CUBAN TRANSITIONS

On August 22nd of this year, 2012, China and Cuba will celebrate the 51st anniversary of their diplomatic ties. These celebrations are very important because Sino-Cuban relations continue being instrumental to Cuba’s socio-economic growth and stability. Cuba was the first Latin American country that established diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China on September 28th 1960.

China is Cuba’s second largest trading partner after Venezuela and Cuba is China’s top trading partner in the Caribbean. The Gran Melia Shanghai Hotel, a China-Cuba joint venture, went into operation in January 2010. “The pig and ox slaughter house in the Guantanamo Province of Cuba to be built with government assistance and Santiago port project contracted by the China Harbor Engineering Company will start soon. Cuban procurement of bulk cargo ship and broadcasting/TV transmitter was successfully launched and the 23rd China-Cuba joint economic committee meeting was convened in Cuba in December 2011”.(www.fmprc.org).

Today, Sino-Cuban relations are very instrumental especially developing Cuba’s tourism industry; an example was the tour bus that we used during our visit there. Trade between China and Cuba in 2005 alone totaled US$777 million, US$560 million being Chinese exports to Cuba; China exports durable goods to Cuba and is playing a vital role in the planned revitalization of Cuba’s transportation infrastructure and in the “Energy Revolution” of 2006 to provide electricity to the Cuban population.

The US is home to the major pharmaceutical companies in the world and owns several patents to innovative medical products and treatment. Given the limitations in research and medical publication exchange between the US and Cuba, the development of Chinese Herbal Medicine has contributed to Cuba’s directive to develop preventative medicine and herbal medication as well as the success of the Cuba’s healthcare system. Biotechnological research with China has also evolved from this relationship.

The educational sector has also benefited from this relationship as students from the two countries continue engaging in cultural exchange and educational experiences. As Adriana pointed out, “China offers the highest number of scholarships to Cuban students in university to go to China and learn Chinese language, herbal medicine, economics, engineering as well as other fields of study”.

In terms of investments, China is currently collaborating with Cuba in the areas of oil, nickel production and biotechnology. An example of this is the agreement between state- run Cubaníquel and Chinese-government owned Minmetals Corporation which will finance a project with a 51% – 49% ownership ratio respectively for the completion and operation of Las Camariocas nickel processing facility.

Sources

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2511/t907523.htm

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/ldmzs/gjlb/3488/t17367.htm

“China Cuba ties report from Cuba Transition Project”, Havana Journal, June 2, 2006

Marc Frank, “Trade With China Primes Cuba’s Engine for Change”, The Financial Times, 29 March 2006

http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/ncta/pdfiles/ChengJnlColdWarStudiesArticle.pdf

Part of our tour included a trip to el Cemetario del Cristóbal Colón (also referred to as Colon Cemetery). Our tour guide of the cemetery was an animated Cuban with an interesting English accent who was delighted to take us to various points of interest in the cemetery. As previously commented on, this experience in itself was a somewhat unusual tourist destination. However, Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C. is also a tourist destination, where, for example, the Kennedys’ grave site is a popular point of interest.

Cubans gather around Amelia's tomb

A unique aspect of this particular cemetery was a trip to the grave of Amelia Goire de la Hoz la Milagrosa, the Miracle Worker. We were given the story behind the legend: As a young woman, Amelia fell in love with a man, Jose Vincent Adot in Old Havana. After a classic case of forbidden love, the two were eventually wed at the beginning of the twentieth century. Amelia quickly became pregnant. Unfortunately, the couple’s happiness did not last as Amelia suffered a stroke in 1903. Neither her nor the baby survived. She was buried with the child between her legs. The story goes that her husband, heartbroken, would visit the tomb everyday. He supposedly knocked three times on the knocker on the grave, leaving flowers arounds her tomb, and asking her for guidance. Several years after the death, the tomb was exhumed (for renovations and to be moved). When they opened the tomb, the child was found in the woman’s arms, not at her feet! A miracle!

Today, thousands come to Amelia’s grave, asking for her advice. On top of the tomb is her statue holding her child. Next to the tomb are hundreds of plaques thanking Amelia for her help and her miracles. The custom is to come to the tomb, knock three times on the metal ring to awaken Amelia, touch the child (or some part of the statue) and then move to the other side, never turning your back on her statue. People bring small monetary offerings and fresh flowers to place on the grave as well.

"Thank you for saving my daughter"

The interesting part of our tour was the lack of respect and belief from both our tour guide for the cemetery and our tour guide for the entire trip. Our tour guide, Joel, told me after that none of it was true. He asked me if I understood what had happened? That she must have actually been buried alive. Why were our tour guides so quick to dismiss la Milagrosa? Were they catering to us as American tourists? As academics? As youth? The various plaques around the tomb came from all over the world and were in many different languages. It was clearly not something for only Cubans.

