Santiago and Vinales

Sorry about the lack of a post last week. We went to Santiago de Cuba and did not return until very late Monday night and therefore I did not have enough time to post.

Santiago de Cuba was a very interesting trip. Santiago is the second largest city in Cuba, and is located on the southern coast of the Eastern part of the island. It is said to be one of the largest cultural centers in Cuba. The trip started with an overnight bus ride which left at 10pm and arrived at 11 something am. Although I did sleep most of the way it was a very long ride and quite boring. After arriving we settled into our casa particular and headed out into the city. The historic city walk which all our guide books suggested was fairly lame and involved a few plazas and a few small museums. But it did provide us with a quick glance of the major areas of the city. The next day we took a horse drawn cart to the Cemetery and saw many famous Cubans graves, such as Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo, Manuel de Cespedes, and the Martyrs of the July 26^th Movement. After that in typical Cuban fashion we negotiated a driver to take us to El Morro which like the one in Havana sits at the mouth of the bay and was used as a fortress to protect the city during Spanish colonial times. The mouth of the bay is also the scene for the infamous defeat of Spanish forces during the Spanish-American-(Cuban) War. As history books say the Spanish forces were basically picked off like sitting ducks by American ships as they left the bay. I was hoping to see some ship masts or something peaking above the surface but I was disappointed. After watching a small band of soldiers dressed in 19^th century attire set off the cannon which in the past signaled the end of the day we drove back to the city center. That night we went to a club/bar which was suggested to us by a friend. After getting all dressed up to go we get turned away by the bouncer for wearing flip flops (nice ones too!). The night was in all a bust and therefore we decided it was best to just go to bed. The next day we again negotiated a ride to the pilgrimage site of El Cobre set in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. The church is located on a hill and contains one the statue of the Virgin El Cobre. The story goes that she saved sailors who were about to die on a raft by appearing to them. She is the patron saint of Cuba and therefore each year people flock to see her and ask her for things. It was interesting to see because she is one of the only black representations of the Virgin and is also a symbol in the religion of Santeria. After El Cobre we traveled to the Moncada Barracks which was the site of one of the first attempts to start a revolution. Basically Fidel Castro and others attacked the barracks hoping to secure the city. It is called the July 26^th Movement (the date of the attack) and is one of the most important episodes in Cuban history. It was after this attack that Castro and others served prison sentences and during his trial Castro gave his famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech. Today the barracks serve as a school as well as a museum for the movement and the revolution. That night we went to Casa de la Trova which is supposedly the best place to hear music in Cuba. I don’t know if it is the best but it was fun and we were able to meet some locals which always equals a good time. The entire next day was spent on the long long (16 hour) bus ride home.

This past weekend a few of us went to Viñales which is located to the West of Havana. Viñales is known for its mogotes, I don’t know what they are called in English but they resemble the mountains in Southern China. They are dotted across the fertile valley and look almost like random mounds covered in greenery. The valley is picturesque and one of the greenest places I have seen in Cuba. It is considered a UNESCO world heritage site for its tobacco farms and its natural landforms and beauty. We arrived having already made reservations at a Campismo (a state run campground with cabins). After trying to check in we learn that they do not have water and therefore as tourists we are not allowed to stay there and that only Cubans can that weekend. They were nice enough to arrange a place for us to stay near by and offered us the ability to use any of the facilities. We decided to take an hour long horseback riding excursion around the valley. After our horse tour we hired a guide (who happened to be in our casa) to take us to a nearby cave where we could explore the caverns and take a swim in the underground pool. The hike was really nice it took us through fields and pastures and up to people’s homes, and finally to a man who we then hired to take us through the caverns by lantern light. The cave was very cool, and had all the basic features of a cave. We same in the icy waters and returned to the mouth of the cave only to find a thunderstorm occurring. After waiting an hour our guide decides that the rain is not going to let up and therefore she should just move quickly to the casa. As we begin to walk the ground underneath us is in parts becoming just a river of water and in other parts just pools of mud. About 45 minutes later we arrive ready for dinner soaking wet with red mud covering at least our lower halves. All our clothes for that day were covered in rain water and dirt. That night we spent the night in our country home. Literally the entire night was filled with animal sounds. The couple we were staying with had a few horses, some chickens, pigs, cows, a dog and a cat. Basically when one animal would stop making noise another would start. We managed a few hours of sleep but it was not very restful. The next day we left the hour and walked the 3km back to town. We split up a little and Brittany and I went for a walk despite our still damp shoes from the day before. It ended up being a hike which was about 10km more. We stopped and saw on of the more touristy caves which involved a motor boat tour of the inside which was covered in electric lights. We decided that although that cave was a little cooler looking it was more fun to have our own little tour the day before. We completed the day with a dip in a local hotel pool and dinner at the oldest home in Viñales.

