So How was Cuba?

22 August 2015

The souvenir I shoulda bought: a camera folded from soda cans.

It was impossible to blog while in Cuba. I did have an app called Mars Edit that let me write some posts, but half were written after we got home, and the very last, just tonight. It's brief and more of a log than a thoughtful entry. I did want it down for some completeness.

Flying out of Havana is notorious for its delays. Our trip was no exception and we arrived in Miami late. Miami is pretty far down on my list of pleasant way to re-enter the USA, and efficient, it is not. When I finally got to bed that night, I felt like I was coming down with a cold.

The man in black is Enrique Inglasias. He is a singing sensation
in Cuba and everyone wanted a photo with him. He was kind to his fans.
But even he had the same long wait with us!

Our return to the New York was also a much longer trip and I felt awful. Two days after getting home, I finally went to the doctor to find out that I had strep throat, for, I believe, the first time in my life. At school I am never far from a case of the stuff, and have never succumbed.

So, my idea for a great sci-fi story is that the embargo has locked 1960's strains of strep captive on the island, and all of us post-embargo "babies," are especially vulnerable. It's revenge.

In the weeks since we've been back, school has started and there have been so many other things to think about. Even through that, though, Cuba has not been far from my thoughts. Grency, our guide, told us not to try to understand Cuba; that's a pretty tall order for an analytical traveller. I certainly can't claim to understand Cuba after a week, but still, some bottom lines for me are:

1. It is hard to understand "everything," being state run. One quote was, "In Cuba, time is not money." So, for many people, working hard doesn't yield more. Being an artist is one way, though.

2. I hope change will happen, and that it will happen at a pace that will allow Cuba to not be reliant on another country so much.

3. It is really hard and really expensive for a Cuban to travel to the USA. This is because of us, not them.

4. It is ironic that an embargo against a totalitarian state led a democratic state to make travel of its own citizens illegal. We have Cuban stamps in our passports, and can be asked to explain our travel to Cuba at any time when we are re-entering from abroad. Our trip was legal because it was a People-to-People tour, and we carry a letter saying that our trip met the conditions of the State Department.

5. The embargo was cruel and didn't work. It just has to stop.

An Artist on the Roof and a Unique Estate

7 August 2015

Our last full day in Cuba; a rather mellow one that left some time to enjoy the resort.

The lobby of the resort is open to the air, and very humid. The rooms run off the center like spokes on a wheel and only then are you in air conditioning.

We spent the morning visiting Mariella, a fabric artist and designer. As an artist, she has a special permit from the government to be self-employed, and she also pays high taxes. (Most people don't pay any taxes in Cuba because most people are state employed.)

Her work was very vivid and creative. She used found object and objects from nature, and then some stitching to paint on fabric. Sometime the work was just for the color blend, like below.

But on the day we were there, she had been doing a series of portraits of Frida Kahlo.

Look carefully. Kahlo's face is facing Mariella. The eyes are below the petal-like wreath at the top and the beads are around Kahlo's neck at the bottom.

Mariella's husband is a woodworker who makes humidors.

Our last tour stop was to visit the home and farm, Finca Coincidencia, of Hector, a very big fan of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He has a large estate where he lives with his sons who are grown and raising families of their own and helping to run the farm. They also made pottery. He made the farm in order to transmit the message that people should not be separated from nature.

Organic farming in Cuba has garnered much attention, and Hector's production is organic. However, he has a very moderate opinion of organic farming and society. He believes that people have to eat and that organic farming is not necessarily going to work to feed all the people that need to be fed. "You can't go against the times...none of the inventions of mankind will stop." It's worth listening to his perspective because Cuba is a country where people may more or less have enough to eat, most of the time, but as a whole, people spend a lot of time wondering if they will have enough. Organic, then, can easily seem like a luxury of the wealthy.

And so, the wealthy sat to eat at Hector's table. It was one of the best meals we had because the food was very fresh. The okra and pumpkin dishes were especially good.

And then back to the hotel. A last afternoon in the ocean, a farewell dinner and a long evening spent talking afterwards, with just about everyone in our group.

Organic Farming to Hemingway

6 August 2015

One last look at the view from our window in Hotel Nacional.

We checked out of Hotel Nacional to head for Varadero, our location for the next two nights.

Soviet-style apartments. I would judge these to be in decent repair relative to some other housing we saw.