Plaques thanking Amelia for her miracles

Further shattering the experience was the enormous amount of disrespect surrounding our visit. We were fortunate enough to see a group of Cubans who had come with flowers to pray to Amelia. As we watched their fascinating procession, our tour guide continued to shout to all of us only feet away. We were then encouraged to take part in the procession around the tomb, after having rushed out a group who traveled to the cemetery, intentionally picking up flowers to bring.

The legend behind Amelia La Milagrosa is fascinating, although somewhat unbelievable. However, the most unbelievable part for me was the lack of respect from the tour guides in what I perceived to be an (arrogant) attempt to come off as above such stories.

"My eternal gratitude for helping me to accomplish something that seemed impossible"

Typically, one wouldn’t consider a cemetery to be a tourist sight, but our group of ‘responsible’ ‘academic’ tourists arrived at el Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón in Vedado, La Habana on our tour bus. The cemetery was 140 acres; it was so big that the cemetery was laid out in a grid system with street numbers. Although we were visiting a ‘city of dead’, the thousands of white stone memorials that had been weathered by the tropical weather were extremely aesthetically intriguing. I began taking tons of photographs, too occupied with the spectacle of the location rather than its sensitive function as a house for deceased loved ones and national heroes. I even ended up taking a portrait of a fellow student, which only now in retrospect seems absurd. But, at the time, my eyes were glued to my camera, which created a lens that further removed me from the actual site.

Portrait of student in Cemetery.

While touring the cemetery, we saw two restorers repairing a beautiful memorial. I began to wonder what the reason was for restoring these memorials. Was the purpose of the restoration to enhance the spectacle of the cemetery (i.e. attract more tourists)? Was there an inherent cultural importance in restoring grave stones? Although I became a bit skeptical upon witnessing the restorers, I continued to take photographs like any tourist.

The most uncomfortable moment of the tour embodied a certain guilt for me that would remain indelible throughout the rest of our group’s trip. As our passionate tour guide was telling a story in his distinctly resonate voice about Amelia la Milagrosa, a funeral procession passed by. However, our tour guide disregarded the procession and continued to tell his story. This moment supports a sociological theory that I read about in Mimi Sheller’s book, “Consuming the Caribbean”. Sheller posits, “The apparent freedom of movement and boundless travel in a ‘world without frontiers’ is produced by the techniques of binding people, places, and meanings in place.” In other words, our increased mobility as tourists necessitates a degree of  immobility for locals. Our presence with our extremely loud tour guide created a hindrance for the procession; the mourning family and friends were interrupted by our presence. From that moment on, the implications of our mobility in Cuba as tourist became more apparent.

When I told my brother, who has been to Cuba as well, about my experience at the cemetery, he also had experienced an odd moment that illustrated the tension between the tourist sight and the cultural site. He was walking around the cemetery when an employee asked him if he wanted to see human bones. My brother agreed, somewhat in disbelief. He followed the cemetery employee to the main chapel and they descended into a room in the basement. My brother watched the employee walk across a room completely covered in bones, crunching peoples femurs and fibulae. The employee picked up a lower jaw bone and tosses it to my brother who was standing uncomfortably on the perimeter of the room. He was holding part of a human skull. I believe our anecdotes at the  Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón reflect the invasiveness of the mobility of tourism.

Sources

“Consuming the Caribbean”. Mimi Sheller

Colon Cemetery, Havana. Wikipedia page.

When we exited the Jose Marti airport in Havana, I remember how disappointed I was, seeing our modern-looking bus, surrounded by other post-1950s cars.  I was so confused.  It was all I had ever heard about Cuba, and the first question I was asked when I returned.

When CNBC talks about Cuba’s cars…

Soviet era Fiats, Ladas, and UAZs and more current Asian and European models fall into the mix, along with beautiful American cars from the 1950s of all sizes and colors.

With the US embargo, American cars post-1959 can’t be seen on the road in Cuba.  Unable to get new parts, Cubans became resourceful, using parts from different cars to fix up old American standbys.

The Cuban government views car ownership a privilege rather than a right.

We learned about the license plates and their color coded system, adopted from the Soviet Union.

Government owned cars have blue plates with letters and numbers which indicate when and where the vehicle can be used, and how the driver can use it.  Executives at government firms have caramel-colored plates.  Military vehicles wear mint-green, only rear plates, and olive-green mean Ministry of the Interior.  Foreign diplomats have black plates, and Cuban government ministers, or heads of state organizations have white plates.  The last three digits usually convey the rank of the driver, in their profession.  Rental cars have maroon plates, while foreign journalists, religious leaders and Cubans working for international firms have neon-orange plates.  Red tags are designated for cars which have not yet been officially given a color.

