Santiago

A massive monument to one of Cuba's independence leaders Antonio Maceo, at the Revolutionary Square in Santiago

Our program had always included a spring break trip that was supposed to mark the end of the first quarter of classes and the start of the second quarter. On the day that we were supposed to travel, however, a small earthquake hit Santiago. The University of Havana, not wanting to endanger us, postponed the trip until this last week.

The itinerary for the trip included two nights in Santiago. Once the most important city on the island, Santiago was eventually left in the dust by Havana in the sixteenth century. The city, located on the eastern part of the island, is still the third largest in the country (Holguin, on the northern coast, just became second) home to around half a million people. Because the city is so far away, our group took an overnight bus that carried us 12 hours from Havana to the Melia Santiago, the fancy hotel that the program put us up in (much to our chagrin, since we’d rather go to Casa Particulares, but we didn’t have much of a say in it). The nice thing about the Melia was that it included all you can eat-breakfast and dinner buffets – a dangerous proposition for students who have been on a very plain diet of rice, hot dogs and peso pizza.

We arrived in Santiago on a Tuesday morning after spending all night on the bus. After a filling breakfast at the hotel, we took off on a sight-seeing tour of the city. There wasn’t too much to see in Santiago – there were a couple of old houses that we stopped at and we got to go to Santiago’s main city squares, but it didn’t compare at all to Havana. On the plus side, Santiago did have a beautiful setting, with a small bay, the city perched on a hill and the Sierra Maestra mountain range that Fidel Castro’s rebels fought in in the background. Because none of us had slept well on the bus ride, we ended our sightseeing early and went back to the hotel to enjoy the pool. That night, we all gorged on the dinner buffet – I made myself a five course meal that included cold cuts, shrimp, lamb, steak, hamburger and dessert. It was disgusting but amazing at the same time. Jonathan and I weighed ourselves in our bathroom right after and I found that I had gained six pounds; Jonathan outdid me with eight. That night we walked to the city center (our hotel was unfortunately located outside the city center, so it was about a thirty minute walk to get anywhere) and sat in one of the squares before heading back.

Jonathan on the scale after eating way too much

The second day we did more sightseeing. We started out by visiting Santiago's cemetery and paying our respects to Cuba's greatest leader, Jose Marti.

At the cemetery in Santiago

After that, we went to San Juan Hill, known in the annals of American history as the location where Teddy Roosevelt led his Rough Riders on a charge to take a Spanish fort and end the “Spanish-American War”. Cubans are understandably cynical of the hill’s importance, mostly because it symbolizes the intervention of the United States in a Cuban war for independence that would have been won even if the US hadn’t sent Teddy and the Rough Riders. The American intervention forced Cuba to become economically, politically and militarily dependent on the US for the next 61 years. Nevertheless, the hill has been preserved, with several monuments commemorating the Rough Riders and other American soldiers killed in the war; others commemorate the Cuban soldiers who also took part in the battle and the Spanish soldiers who stood their ground for more than 24 hours in the face of an army 10 times their size. Being the Americans that we are, and understanding the historical significance of the battle, a few of us lined up at the base of the hill and led our own charge up.

Our charge up San Juan Hill

For some still unknown reason, our itinerary included a visit to Cuba’s Prehistoric Park, a large grassy area located an hour away from the city whose main attraction are the “life-size” concrete dinosaurs that litter the landscape. It was such a ridiculous place that we couldn’t help but having fun climbing on the dinosaurs and taking silly pictures.

At the dinosaur park

We also visited the Morro, an old Spanish fort built on a precipice overlooking the entrance to Santiago’s bay, used to fend off pirates and other invaders. The last stop on our visit was Cuartel Moncada, the old barracks that Fidel Castro attacked with a band of about 100 soldiers on July 26, 1953 as the beginning of the war against the Batista government. The plan of attack was foolish and quickly failed, leading to the torture and deaths of seventy of the attackers and Castro’s incarceration. The symbolism behind the attack remained important throughout Castro’s time in jail and led to the creation of the 26^th of July Movement, the political-military group led by Castro that led the Revolution in 1959.

After the visit to the barracks (which have since become an elementary school), we went back to the hotel and lounged by the pool some more before having another ridiculous dinner. After digesting for a couple of hours, Jonathan and I walked downtown to take some pictures of some political propaganda that we had seen before. It was here where I encountered the arbitrariness of Cuba’s law – a police officer came over and asked me if I was taking pictures. I responded by saying that I was, indeed, taking pictures. He then asked everyone else who was around if that was what I was doing, which they affirmed. He called it in to his headquarters, which apparently told him that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. He forced me to delete all my pictures that I had just taken and then laboriously copied all my information on my Cuban ID and American passport. When I showed him that I had deleted the pictures, he told me I also had to delete the pictures I had taken of the Moncada Barracks. I told him there was absolutely no way I was going to delete those, especially since we had to pay extra money to go into the museum with a camera anyway. He didn’t really know what to say then and kept copying down my information. When I asked him what I had done wrong, he balked and couldn’t answer, even though I pressed him multiple times. Finally, he gave me back my id and told me I could go. It was a silly and insignificant encounter, but it confirms what other Cubans have told me that the police enforce the law in silly, arbitrary ways, and that they are often untrained and unskilled. While it resulted in nothing for me, for Cubans it could easily lead to heavy fines and jail time. It was an eye-opening experience.

That was the end of our Santiago trip. To be honest, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the city, but that may have had more to do with the fact that we stayed outside the center at a relatively luxurious hotel, distant from the realities of Cuban life that have made our other city visits more enjoyable.

View from the Morro, at the entrance of Santiago's harbor