up with the Johnsons.
Please, if you have any specific questions, ask me here and now! While I’m still here…. Email me: john.herse@gmail.com, comment here, facebook me, whatever! I would love to know what you want to hear about and I’ll investigate for you.
Con mucho amor y disculpeme por no haber escrito por mucho tiempo,
John