We passed out of Havana through an under the water tunnel-- one of the wonders of Cuba-- which connects Havana with the Alamar District, making it possible for people to commute to the city. The apartments we passed were block, Soviet style buildings. When the families were relocated there, they had to participate in building the apartments, so it was a little bit of a "Habitat for Humanity," style venture in the 1970's.

Crops covered by screens to extend the growing season in the summer.

Our first stop was an organic farm cooperative, and one of my favorite stops for the whole trip. The director of production gave us the tour. The cooperative is part of an urban agriculture movement; what we might call a CSA or community supported agriculture. Its mission had a lot in common with our local CSA, the Poughkeepsie Farm Project: To provide people in the community with better nutrition. In the 1990's, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba did not have access to chemical pesticides and fertilizer, so they began to grow almost everything organically, out of necessity. Since then, organic produce has taken off in many other countries, and Cuba's agriculture practices, born of necessity, are being studied by visitors from around the world. This cooperative is self financed, and pays the government 5% of its profits.They sell produce at the farm itself, as well as a small amount to paladars. We saw the ample fields of mint that help supply all those mojitos!

Marketable mint for mojitos

This cooperative has 800 square meters under cultivation, with 150-170 members. Having been in operation as an organic farm for so long, their experience is in demand, and "the government has been helping us," to connect to research centers. They make decisions democratically and elect a president every five years. They provide services to their workers: a barber, and a manicure/pedicurist (!), as well as special hours for mothers who work at the farm. People apply to work at the farm, and are given a three month trial before approval.

Awesome worm composting beds

Motivational t-shirt worn by the production manager

We departed the farm, gifting some small over-the-counter medical supplies to the production manager for the workers, and headed to Ernest Hemingway's Cuba house.

View of living room from front door

I was surprised to learn the Hemingway has long been beloved by the Cuban people. He is called "Papa" there, and every student reads at least one Hemingway in school. Although he lived (and drank) in Havana for years (his bar: The Flordita, where the daiquiri was invented), his third wife, Martha Gelhorne, persuaded her husband to move to the country "for quiet." He purchased (1940) and lived at Finca Vigia in San Fransisco de Paula, about ten miles out of Havana.
He wrote For Whom the Bells Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and A Moveable Feast, while he lived in Cuba.

After you've imagined water in the pool, add an au natural Ava Gardner-- she was there too.

The home is lovely, and you view the home by looking through the windows from the outside. That sounds crazy, and it does feel a little illicit, but, the windows do afford a good view, at least.

The most obvious: It is a home full of books (9,000), some bullfighting posters and other art, and his hunting trophies. The most famous is his African kudu, which Mussolini is fabled to have sent Hemingway a blank check in order to buy it. Hemingway is said to have written back something like, "Shoot your own," or "I don't hunt for a living," in response.

Coveted kudu

An eccentricity is that he kept a record of his weight written on the wall in his bathroom. Wonder what Papa might have done with a fitness app on an iphone?

We drank a sugar cane juice refresher (or cocktail) while we were at the house and it was fresh squeezed in this very interesting machine:

The Hemingway House is the only place in Cuba that we saw baseball-- perhaps because it is so hot-- and this little league team may have been for the benefit of tour groups. Nevertheless, it is a heartwarming tradition because Hemingway sponsors a local boys team, importing equipment for them, and gave them rights to play on his estate grounds, where the game seems to go on.

The Old Man and the Sea is set in the fishing village of Cojimar. We stopped by a fort still in use, and had lunch at a paladar. This is also the location of the "Hemingway Marlin Tournament," which Hemingway won and was awarded his trophy by Fidel, the only time the two ever met.

1649 and still in use as a garrison

Our last cultural attraction for the day was in Matanzas, a small town that was the birthplace of the Cuban rhumba. Our stop was Callejon de las Tradiciones, which was a community project to educate visitors about Cuba's history with the slave trade. Street performers danced and drummed for us, got us to dance, and one of us to play the drums. There was a ceba tree altar, and it is known as Little Africa of the Caribbean; a melting pot of a mixture of tribes.

In all, it was my least favorite stop, perhaps because it was very hot and I didn't feel worthy of having people work up a sweat dancing for me.
And then we arrived at the posh Hotel Melia Varadero, an all inclusive resort on one of the world's most beautiful beaches.

"Economic Changed Promote Social Changes."

Che Guevara is revered and his image is everywhere, here it commands the view in Revolution Square.

