CUBA -- Tourism

Cuba’s tourism today is a $2 billion per year industry and as American visitors pour into the country, this income will undoubtedly grow exponentially. Currently, American visitors are only allowed to make “educational tours,” which was the purpose for our tour. This kind of travel suits me fine, but a lot of Americans are more interested in the beach and all-inclusive Club Med-type resorts. We were initially told that our tour would not include such an experience, but it did, and I’m glad for the opportunity since I have never been to such a place!

Cuba has several sites for these all-inclusive resorts, as this map shows. Our group went to Varadero, just east of Havana.

As we descended our bus, we were greeted with a fruity rum “welcome drink.”  We had arrived at a ___hotel, the ___.

We lined up at the reception desk for our wristbands, which identified us as paying customers. We were there in time for dinner and while the hotel took care of our luggage, we went downstairs to a food extravaganza. 

At first the “dining hall” appeared to be a giant college cafeteria in terms of the noise level (this was a family place) and wide array of choices for nourishment—about 1,001 choices like meats, seafood, pizza, vegetables, fruits, pastries, breads, soups, appetizers, cheeses. I looked over the whole thing to devise a plan for my repast. However, just as a few of us began to make our choices, our guides told us we had a special meal just for our group in another room. Ah, a more civilized venue, which of course, began with another drink and then a meal of pork steak, vegetables, red beans and rice (a national signature dish). We also had a birthday cake for one of the fellows. We were accompanied with American music from a disc jockey, who at the end of the meal as we filed out played the sonorous Pachebel’s Canon in D.

The entire experience was surreal because here we were in an impoverished land and we were being treated like kings and queens. But this is the kind of tourism that will help raise much needed money for this country.

My room was an experience, too. We had been staying in five-star hotels throughout our trip, but this one topped them all. Just look at the décor—and the view from my window.

The next morning we had no schedule so I stayed in bed as long as I could and eventually went down for breakfast (this time in the cafeteria extravaganza), met up with a couple fellows and then went down to the beach. I had not intended to swim but just wanted to see the water, dip my hand in it and go back to the hotel. I hate sweating and the sun was hot even at 10 a.m. What was astounding was the view at the shore: hotels up and down for as far as the eye could see. I assumed that most of these were all-inclusive venues like our hotel.  And, there were still more being built!

Such luxurious venues are really not my style. I like warm weather in the winter and would escape the snows of Michigan for the entire season once I retired. However, I would not be inclined to come to places like this. When I travel I like to see history and architecture, talk with the locals and live like a local. However, I’m glad we had this experience. Like Las Vegas, I believe everyone should go to a Fantasy Island at least once. The only thing missing from this one, however, was Tatoo and “the plane.”

As a slight contrast to this experience was our road trip getting here. We had been in ___ and were making our way to Fantasy Island via the rural back roads that provided a more scenic view than the freeway. The only problem with this kind of travel is that there just aren’t a lot of places to stop for a snack or bathroom break. (There were barely enough places on the freeway!) Since we fellows are 30 years older than we were on the fellowship, bathroom breaks have become more vital. We were about 60-90 minutes away from our destination when a few of the women asked our guide for a quick solution.

“Would you be willing to go to the bathroom at someone’s house,” Pavo asked.

“Yes,” a couple women chimed resoundingly.

Pavo and Edgar, our faithful bus driver, talked about where we would stop and who would approach the homeowner with such a request. Edgar found an area on the side of the road that had a number of houses despite our rural surroundings. He saw a woman sitting on her front porch and stopped our huge bus. Then Pavo and Edgar discussed who would approach the woman. Edgar absolutely refused to do it but advised Pavo to “be suave” in his asking.

Pavo left the bus not with his usual confidence, but he was on a mission. He later told us what he said to the woman.

“We are on a tour of Cuba and have some elderly women who need to use the bathroom,” he said. “Would you allow us to use yours?”

From the bus I watched the woman’s face drop with astonishment at Pavo’s request, but she agreed and opened her house to the few people who had to use the bathroom. Many other fellows got out of the bus to stretch their legs and to talk to the woman’s children and neighbors who were gathering around her porch to see who these strange gringos were and what they wanted. There were a few curious goats in the yard who approached a couple fellows and got some petting in return. A dog across the street sat on the roof of one house and checked in amazement out the strange visitors from the big bus.