Propaganda

It has been an interesting week for me. This past Thursday we met with José Ramón Fernández, the current Vice President of the Council of Ministers and leader of Cuban forces during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He spoke about the invasion and how Cuba was able to bring about the first military defeat of the U.S. in the Americas. Basically we listened for about an hour and a half about the glory of Cuba and the defiance of the Cuban people to the imperialistic Americans. On Friday we traveled to Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) and visited two museums dedication to the Cuban forces and strategy during the invasion. The first museum was housed in an old sugar mill house which was used as the headquarters for the Cuban forces. It was filled with military paraphernalia, like parts of U.S. planes, uniforms, maps, weapons, etc… Like all museums in Cuba it praised the strength and intelligence of Fidel and the Cuba people who fought in the conflict. I don’t think that the U.S. should have been so shortsighted in their plan for invasion. I think had any official visited the Cuban people it would have been obvious that the majority of Cubans were in support of the Revolution and therefore would not simply let mercenaries invade and establish a new government. Afterwards we visited the actual beach and swam for a while. I don’t know why one would have picked this place to invade, solely for the fact that it is gorgeous.

On Saturday we visited with Michael Parmly the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana at his residence. After hearing a brief history of the house and its extensive grounds we were able to speak with him about many things. Although he does support the U.S. policy towards Cuba it was interesting to see his views on exchanges of academic and cultural institutions. He feels that they need to be increased between the two countries because each side has something they can learn from the other. This was interesting to me since while George W. Bush has been in office more academic and cultural exchange programs have been closed between the two countries rather than opened. Parmly was the first person from the U.S. administration that seemed to be actively seeking to establish more programs to Cuba. This seems to be contradictory to the fact that obtaining visas for exchange students from any country is getting more and more difficult. It is refreshing to see that a high ranking State Department official sees the value in global exchanges.

This past week being full of propaganda and having about 20 articles to read for classes has made me realize that our lives whether consciously or unconsciously are filled with propaganda. Each one of my class readings took the same stance on Cuban-U.S. relations in the last twenty years. Cuba is always right and the U.S. is always wrong. None of the articles we read justify at all the U.S. policy towards Cuba. Despite that obvious fact that my professors disagree with the policy and that I would think that most people on my trip disagree with it, it does not mean that there are not justifications given by either academics or the U.S. Government. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was taking these classes in the States if the perspective would be slightly different despite the fact that a third of the articles were written by AU professors, I came to the conclusion that although the view point might be different it would still in reality only be one-sided. My classes here I only recently came to fully realize are a constant bombardment of pro Cuba sentiments. They almost never approach or if attempted can fully approach topics from both sides. It is not just classes, everyday when we turn on the TV or read the newspapers or just walk down the street we are being ‘taught’ that the U.S. is bad and nothing good can come from cooperation with it, and that Cuba is good and that nothing is wrong in Cuban society or its style of government. There are exceptions to the rule but as a whole I find that most things can be traced to anti-U.S. feelings. This is not just true to Cuba, in the U.S. my entire life, in school and through societal involvement I have be ‘taught’ that the U.S. is the best and that our policies and actions are right or will prove to be the right ones in the future. Until the invasion of Iraq I don’t think that most Americans ever challenged this notion. In the same respect I don’t think many Cubans have challenged the idea that the U.S. is ‘bad’.

It is interesting to think about the effects of indirect propaganda. Here billboards and broadcasts about U.S. imperialism and the blame that Cubans places on the U.S. embargo for most of its social and problems are obvious forms of propaganda. But what about the less obvious things that can act as propaganda. For example, university classes, which are usually advertised as teaching from all view points, are in my experience fairly one-sided. Sure assigned readings do have articles from both view points usually but I would think that most of the time the better written or more numerous articles are those which agree with the professor’s views. People tend to trust what academics say because they are highly educated and are said to think outside the box before making statements. But they were educated on the same flawed system that only seemingly approaches history and lessons from both sides. Propaganda exists on all levels and perhaps the forms it takes that are not as obvious are the most dangerous. It is easy to ignore posters or new articles but it is a lot harder to question what “experts” say and can back up with fancy charts or studies on the subject, or to go against what has been engrained in your head from birth.

Being in a country that relies so much on billboards and ‘news’ articles to continue support for the Revolution has made me rethink the idea of propaganda. What exactly constitutes propaganda then? Can it still be defined the same way has been? Is it possible that everything we surround ourselves with, whether material or ideological is in some way propaganda which can unknowingly shape how we view the world?