On August 4 we had an hour with an economics professor from the University of Havana. He spoke at length. Here are some notes:

~ The GDP of Cuba is holding at 4-5% for the last 20 years. This is better than in the 1990's when after the end of the Soviet Union the GDP decreased by 35%. Nevertheless, last year the GDP only increased 1.3% and this is not enough.
~ Nineteen percent of the Cuban population is over 60 years old. Over the next ten years, that part of the population will increase to 25%, with a life expectancy of 79 years. So, there will be a small number of workers supporting a large number of elderly people very soon.
~ Some of the reason why the GDP is so slow is due to "internal affairs," (ie. domestic policy and issues.) Agriculture is responsible for 4% of the GDP but employes 18% of the population. Industry used to be responsible for 25% of the GDP but has decreased to 14%. This is due to the way the economy was managed in the past 50 years. So, more of the workforce needs to transition to jobs that help the economy more.

Looking at the international money collection at La Casa paladar

~ In 2011, the parliament approved a document, paraphrased "Economic and Social Development." Before being passed, it was "talked about with everybody." This was before President Obama made his announcement this past December. The plan has several important components that will represent change, slowly. They also all point to managing "Cuba's economy with economics, not politics.":

1) The State should not own and manage everything-- the non-state sector should be encouraged. Over the next 5 years a goal is to increase the number of people employed in the private sector from 100,000 to 500,000. (That's huge. It will represent 24-35% of the labor force.)
 2) Downsize the ministries of industries. Cuba had a separate ministry for every, single industry. The plan calls to consolidate them under a single Ministry of Industry.
 3) Give more authority and independence to the local governments of cities and provinces. (This is huge too, because we later learned that there is basically no local government-- just some neighborhood associations.)
 4) Figure out a way for foreign investment. This economist thinks that the economy cannot grow without Cuba having foreign investment, and that about 20% of the GDP should be invested. However: Cuba doesn't have 20% to invest, AND, the US embargo has made investment in other countries difficult if not nearly impossible.

~ Where might the Cuban economy look for growth and development?
 1) Knowledge based economy. Cuba has a literate workforce, but there has been a "brain drain," since it is very difficult to have enough money for R&D, and even academically well educated people earn a very low salary.
 2)Tourism. Sun and beach is 70% of the current tourist trade-- and Cuba will have to compete with the whole Caribbean for this. But specialize tourism is a really good idea (in the professor's opinion and mine.) These could include ecotourism, medical tourism and cultural tourism.

~ President Obama's December 17 announcement was a surprise in Cuba. The only signs were that the NYT published about six articles about Cuba in the months preceding the announcement. (And I intend to look them all up-- go NYT!)
~ In the first six months, the Cuban economy grew 4.7%-- so this is a good sign.

Hotel Nacional displays photos of heads of state who have visited.

Two more HUGE points:
~ Cuba should not put itself in a position where it depends, yet again, on another country. It's such a long list from history: Spain, the US, the USSR, Venezuela and, somewhat, China. It hasn't been good for Cubans, and it hasn't been good for its neighbor the USA, either.
~ The cost of the embargo has been huge, and estimate of $118,200 billion dollars. Embargo is a system that has many layers to its removal.
While my photos of the trip will show many lovely places and a beautiful country, travel in Cuba makes the humanitarian consequences of the embargo abundantly clear. It is embarrassing. It is also embarrassing to realize that our democratic process is now going to slow down any official ending to the embargo as we begin a presidential election cycle.

Statue of Jose Marti in a monument boarding Revolution Square

Las Terrazas and Fusterville

We spent the day out of Havana, and even the drive out was interesting. We drove through Miramar which is a wealthy suburb near the ocean founded after 1929. It has large and beautiful homes, many that are still in good repair. Many were left behind by families that left Cuba after 1959, some in the keeping of the house staff or family that stayed. Other homes were abandoned and the state reallocated them to people in need or people who had fought with Fidel. It is the area of Havana that houses diplomats, the president, and "other important people."

There are no mortgages in Cuba. People live in houses that were in their family for a long time and only recently (2011) did they have the right to sell or buy a home. These transactions of buying and selling a house privately are done in cash. People who are in great need, say a single mother, will be given a place to live by the state. Other people are allocated housing based on a job position. Some people can also "rent to own," a house or apartment. While banks give loans, they are not mortgages and Cubans do not like debt, because, our tour guide explained, "Who knows what tomorrow will bring." Many people live in a state allotted home or apartment for no rent at all, and only pay for electricity and water.

Driving through the city there are some building that look in decent repair, some in really good shape (the boutique hotels in Old Havana are an example) and others that are literally crumbling. The three types are all mixed together.