As we pulled away, Edgar declared that he wouldn’t go to the woman’s house but instead would make another stop once he found some high bushes. A few other men waited until then and joined him.

Fellows engaged the woman and her children as a few neighbors (and those of us who remained on the bus) watched the whole scene. They learned that four generations all lived together in three adjacent houses. Her little girl had been sick with pneumonia for the past 20 days and was even in the hospital. She is better now. After half an hour, everyone piled back in the bus and we moved on. I’m sure we were the talk of the town for a few days.

Evelyn Hu-DeHart

But the surprises of this journey were not over. As we headed west, the sunset began to show its fine colors. Evelyn suddenly and reflectively declared that the moon was very bright tonight. Pavo began to look all around the sky for the moon, but he saw none. Then he realized she was talking about the sun. She must have been really tired to confuse the two lights of the sky. Those of us around her who witnessed this incident started laughing uncontrollably for the remainder of our ride. What was so funny to me was Evelyn’s way of swooning over “the moon.” Later, Evelyn mentioned that the Cubans sometimes mix the sun and the moon or see them as the same. It’s just another example of the “land of topsy-turvey.”

CUBA -- Soviet Architecture in Cuba

The Soviets offered Cuba many things, but beauty wasn’t among them. Art historian Lord Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) said that architecture reflects a culture’s feelings and ideas. When you look at Soviet architecture, there’s little mistaking their feelings and ideas about Cuba to the point that you wonder if they regretted their support for her back in 1961. Likewise, when you listen to some people, especially the younger Cubans, you may think their country might have done better by sticking with the Americans. Well, that remains to be seen and I would need to talk with so many more Cubans—both young and old—to make a better judgment about that.

Nevertheless, Soviet architecture is typically big, functional and brutal in its design. We saw two curious Russian structures that are outright ugly and so strikingly Cold War that they made us shiver in disbelief.

The Alamar housing project was built in ___, six miles from Havana. Each building is four or five stories and units have two bedrooms, a living and dining room.

In its day, the Alamar project tried to keep the people there so it offered jobs, stores, housing and transportation. Many of the people who live there today came from the countryside to live in Havana. People at first didn’t like the design of this new housing, but they learned to like it for its function in their lives.

Alamar is the largest public housing project in Cuba (and maybe the world) with 100,000 residents, says a feature story in the Tampa Bay Times (http://www.tbtpics.tampabay.com/news/world/a-socialist-vision-fades-in-cubas-biggest-housing-project/2259638).

“In a country sworn to socialist equality, it is arguably Cuba's most equal place, because everyone pretty much has an identical apartment,” it continues.

Havana is a city divided into zones. In Alamar, this is taken to extremes since there are no street names. Instead, you identify your apartment by the zone and block number.

"It was a model city," said Román Pérez, 76, a retired bus driver who lives in Zone 8, block D52, apartment 21. He helped build D52 and two others with his own hands, as a member of a communist worker "micro-brigade." (http://www.tbtpics.tampabay.com/news/world/a-socialist-vision-fades-in-cubas-biggest-housing-project/2259638).

Although Alamar started as an attempt to bring more equality in terms of housing, it fell short of its promises due to a lack of planning, poor decisions, rushing, and opportunism.

Here’s a revealing commentary (http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=7485) in Havana Times by Regina Cano, a young resident, a graduate of the University of Havana in accounting and finance and an artist, who viewed the recent documentary, Alamar, Ciudad del Futuro (Alamar, city of the future). The film features children who now live in these apartments that were built by their parents as a project that came under that cherished idea formulated by the Cuban Revolution called “El hombre Nuevo” (The new man).

When we moved to Alamar this myth (of the new man) maintained its theoretic vitality. I remember my mother telling me to behave myself and be careful how I acted because only the families of those workers acknowledged for their work ­-“the vanguard workers”- were allowed to live there.

There was even a regulatory commission to enforce this ideal made up of residents or members of the Communist Party who visited peoples’ homes to confirm the conservation and care of the homes, and the healthy state of family relationships. It was said that a family fight could be grounds to lose the right to live in Alamar. I don’t recall anyone being expelled, but, believe me, the fear alone was enough to ensure that the overwhelming majority of residents made sure that all the rules were followed.

Those were the days when the children believed that “the future belonged to us” and that in Cuba “everything was provided for.”

