News in Cuba

Last Thursday I was watching CNN at one of the hotels where we take dance class and suddenly saw Havana in the news. It appears that the Ladies in White, a group of women who are vociferous critics of the government, marched down the streets of Habana Vieja clamoring for the release of 75 Cuban journalists who were arrested in 2003. The march was peaceful and it seemed like there wasn’t too much police interference, maybe because it was held in such a touristy area, but we would have never found out about it had it not been reported by an international news agency (CNN and other international news channels are viewable in hotels and resorts but not anywhere else).

Most of the habaneros that we talked to were unaware of the march and frankly didn’t seem too interested in it anyway. What was considered by CNN to be important enough to make it into the top world headlines was barely noticed here in Cuba. It’s a sad statement of fact that free journalism doesn’t exist here. Anything that does make into the major dailies – Granma, Juventud Rebelde and a number of other workers’ newspapers – are so full of political spin that it is almost impossible to tell what is fact and what the government wants you to think is fact.

The Haitian earthquake is a good example. For the first month after the earthquake, Granma published a front-page article everyday concerning two different topics relating to the earthquake: US actions in Haiti, and Cuba’s contribution of doctors of nurses to recovery efforts. Cuba’s media, which denounces most American actions as imperialist and neo-colonizing, actively sought to portray US actions as an aggressive military occupation of the country (the images it printed of a US Army Blackhawk helicopter landing on Haiti’s presidential palace didn’t help); on the other hand, it painted a rosy picture of Cuba’s sending of doctors to Haiti as the perfect counterpoint to US aggression.

Of course, Cuba’s medical diplomacy is laudable and praise-worthy. Cuba still maintains more than a thousand doctors in Haiti who have proven invaluable to relief efforts there. But to portray the sending of US Marines to the country as a military occupation, especially after Haiti asked for US assistance, is clearly political. Had the US not sent its military, Cuban doctors would not have had an airport to land at. US Marines provided security and order to a country that badly needed both. Nor did the Cuban media mention the American public’s reaction to the tragedy, including hundreds of millions of dollars raised in donations and humanitarian missions by both NGOs and the US government. The articles published by the Cuban media reflect the political goals of the Cuban government.

Of course the US media is by no means perfect. As our professors here were quick to point out, many of the US’s major news outlets are run by corporations that have their own economic and political interests in mind. Fox News among others has demonstrated a clear political spin, and all of them have practiced self-censorship. But it is just impossible to compare the journalism in the US to that of Cuba. We get really excited when someone's relative brings us a copy of the New York Times because it makes Granma look like a high school newspaper.

The Cuban government’s restrictions on the free press aren’t all encompassing – the fact that I can publish this blog is proof of that. Indeed, many Cubans have been able to publish their own opinions on their own blogs and websites, most notably Yoanni Sanchez, who publishes Generation Y, a blog critical of the government. The Cuban Revolution has many faults and the lack of freedom of speech is one of them. Hopefully politicians here will realize that a free press can promote a healthy and constructive dialogue in the future.

Waiting and waiting and waiting

The most frustrating thing that we’ve experienced in Cuba is its infernal and inefficient bus system, or, more precisely, the system used to buy bus tickets. Cuba has two national bus lines – Astro and Viazul. The latter is used mainly by tourists and works just like any other bus line in the world: you go to their ticket office at the bus station and buy tickets for whatever day you want. Viazul prices vary but are usually about 4 to 5 CUC per hour, so tickets to Cienfuegos or Trinidad cost around 20 CUC. Astro, the line used by Cuban nationals, charges only around 50 moneda nacional (2 CUC) for the very same ticket – so instead of paying 40 CUC, we end up paying only 4 CUC. Given our absolute aversion to buying anything in CUC, it stands to reason that we would want to buy the cheapest tickets possible. This means, however, that we have to brave the Astro ticket system, perhaps the most mind-blowingly inefficient system ever devised by human beings, which takes any poor soul who dares face it to the very far limits of human mental endurance.

The buses themselves aren't bad. The system is another story.

Ok, so it’s bad, but not that bad. After having a more or less delirious experience waiting for four hours at the ticket reservation agency last week to get cheap tickets to Santa Clara, Maeve, Ani and I decided to once again attempt to buy tickets with Astro, this time to Cienfuegos. Because of our experience last time, I decided it’d be interesting to keep a log of what actually happened in our adventure to the Astro station.