Our guide at Las Terrazas

Our main destination today was something like a commune...or a kibbutz... neither term used by our guides. Called La Terrazas, it is a community in a mountainous, forested area to the west of Havana. Its founder convinced people to join him in making a model community for reforestation and agriculture. It is also a protected world biosphere. The name comes from "terrace" which is how erosion is prevented when crops are grown in mountainous areas  (now and in the past)-- horizontal bands every few meters, up and down the inclines. Today there are 1,020 inhabitants of the community and they farm coffee, twenty species of native tree, and four economically important timber species that are not native (teak, mahogany, pine and eucalyptus).

Summer daycare

The community has a school serving 290 students, a lake, a zipline, a coffee shop with a barista (we had some awesome cold coffee sort of like a Frappucino), and some artisans, a day care, a medical clinic, and its own ration store. We saw all.

The ration store

Picking up a bread ration

The ration system is particularly Cuban. Every citizen has a ration card with a monthly allotment of staples: rice, beans, cooking oil, charcoal, sugar, matches, 1/4 of a chicken and bread were examples. The amount of food is paid for, but for the whole allotment, a person might pay only a few pesos. This amount of food is not enough to cover a month of eating-- and generally is thought of as being ok for the first half of the month. Another reason why the food can be stretched so far, is that workers and school children are given a big lunch during the day. So, breakfast and dinner are the two meals that must be eaten at home. There has been talk of discontinuing the system, but it is very popular. The minimum wage salary is twenty pesos a month, and a professional like a physician makes about forty pesos, so the greatly subsidized food makes a big difference.

Ration book

The board displays the selection in the ration store.

The clinic was small and very accessible. We met the two doctors, both young women who were completing their two years of social service. Medical school is six years long and students are finished when they are 22. After the two years of social service, they do one year of training in internal medicine, and then might begin a speciality or practice in a city. As doctors in the country they knew their patients very well; the patient files were contained in what were a sort of composition book of notes.

The bed in the medical clinic.

Maternity care is very careful for those in the country, with home visits and clinic visits up to the 37th week of pregnancy where upon the mothers check in to a maternity hospital until delivery. Post-partnum visits are also mandatory and monitored. Not surprisingly, Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, and it is lower than the rate in the USA.

The youth of the physicians was quite surprising, but most of their work is likely to be what a nurse practitioner would do. If an illness is at all serious, they call for an ambulance to take the patient to the city. Similarly, if a patent needs a specialist, the physician will call and make the appointment. The admirable part of the system is that the people in the community are really known by the doctors. In fact, when housing is determined by the leaders of the community, one of the doctors sits in on the decisions because they understand the needs of the people so well.

We had a short stop at the studio of the artist Lester Campo. His work is in museums all over the world and he studied in the states as a young man. His art interprets nature with symbolism, and love, and in pieces, decay. He has an idyllic spot by the lake at Las Terrazas because the property belonged to his father before the community was organized. We were especially taken by a print on canvas of a Ceba tree and it will come home with us.

Eating lunch family style at Las Terrazas; this was our only meal at a state run paladar.

We ate at in the community, in the open air, and this was the most traditional meal we've had so far, and the only state run restaurant on our itinerary. The kitchen is run by a grandmother of many and I am very happy that I have never had to cook in 90 degrees and 97% humidity in a kitchen like hers.

Paladar chef

The bus became very quiet as we made our way to our afternoon stop at Fusterville. Fuster is an artist who is alternatively know as the "Picasso" or the "Gaudi" of Cuba. The first thing one notices is the mosaics that cover absolutely every surface of his home and increasingly around his neighborhood. Fuster is also a painter and many of his images are cubist like Picasso. He is also an art teacher and gives lessons to children. The area "dazzles" the eye.


Tonight was our night "on our own," to eat at a paladar of choice. We arranged to hire a vintage car with new friends and drive around the city for about an hour before our dinner reservation. Yes, a Belaire! Yes, it was pink, and a convertible. These cars are actually out of my memory range, although something about the steering wheel and upholstery rang bells. Being in a convertible was very much more pleasant then being closed up would have been-- these cars burn oil...


Our driver learned English on the street and was cheerful and garrulous while also being careful and evasive in his answers.

There was nothing about the paladar that made me think I was in Cuba. We ate at Vistamar, in Miramar where our morning exhibition had routed us in the morning, The illusion pool, the furniture, the high terrace dining and the seafood on the menu were all indicative of a classy restaurant in Malibu or Miami.