The first letter in the plate signifies which province the car is from, like “H” for Havana.

Cars from Detroit’s epic of industry still roam Cuban streets because Cubans with non-VIP jobs can only buy and sell cars which were manufactured before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.  New cars require state permission; meaning citizens must justify how they can afford a car.

However, things may be changing.

Last year, an official government decree announced Cubans and foreign residents would be able to do what they wanted with their cars “without prior authorization from any entity.”  Though limitations still exist, ownership allows for much more freedom than prior legislation.  Recently, under Raul’s rule, more private initiatives have been integrated into the command market, in an attempt to better the over all economic well-being of the country.  However, wide criticism faces the administration, as so few Cubans have enough money to actually buy the newly-sellable cars.

The most important item on my Cuba bucket list, was to ride in an old American car, and on a whim, I decided to go with a bunch of my fellow travellers to a reggae club, and we found an Oldsmobile.  In an effort to save our last CUCs, we pretended not to be the obviously white gringo tourists we were, and spoke Spanish the whole time we were in the taxi.  The driver sped along the Malecon, and as we drank our last Rum, we said goodbye to Cuba the right way.

Sources:

http://www.curiousread.com/2010/03/in-cuba-colored-license-plates-tag-all.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/04/21/cuba.classic.cars/index.html

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/31/141858419/in-cuba-a-used-car-is-no-bargain

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/uk-cuba-cars-idUSLNE78S01I20110929

After an excursion in Cienfuegos, those of us who had left the beach were supposed to meet the rest of the group at the botanical gardens.  The bus was at the hotel, so we found alternate transportation—three horses, each dragging a cart and a driver.  We all excitedly piled in, assuming the venture would be short, but exciting.

After only moving by bus, it was great to see the rural space up close, and get to know our knew drivers.

I sat upfront, with Alexi, our 22-year-old driver, who loved his hard-working horse.

Alexi had never heard of the botanical gardens, so we followed closely behind the other two carts.

We had no idea how far the gardens were, but we were moving about the speed of a bicycle.

Even far into the fields, and farms, propaganda billboards made appearances, asserting the government’s influence outside of the city.

(A father holding his young baby, as we pass by in our buggy)

Riding on the road, with cars everywhere, proved difficult. Sometimes we were angrily passed.  Our horse’s hooves would slip from the oil on the pavement, as Alexi explained, and all of a sudden would begin to fall.  Alexi tried his best to keep the horse afloat, but we took a lot of breaks to give him a rest, and let him walk on the grass.

(Taking a break for the horses)

Alexi soon understood why our horse was so slow! He had to pee. So we pulled over and Alexi tried to coaz his horse, so the other two carts pulled over alongside us, as we waited.

Alexi, though quiet at first, was very interesting.  He had never left Cienfuegos in his life, and greatly admired Fidel.  Raul, on the other hand, he didn’t have strong feelings for.  He explained that he wasn’t in school, because he had to work, but he met lots of different kinds of people working as a driver.  His two brothers were in graduate school, while he lived at home with his mom.  He was curious about parties in the US, but we told him they were nothing compared to Cuban fiestas.  When we asked about American music, he said he was a big fan of Pitbull, and he played reggaeton on his cell phone for us.  He really loved Cuba, and as we looked through the souvenirs we had bought, we showed him old postcard pictures of Che and Fidel, which he excitedly viewed, as I held them in his sight-line.

When we stopped again, Gordon took a break in the grass.

We soon discovered one of the carts had a flat tire, so we tried to find another way to get to the gardens.  Only one car passed the whole time we were stopped, so the driver found a farm to hold his horse, on the side of the road, and we piled on to the two carts which were left.

We stopped again to readjust the horses girdle, and make him more comfortable.

An abandoned bus on the side of the road

Lisa and Gordon get comfortable on the cart, as we very closely follow behind.

When the weight got to be too much for the horses, up big hills, we all helped out by walking along the road, as they rode ahead.

All in all, it took us about three hours to get the garden, and needless to say, we missed the tour.  However, finally getting to see another side of Cuba, without the shielding comfort of our huge bus.  We encountered difficutlies, but our drivers were dedicated to getting us to the garden, and happy to be part of the experience.

