CUBAN TRANSITIONS

Quite a ways down Calle Obispo was the Hotel Florida. Inside was a salsa club. In the club were the jineteras sitting at the bar, Cuban men picking tourists up to dance, Cuban and foreign couples dancing, and the bartenders. In case you’ve never made it to the Hotel Florida, I should describe exactly how the process works. You walk into the hotel, pause to listen for the music, and then you walk through a double set of wooden doors on the left. A man in tuxedo approaches you and holds out his hand. The price is five CUCs, and includes two free drinks from the bar. That man you just paid? He’s both waiter and bartender, and so as you take your seat, he comes over and takes the first order. On the dance floor are several couples: The obvious tourists who are pretending to know how to salsa, foreign women being spun around by Cuban men, and a Cuban couple whose dancing you’ll never live up to. At the table to your left is another group of tourists. On the set of couches to your right is a confusing group: a few Cuban men and a few women who seem to Russian based on what they’re speaking. You can’t quite figure out if they’re dating, if they’ve just met…etc. Suddenly, halfway through your cuba libre, a hand enters your vision and attached to it is a tall Cuban man asking you to dance or offering you a drink. You, of course, get up, and proceed to salsa, meringue, or bachata and have the time of your life for a song, being spun around like those dancers you see on television. After the song, you have the desire to start dancing again and never stop, but that tall Cuban man has already moved on to another woman in the club.

Couple Dancing at Restaurant

I went to the club at the Hotel Florida three times. After the first time, I realized that I recognized several of the tall Cuban men (TCMs for short). There were a few that were there all three times that I went. After a while, I started noticing things. Like the facts that they never seemed to pay for any drinks, and that they seemed very familiar with the bartenders. At first I thought that they were just regulars, but who shows up at a club for tourists on a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday over two weeks? I came up with two other hypotheses: They were there, with a running tab at the bar, in hopes of taking someone home, or they were actually employed by the hotel to attract tourists. By the third night, I began thinking that the latter was more likely to be true.

Two out of three nights, I stayed until the club closed, and I never saw them settle a tab with the bartender. They were also hesitant to approach me at first; one told me that he thought I was Cuban, and usually only danced with tourists. It wasn’t until I left that I came to the conclusion that I would not have gone back to the club after the first night if it hadn’t been for the TCMs. Why would I? As a person who had just been to salsa lessons, I had absolutely no idea what to do when confronted with the dance floor. Dancing with someone who knew what they were doing was a lot different that practicing the steps with my roommate. I am now convinced that I won’t get to dance like that again. It can only happen in Cuba –

Dancing With a Tourist

– Which means that if they were actually hired by the hotel, the TCMs are doing their jobs right. As a tactic, it’s extremely effective. It kept the dance floor full of rotating people who looked like they were having a fantastic time and kept people coming back. Really, how different is that that the couple dancing at the restaurant we ate lunch at the first day? They were entertaining and inclusive of the patrons of the restaurant. Like the bands singing everywhere we ate, and like that couples, the TCMs were a form of entertainment. Whether or not it was intentional on the part of the hotel and club, they work.