Thirty years later, Alamar is a dirty city with garbage everywhere and few parks. The buildings suffer from years of neglect, their paint peeling off, with makeshift additions by residents trying to add rooms for their growing families; expansions that stand out more as a solution than as something that follows the building code.

I tell you, it is not easy living in Alamar. What was an attempt to bring more equality in terms of housing -which in reality only succeeded in providing our parents with the necessary conditions to completely dedicate themselves to their jobs.

The majority of Alamar residents go outside of Alamar not only to work but to develop their projects and for recreation. The new people who today are moving to Alamar do so as a result of house exchanges (there is no buying and selling of homes in Cuba), because their homes were demolished, through negotiating with the government, or because they were assigned apartments here for having worked in the micro-brigades and having no where else to go.

For many, living here is a last resort. Odd given that Alamar is a seaside town with beautiful natural surroundings that could be better used and enjoyed.

It was sad for me to watch the documentary and remember how circumstances beyond the control and the civic spirit of many people who still live in Alamar have had such a profound impact on their lives, changing them forever.

film-- http://www.habanaelegante.com/November_2015/Invitation_Rodriguez.html

Far from the iconic Alamar is the Russian embassy, which sits prominently among 106 other embassies of Havana’s Embassy Row on La Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue) in the wealthy Miramar district.

Cuban bourgeoisie lived in Miramar before 1959. Today, these houses are occupied by diplomats from around the world. 


According to Business Insider  locals call the embassy "la espada de Rusia" (the stabbing Russian sword) because it resembles the Soviet-Cuban relationship during the Cold War.

Likewise, the Havana Tour Company (http://havanatourcompany.com/havana-architecture/) provides another less than favorable description of the embassy even though it bills it as a must-see site:

“It is a severe rectangular tower that shows the importance of the relationship between Havana and Moscow at the time. The tower looks decidedly out of place when compared to the rest of the city—it would look more at home in a science fiction movie depicting a dystopian future. It’s strange to see such a cold building in such a tropical paradise.”

 The Swiss embassy is an example of what most embassies look like in Havana--a bit more tropical, more Spanish, more warm.

To see the details of the Russian embassy’s layout and to compare it to other embassies, click on Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-embassy-in-havana-cuba-2015-6). 

While I'm on the topic of embassies, here is the six-story American embassy, which President Obama re-opened last March as a sign normalizing relations between the US and Cuba after 50+ years. I must admit that while I saw the flags, I couldn’t see the building, so I’m relying on someone else’s photo.  

Now, check out the amazing contrast of design between Russian-inspired Alamar and the beautiful single-family houses of the Cuban rural lands of ___.

CUBA -- Plaza de la Revolution

I'm doing a poor job of showing solidarity: no one is there to follow me.

We approached a huge space that looked like a Walmart parking lot sited next to an eight-lane highway. Three buildings have big, black, steel outlines of the Cuban heroes of the Revolution: Ernesto “Ché” Guevarra and Camilo Cienfuegos. Under Ché’s image is the quote: “Hasta la victoria siempre” (until the everlasting victory, always). Under Cienfuegos’s image is the quote: Vas bien Fidel” (you’re doing fine, Fidel).

 















The Plaza de la Revolution is the place where Cubans hold political marches and demonstrations. Fidel gave many a long speech here and I do mean long, once up to seven hours and 10 minutes! The last three popes also used this place to celebrate Mass. I must say it is a rather unremarkable place despite its importance. The attention to making it a special place hardly compares to Red Square in Moscow or Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Hey, Cuba is a poor, little country.

the plaza during a special event

Across the square is a gray marble sculpture of José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895), a Cuban national hero and an important Latin American literary figure. Martí was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, a Freemason, a political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol for Cuba's bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century. Consequently, he is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence." He is seen everywhere in Cuba, especially Havana. 

overview of the Martí monument

close-up of Martí

Ironically, this particular monument to him was commissioned by Batista after his successful military coup in 1952. The Castro regime kept the monument, however, regardless of its origins. Behind the monument is the National Assembly of the Cuban government. The National Library, many government ministries, and other buildings are located in and around the Plaza. Located behind the memorial is the Palace of the Revolution, the seat of the Cuban government and Communist Party. The memorial statue and lookout is 357 feet high and one of the tallest points in the city. 

Near the plaza was a political billboard. These government propaganda pieces are scattered around Havana and the other cities we visited. This one extols the benefits of the the Castro regime, which made possible a free Cuba. Hmmm, not many women in this one.