Trinidad

April 9, 2007

This past week we visited part of Havana called Ciudad Libertad which is essentially a town of various schools. Within the school there is a small museum dedicated to the Literacy Campaign. Right after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the Castro regime began a campaign to eliminated illiteracy in Cuba. Students, teachers, and workers were trained and sent to different regions in the country in order to teach people to read a write. They lived and worked with the families they taught during the day and at night held lessons. In less than a year Cuba was able to decrease its illiteracy drastically. People who had lived their whole lives not knowing how to even sign their name were taught to do so. According to Cuban historical documents a women who was over 100 years old was taught to read and write. Today Cuba has helped develop literacy programs throughout the world, especially in Latin America with the hopes of helping other developing countries fulfill this development requirement.

After the small visit to the museum we visited a special education school. This school had children with vision impairments as well as autistic children. As we toured the school it became obvious that integration was a main project in the school. Children who suffered from impaired vision, as severe as blindness, and as acute as wearing glasses, were placed in the same classrooms which allowed them to learn together. Teachers taught using not only the blackboard but also texts in Braille for the blind students. We watched part of a class and the teacher seemed to make no distinction between students, she asked a blind student to read allowed just as frequently as she asked a child who wore glasses. She did however explain to us that because of the integration of students her job is often a little more difficult and overcoming obstacles in teaching various students is sometimes hard. We stopped by one of the computer labs in the school. Each computer as would have been expected in the U.S. had a magnification program as well as voice command programs in which a series of keyboard presses can activate different programs and work like the mouse for students to are blind. I was surprised that the school would have this technology. As many people do not have access to computers I thought it was interesting that a school would be able to have more than one computer with more than basic programs. We also visited an art class. Each student was given different projects, all revolving around some civic theme, embossing an image of Che Guevara, coloring the Cuban flag, or for those students who were blind, making small projects with natural elements, like seeds, leaves, which represented Cuba. The art room was full of projects that students had made all of which were as expected very tactile and textured for students to experience. Before we left the students sang a song and performed a small dance number for us to thank us for our visit.

This past weekend we traveled to Trinidad and Villa Clara for our culture class. We first stopped in Villa Clara to visit the Che Guevara memorial, which essentially contained a large plaza and a large monument with a museum where he is buried. It was not a very beautiful monument as was crawling with tour buses full of European tourists. We spent the night at a hotel in the Escambray mountains. As our bus pulled up the hotel looked as if it could have once been a family resort. It is tucked away in the middle of the mountains on a lake. It has boat rentals, a ‘playground’, a few bars, and a disco. Unfortunately the hotel is built in the prefabrication soviet style and it completely made of concrete which has been painted in bright colors which clash with the green of the mountains. That night we went to see a play in a small playhouse in the mountains. The play focused on the 1960s in Cuba and the problems young people faced. It was interesting although I am not sure if I understood all of the play. The next morning we departed for Trinidad. Trinidad lies on the southern coast of Cuba about two miles from the Caribbean Sea. It is one city dedicated to tourism. We went because it has the only Semana Santa (holy week) celebration in Cuba. It became obvious that the revival of the celebration after the visit in 1997 of Pope John Paul II was for tourists. Very few locals seemed to be witnessing the procession but rather the streets were lined with tourists all flashing their cameras. Despite this it was interesting to witness. We obviously went to the beach for the day which was again covered in sunburned tourists. Our last night in Trinidad we went to a disco which was inside a cave, and located a short walk from the city center, and was one of the most creative clubs I have ever seen. After reaching the cave it is necessary to descend a series of stairs which lead to different caverns, some of which have nothing in them and others which have the bathroom or a small sitting area, the bar, or the dance floor. It was very interesting listening to the music bounce of the walls of the cave. It was an exhausting weekend and we were all happy to finally arrive back in Havana only to have six hours of class today.