12:30 PM

We got to the ticket agency and called for “ultimo” – last person. The line doesn’t seem too bad – only around twenty people ahead of us. The system works like this: you get in line outside of the ticket agency. The line that we stand in is to get into the “cage” – a small waiting area surrounded by a green chain-linked fence capable of seating about twenty people. Once you get into the cage, you sit down and watch all the people in front of you go in to actual ticket office, where you tell the person sitting at the desk where you’re going. Once you do that, you go outside into the cage and wait until everyone who is sitting in the cage gets called into the office, where you wait until you can buy your ticket. The problem is not so much the process itself as it is the system. Because Cuba’s lacks any sort of internet grid, everything needs to be done by phone. This means that every time every person buys any ticket going anywhere at any point in time, the ticket-sellers must call every other ticket office in Havana to make sure that those seats haven’t been reserved, and then they have to call every one of those ticket offices again to actually reserve the seats. The end result is that what would ordinarily take only five minutes anywhere else in the world takes a soul-crushing five hours. We spend more time waiting in line for the ticket than it takes to actually get to wherever you’re going.

The line outside the cage at 12:30

We’re a little more optimistic about the line today, since it’s not so long. I’m guessing that we’re only going to have to be here for three hours – hopefully.

1:30 PM

The line still hasn’t moved and it’s been an hour. Maeve went to go get some ice cream to cheer us up. I talked to several of the men standing in front of us and asked them what they thought of the line and he replied that it is probably the most inefficient system he’s seen in Cuba – and that’s saying a lot. “You can be a Revolutionary when you come in here,” he said, point at the cage, “but you won’t be one when you leave.”

A little comfort food: ice cream

2:30 PM

A lady came out of the ticket office and told everyone who was standing in line outside of the cage to get in order. Because the lines take so long, people usually just call “ultimo en fila” – last person in line – and memorize that person. When the next person comes up and asks for “ultimo”, you raise your hand and memorize that person as well. Once you’ve done that, you can walk around the area, find a place to sit or even go buy ice cream, because you’re almost assured that the line won’t budge. Cutting in line in Cuba is akin to stealing, a major social taboo especially for long lines like these.

Waiting in line and pretending to be mad

The lady who told us to get organized is letting people into the cage in groups of around twenty at a time. We were around 35th in line and so didn’t make into the cage just yet, but hopefully we will after they work through the group that just went in. There’s a very real possibility that the office will close before we are able to get into the cage, but I don’t want to think about that. I don’t think that the American University students who showed up an hour after us are going to make it.

3:30 PM

We’re in the cage! The man standing in line after Maeve was literally the last person in before they shut the doors to the cage. We got lucky – I don’t think the workers here are giving the people still standing outside the cage a chance.

Inside the cage

4:30 PM

To paraphrase the ubiquitous Revolutionary motivational phrase, “Tiquetes o muerte, venceremos!” – Tickets or death, we will win! We finally made it into the ticket office itself where we were told that we should have come earlier to buy tickets to Santa Clara. Now we’re just sitting in yet another waiting room hoping that the three ladies sitting at windows in front of us call us next. We probably have a while to go.

5:00 PM

For shame! The AU students who arrived an hour and a half after we did and only just came into the third waiting room just got their tickets! They must have paid off the ticket lady to get them the tickets quickly, because they very clearly just skipped about thirty people waiting with us. The whole process is getting to be ridiculous. I talked to the man next to me and he told me that he had been there since 8 AM – and I thought I was upset.

In the inside waiting room, at last!

I remember what a lady who may have been losing her mind told us the last time we bought tickets: “It’s a psychological war that they’re fighting against all the bus passengers. The Americans were right – they said that they didn’t have to fire a single shot here because Cubans were going to kill each other anyway, and that’s what’s going to happen at this ticket office. If I have to wait one more day for a bus ticket, I am going to lose my mind!”

5:30 PM

Free at last! After five hours of waiting in three different waiting areas, we finally got through to the ticket-seller and got our tickets to Cienfuegos. The tickets only cost 54 moneda nacional, or about $2. The question is, is it worth it?

