INTERLUDE IN CUBA, PART 2

Roof brackets, Trinidad

From Cienfuegos we made a day trip to Trinidad, Cuba’s best-preserved colonial city and a UNESCO world heritage site. It reminded me of some of the Spanish colonial architecture that we had seen many years ago in Venezuela, particularly the simple facades in strong colors of field and trim and the characteristic wooden bars over the windows. One interesting feature in Trinidad that I hadn’t noticed elsewhere was the use of ornate brackets to support roof overhangs on many house facades that face the street.

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

'55 Chevy in Trinidad

On the return trip to Havana from Cienfuegos, we stopped at the Bay of Pigs, the site of the ill-fated CIA-sponsored invasion attempt to topple Castro. The CIA bungled this one badly, although it is debatable if they would have succeeded even with a more professionally planned amphibious landing. Several Cuban exile members of the invasion force that were familiar with the proposed landing site warned the CIA that there was an impassable reef there. Their concerns were dismissed because the CIA analysts were convinced that what they saw on their aerial photographs was only seaweed. When the landing craft ground to a halt on the reef, the invading force had to abandon equipment and wade ashore, exposed to gunfire from the shore.

But the biggest error was strategic: failing to account for Fidel’s popularity. President Kennedy was told that as soon as the invading forces reached shore they would be joined by welcoming local inhabitants and that units of the armed forces would defect. Well, the local inhabitants in this area had been isolated and destitute before the Revolution; Fidel had quickly built roads to the area and schools, giving them hope for the future. So the locals were the first to fight off the invaders until the army arrived to finish the job. Final score: 1,511 exiles landed, over 100 were killed and 1,214 were taken prisoner. To this day, the Cubans refer to the invaders as “the mercenaries”.

"THE MERCENARIES REACHED AS FAR AS THIS POINT"

Trinidad Art Institute

The arts in Cuba are vibrant, certainly the music, which we heard everywhere. Afro-Cuban music has spread over the world and had a strong influence on American jazz. Live music is present everywhere, “conjuntos” playing in restaurants, passing the hat for tips and selling their CDs. Every band you run into seems to have CDs to sell.

Gates by José Fuster

José Fuster

Entrance to Fuster's studio & home

In Fuster's Studio

 In the visual arts, the most memorable visits we made were to the Trinidad Art Institute, a secondary-level school for gifted students; José Fuster’s studio and home, where the artist is engaged in a 17-year project of covering his home and the neighborhood with amazing Gaudíesque ceramic murals and sculptures; and Callejón Hamel in Havana, where Salvador Gonzales has covered all available walls with murals that celebrate Santería, the Afro-cuban religion that is a blend of Catholicism and religious practices carried to Cuba by African slaves. Having listened to Afro-Cuban music for years, I was never aware of the strong influence of Santería, until I noticed in Cuba that the lyrics often feature the names of the “orishas’, or saints, that practitioners of Santería pray to.

Callejón Hamel

Callejón Hamel

So finally, how to sum up our experience in Cuba? The Cubans consider their revolution to be ongoing, not something that ended when Fidel and his group took power. It’s not easy to understand how you can keep a revolution going for 53 years, but part of what keeps it going in people’s minds is the ongoing difficult relationship with the US.

Shop window, Havana

The embargo has been tough on Cuba, and it took a particularly harsh toll during the difficult “special period” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Cuba’s main economic prop. However, whenever it looked like the embargo was close to being lifted, Fidel took controversial actions that left the US with no choice but to continue the embargo: first by invading Angola after liberalizing efforts by Kissinger during the Ford administration, then by shooting down planes piloted by Brothers to the Rescue during the Clinton administration.

So the inescapable conclusion seems that Fidel had political reasons to want the embargo to continue, despite the economic hardship. (This is an “epiphany” that

Christopher Baker writes about in “Mi Moto Fidel”.) For one thing, Fidel has from the beginning been obsessed with freeing Cuba from the US domination that has been a fact of life since the Spanish American War. The embargo helps focus anti-American feeling and also is a useful excuse for why economic conditions aren’t any better.

Still, Cubans are very quick to insist that they like North Americans (their term for people from the US) and their culture, although they hate the US government and its policies.

Primary School "Uruguay", Las Terazas

The big achievements of the revolution are the agrarian reform, the educational system at all levels, and the health care system. Poor people in the countryside have been the greatest beneficiaries of the revolution, because before 1959 they had nothing and no prospects. Now they have benefited from the agrarian reform and their children had the opportunity for higher education. The revolution aimed to guarantee housing, health care, education and a job for all people, and to a large extent this has been achieved. And illiteracy has been virtually eliminated.

The failures of the revolution have been the poor economic performance, the rigid one-party political system, lack of tolerance for dissent, and until recently, a prohibition against private enterprise of any sort.

Raúl took over in 2006 when Fidel’s illness forced him to step back. Raúl has instituted some liberal reforms that have been popular, including issuing licenses for legally operating private businesses, allowing the purchase and sale of property such as houses and cars, simplifying the bureaucracy, and allowing Cubans to go to tourist hotels and restaurants for the first time. Compared to Fidel the charismatic leader, Raúl is more the pragmatic technocrat focusing on boosting the economy, though not looking to the west for models, more to China and Vietnam.

So how do Cubans view Fidel and Raúl at this point? I asked one Cuban after a lengthy conversation which of the two he considered the better president.

“No question, Raúl is the better president because he has already made some positive changes. Fidel talked too much.” When I asked him what he thinks will happen after Raul is gone (he is 80 after all), he said “We will have more changes and faster because we will have a younger president”.

Taxi driver with '57 Chevy

It will be interesting to see.