Hershey Train

So this past weekend the plan was to go to Isla de la Juventud (the Isle of Youth) which is of the southern coast of Cuba. Unfortunately, there was a significant price hike in September for ferry tickets. They went from being 17 CUC each way for both the bus to the ferry and the ferry to the island to being 50 CUC each way for just the ferry. So we basically decided that it was a little ridiculous and therefore attempted to get tickets in Cuban pesos despite no guarantee. However in typical Cuban fashion our carnets (temporary resident cards) could not be used at the location we were at but instead could only be used across the city at another bus station. We were then told that it was highly unlikely that we could get tickets and that we should have booked ferry tickets a month ago. After this fiasco we thought it was best if we gave up and just planned a last minute day trip.
Last Friday we therefore took a mini trip to Matanzas and Varadero. Our journey began at 7:30am when we left for the Hershey Train. The Hershey Train was built by you guessed it the Hershey Chocolate Company around 1920 and was used to travel between Casablanca (across the bay from Havana) to Matanzas, the next port city east of Havana. Of course along the way there is a small village called Hershey where a series of gardens were built by the company. Today the train is the only electric train in Cuba and still uses the old train cars. Unfortunately these train cars have not been restored to their former beauty and remain in disarray. The train ride is supposed to take about three hours give or take a few hours. The train pulled into the station which consisted of a few small benches and a platform, looking as if it was probably best if we did not ride it. Being in Cuba we obviously took the risk and decided adventure was the theme of the day (we had no idea how adventurous it would be). As we boarded we realized that the two train cars were really not enough for the number of people on the train. Between us we had 2 seats and therefore we were forced to share them or stand. Within the first 15 minutes the train clamored to a hasty stop. The workers immediately moved to where the two cars connected and looked up towards the electric lines ahead. It was not clear what had exactly happened but we got the feeling it was not a good thing. One of the workers asked if anyone had a knife. Now we all thought that if anyone had a knife that it would a pocket knife. Why would have otherwise? We were therefore shocked when an old man sitting in front of us volunteered his kitchen cleaver, which was conveniently tucked in a sheaf in his pants. Interesting choice of tool to carry, a machete we could understand but a kitchen knife seems a little strange even for Cuba. Minutes later this knife had somehow saved the train and we noisily continued our journey. As the train continued it looked as if the back car was about to become detached from the front car. It shook from side to side as we traveled. I think we were all glad to be in the front car. About an hour and a half later, and a few seat switches we arrived in the dusty town of Hershey. Sadly there were no roller coasters or boxes of Hershey bars to meet us. Suddenly the worker who had miraculous fixed the train told everyone to get off the train and to wait because our train was being retired and a new train would come in a few minutes. So everyone evacuated the train only to sit on the few benches and wait. Now remember we are in Cuba and a few minutes can be anything from a few minutes to a few hours. As we sat there many Cubans who were riding the train left the platform to we could only assume hitchhike the rest of the way. Since the theme of the day was adventure we decided to wait. A short time later (one hour) a new train arrived. Only one car which appeared to be an old subway car, as there were a series of doors on the sides which slide open with the push of a button, had arrived. We all climbed aboard to continue the journey. As we continued down the tracks a number of interesting things occurred: Someone fell onto the moving train (it was strange), a man with a few machetes tied to his belt came on, a man with potato sack pants appeared, and finally produce and chickens joined us for the ride. As we stood near the door we started to hear clucking and glanced over to a rice bag which a young man was carrying. After a few minutes he opened the bag to reveal a fighting cock which obviously needed air. The next hour on the train involved us hoping that the rooster did not somehow escape the bag and attack us. The mix of people and things on the train made it one interesting ride. Finally we arrived in Matanzas at just about 1:30pm. I was definitely relieved to get off the train and to have arrived without any large incident.
As we walked through Matanzas looking for the guagua (public bus) to Varadero we happened to come across a runaway bus which crashed into a building about twenty yards in front of us. The whole thing happened in slow motion. The empty bus rolled down the small hill with a man, I could only assume was the conductor, ran towards it. Just as the bus was about to hit, the man jumped inside in hopes of preventing the inevitable crash. He failed and the bus hit the corner of the building. As the man backed it up, a rather large chunk of plaster had been removed from the building, but the bus remained untouched. This incident just added to our already very eventful day. We finally made it to the bus where we had to talk our way on. We obviously appear to be tourists and therefore were not allowed on the bus; fortunately we were able to use our carnets to gain access. As we stood on the bus we realized that we had no idea when to get off. Varadero is a rather large peninsula which juts into the Atlantic. It is one of the largest tourist areas in Cuba and is rumored to have the best beaches. Eventually, only after most of the Cubans had gotten off we decided to get off the bus. We needed to find the bus station in order to buy tickets home, so we eventually found a hotel where we could get directions. We learned that it was about 3km back towards Matanzas. We realized that it would be best to just play on the beach for an hour and then head towards to bus station via taxi to go home. As we walked onto the beach I couldn’t help but think that it looked almost the same as Playas del Este (the beaches near Havana). The area was clearly more developed and covered in European and Canadian tourists, and the sand was finer, but other than that it was essentially our beach. A slight disappointment, since I was expecting something that would put our beach to shame. After our hour we went to the bus station which turned out to be only about ten blocks away. As we waited for the bus a young man approached us wanting to know if we wanted a ride back to Havana. We at first agreed to go with him but then his ‘ride’ never showed up and we decided to take the last bus back to Havana at 6. We boarded the bus and without incident arrived back home about 2.5 hours later. It was a long, hilarious, and adventurous day, but we were glad to be back in Havana.