Finally buying the tickets

Celebrating outside the cage

(pictures by Ani Goerdt)

Santa Clara

In 1958, a thirty-year old doctor from Argentina ordered his small platoon of rebel soldiers to destroy the rails on the tracks leading into the small central city of Santa Clara. Within an hour, an armored military train carrying soldiers, weapons and munitions for the dictatorial Batista regime derailed on the spot and was surrounded by the rebels. The surrender of the train set in motion a rapid chain of events that led to the exile of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, the arrival of the Argentine, Ernesto “Ché” Guevara to Havana and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1^st, 1959.

Che Guevara, newly naturalized as a Cuban citizen, made Santa Clara his home in the months after the Revolution. Katie, Maeve, Ani and I decided to visit the city precisely because of the historical connection between the city and el comandante. Our visit was brief but good. We managed to get Astro (the national bus line which is far cheaper than the tourist line – only 2 CUC compared to 18 CUC) tickets for 6 am on Saturday (after waiting for them for three and a half hours on Wednesday). We arrived at Santa Clara at 10 and walked from the bus station to our Casa Particular, which the guide book described as a “national treasure”. It was very nice – the rooms we got were decorated with an eclectic mix of art deco and colonial antique furniture.

Top: the patio of the Casa where we slept. Above: one of the rooms at the Casa Particular

After checking in, we got lunch at a peso pizza place and then caught a ride on a horse carraige to the Che monument and mausoleum.

Enjoying peso pizza in Parque Vidal

Horse carriage - the main mode of transportation in Santa Clara

Che Guevara left Cuba in somewhat mysterious circumstances. Up to that point, he had been Minister of Industry, an important position in a government that had declared itself as socialist in 1962; however, Che grew restless in his new country and clashed with Fidel Castro about the way the country was going. He became obsessed with “exporting” the revolution to other countries, a policy that under his influence was officially adopted by the Cuban government as “foquismo”. In 1965, Che sent Fidel his resignation letter, renounced his Cuban citizenship and disappeared. He reappeared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a band of Cuban followers and tried to instigate a revolution; however, he became frustrated with the lack of commitment and cohesion between the rebel forces in the Congo. He disappeared again and showed up in Bolivia, where he tried once again to lead a peasant revolution. His revolutionary fervor blinded him to the realities of Bolivia and led him to misjudge the Bolivian people. In 1968 he was betrayed by the very peasants that he had been trying to save but who had always viewed him and his movement with suspicion. He was summarily executed by the Bolivian army with the express approval of the U.S. and buried in an unmarked grave.

Fidel Castro marked Che’s death by declaring him the ideal man, an example to which every Cuban should strive to be. He has since become a symbol of the Revolution and of rebellion not only in Cuba but around the world. His image has been rampantly commercialized, especially his iconic photograph that was made into pop-art by Andy Warhol. It is ironic that the man who despised capitalism and sought to overthrow has made millions of dollars in profit for t-shirt companies in the US and Europe.

In 1997, Che’s remains were discovered and brought to Santa Clara, where the government erected a massive monument and plaza to his legacy. A mural depicts his actions in the battle of Santa Clara; next to it, stands a rather ugly statue of him emblazoned with his iconic phrase: ¡Hasta la victoria siempre! - to victory forever. Underneath the monument is a museum with artifacts from his various expeditions and his remains, along with those of the men who fought with him in Bolivia.

After visiting the monument, we walked back to the city center and bought some soda on the rooftop of the Hotel Santa Clara Libre, another important battle site. We then walked to the site where the trains had been derailed and checked out the museum inside some of the boxcars that are still on the site of the derailing. On our way back to the Casa, an enterprising old man tried to sell us some puppies for a dollar each, an offer that was very difficult for Maeve, Ani and Katie to refuse.

At the site of the train derailment

View from above of Parque Vidal and the rest of Santa Clara

We had dinner at the Casa and had lobster with shrimp – it was absolutely delicious. We ate dinner with two Dutch girls that we had met earlier that day. They were backpacking through Cuba without a schedule or itinerary, something which I would love to do if I had time. After dinner, we went to a club called Mejunje which was really cool – it was in an old building with no roof and had trees growing in it. We found out when we walked in that it was gay night, so for the first time I got more hit on by men than the girls. It ended up being really fun though and they played some American music which we got excited about.

After the club, we walked to Parque Vidal, Santa Clara’s main square, which is closed off to traffic. Tons of Cubans were out late so it was fun to talk and people watch.

Some anti-American grafitti on one of Santa Clara's main streets. The bubble reads: "Yes Mom, I'll take care of the terrorists"

We decided to head back to Havana early so that we could have time in the city, but we ended up waiting in the standby line for the bus for four hours without getting any closer to getting tickets, so we ended up getting a private taxi back to Havana for 15 CUC each. We didn’t have any trouble on the highway and got back to the residence by 6.

Viñales

On Saturday, Ani, Emily, Lily, Rachael, Katie and I went to Viñales, a small touristy town located in the eastern province of Pinar del Rios, the heart of Cuban tobacco production. Some people from our group had already gone to Viñales a few weeks ago and had highly recommended visiting, so we got up early to catch the bus. Unfortunately, the Viazul bus (the state company that runs buses for tourists) decided to not pick us up at the bus station and we were delayed four hours. The ride itself wasn’t bad – Viñales is only three hours from Havana. We arrived at four and saw the León León who I had talked to on the phone about arranging a casa particular waiting for us with a sign.

The town center

León and his wife were very hospitable and brought us some guava juice while we registered with our passports. I stayed in his house in one room while Emily and Lily stayed in the other room; the other girls stayed in rooms next door.

The whole town is obviously geared towards tourism – almost every other house was a casa particular and there were a couple of touristy restaurants located in the very small town center. Viñales attracts many foreigners because of the countryside that surrounds it – beautiful little mountains called mogotes which are the remnants of an ancient limestone plateau. Underground rivers eroded the plateau from underneath, causing much of the plateau to collapse and creating large limestone caves in those that didn’t. The whole area is also the center of tobacco production – Pinar del Rio’s soil is the best in the world for cigar making.

Because we arrived late, we didn’t have time to go to some of the caves that we wanted to go see. Instead, we walked around the town and found a small botanical garden that we got lost in for a while.

Entrance to the botanical garden

León and his wife made us a delicious dinner that consisted of chicken, rice, soup, fried root vegetables, salad and more (we asked if they had lobster which we had heard was good around here but they told us that only the government was allowed to sell lobster to tourists).

Before dinner

After

After dinner, we went to the only night club in the area and danced. The place was packed but we still had a good time.

Sunday morning we got up and had a massive breakfast of eggs, bread, guava jam and fruit in Maeve and Ani’s casa particular. At nine we were picked up by two cars and taken to a farm in the outskirts of Viñales where we got on horses that seemed far too skinny to support any human weight – it was sad.

Maeve on her horse

Our guide led us out into the countryside where we admired the mogotes and talked about Cuban farm production.

A mogote

We got to visit a tobacco farm and got to talk to the campesino – farmer – whose land it was. He said really interesting things – the government technically doesn’t own his land, but it tells them that a certain percentage of their land has to go to the production of tobacco, even if producing other crops are more profitable. During harvest time, the government sends workers to help pick the tobacco and set it to dry; it also provides the fertilizers and chemicals necessary for good growing conditions. In the spring, the campesinos pick the tobacco plants – each level of leaves – top, middle and bottom – are set on different racks to dry.

The tobacco is grown and then dried in the brown straw building

The government then buys ninety percent of the harvest for a set amount based on the quality of the tobacco leaves and sends it to the tobacco factories (h. The man who was leading our tour told us he made around $300 for last year’s bumper harvest – a sum that has to last the entire year. To supplement his income, he grows other crops: corn, root vegetables, tomatoes and more, which he also sells to the government. He uses the ten percent that he gets to keep to cater to tourists like us – we ended up buying 36 cigars for 60 CUC, or one-fifth of what he got paid by the government for his harvest last year. It was really interesting to see how involved the government really is in every aspect of life here.

Making the coconut drink

After enjoying a delicious drink of coconut milk with rum, grapefruit juice and honey and smoking a cigar, we got back on our horses and went back to the town. After a miserable lunch that took entirely too long (45 minutes to bring a menu? Come on, Cuba), we walked up to a hotel on a hill overlooking the city and played frisbee. We caught the 6 pm bus back and we were back at the Residence by 10.

An old dilapidated church in Vinales town center