My decision to travel to Cuba with a group of 47 Vassar students and three professors was never one that I felt entirely comfortable with. From the outset I had concerns about the very nature of our tourism. The aspects of voyeurism that are inherent to travel seemed to be amplified; the idea of traveling to Cuba as an American tourist, “educational” or not, felt much more like a greedy child waiting to tear the wrapping off a gift that’s been hidden in the attic than an opportunity to experience a different culture in an informed and respectful manner. As we attended class each week and discussed the ramifications of tourism in Cuba my worries only grew. We seemed to establish that while tourism was unquestionably beneficial for growth of the Cuba’s GDP, this was growth that nearly always came at the cost of cultural exploitation and often negative socio-economic conditions in terms of the lives of individual Cubans, particularly those excluded from the tourism sphere. Thus, as our group waited for hours in the Miami International Airport, though I had forced myself not to obsess over our status as a culture consuming American tour group, the reservations I felt about our trip were beginning to manifest themselves in more immediate anxieties about how we would be received by Cubans in Cuba. Ironically, the one aspect of our travel I had failed to anticipate was the one that would prove most troubling: our reception by Cuban Americans in America.

Nationalism in America has ensured that feelings of national identity an My experience in the airport left me feeling a little jarred and confident that our reception in Cuba would mirror that of our experience in Miami. But, I could not have been more incorrect. For the two-week duration of our travel I did not once experience any feeling of estrangement as intense as those sixty minutes spent in our terminal in the Miami International Airport. As a major tourist destination for most of the world, aside from the United States, Cuba is a nation that is filled to the brim with ‘others’. Cubans have come to accept the presence of tourists as a part of life, and in my experiences rarely seemed to view tourism as an intrusion. However, even after countless experiences with amiable, helpful and welcoming Cubans, to some degree I can’t help but to wonder how much of the comfort experienced by tourists in Cuba is a result of a certain level of complacency that has developed in Cuba due to the sheer size of the tourism industry. It seems that at some point, when one presence becomes so heavily developed within society, the tools capable of diminishing that presence can no longer be effective. Additionally, in the case of Cuba, the economic benefits of tourism have created conditions in which Cuba cannot afford to reject tourism as an industry, and so tourists are embraced. However, particularly in light of the conditions presented in the Miami International Airport, it is interesting to consider how tourists might be received in Cuba if the dynamic of tourism dependency in Cuba was reversed, and tourists in Cuba existed within a Cuba that was not catered to tourist comforts, but instead to Cubans. The problematic nature of tourism space in Cuba, and the potential for Cubans to experience feelings of alienation within those spaces is an interesting extension of my own experience, not as a stranger in a strange land, but rather as a stranger in the homeland. belonging are deeply engrained in each and every American, whatever the specific identity of the individual. So, it is an extremely unusual experience to feel intensely estranged in a space that falls within the national sphere. However, upon entering the terminal for chartered flights in the Miami International Airport I nearly immediately experienced a feeling of intense alienation and otherness. I, as a blonde haired, blue eyed, non-Spanish speaking Caucasian, was not easily blending into the nearly entirely Cuban and Cuban American occupied room. As a woman’s voice warbled over the PA system in Spanish, the man sitting across from me looked up and asked if I had caught what she said. I bashfully admit to him that I don’t speak Spanish. None at all? None. He asks if I, and the group I’m with, are going to Cuba. I say yes. He can’t believe it. Through our conversation I learn that my friend is Cuban born, has lived in the United States for nine years, and has just completed nursing school in Miami. He is traveling back to Cuba to visit with family. I also learn that my feelings of ‘otherness’ are not misplaced. He kindly explains that many of the conversations around us have addressed the bizarre group of Americans who appear to be traveling to Cuba. As I talk with him a group sitting behind us makes a joke with him in Spanish. He laughs and turns back to me. He politely translates that they have joked that he should be careful or we are going to ask him to be our tour guide. Already, I feel the edges of my initial anxieties returning. We are American students going to Cuba, and our inquiries are already being perceived as some kind of perverse desire for knowledge of the unknown. It doesn’t help that throughout our conversation, though always polite, he has an air that seems to say that we don’t know what we’re in for. Sitting in the terminal, I wonder if he might be right.

My experience in the airport left me feeling a little jarred and confident that our reception in Cuba would mirror that of our experience in Miami. But, I could not have been more incorrect. For the two-week duration of our travel I did not once experience any feeling of estrangement as intense as those sixty minutes spent in our terminal in the Miami International Airport. As a major tourist destination for most of the world, aside from the United States, Cuba is a nation that is filled to the brim with ‘others’. Cubans have come to accept the presence of tourists as a part of life, and in my experiences rarely seemed to view tourism as an intrusion. However, even after countless experiences with amiable, helpful and welcoming Cubans, to some degree I can’t help but to wonder how much of the comfort experienced by tourists in Cuba is a result of a certain level of complacency that has developed in Cuba due to the sheer size of the tourism industry. It seems that at some point, when one presence becomes so heavily developed within society, the tools capable of diminishing that presence can no longer be effective. Additionally, in the case of Cuba, the economic benefits of tourism have created conditions in which Cuba cannot afford to reject tourism as an industry, and so tourists are embraced. However, particularly in light of the conditions presented in the Miami International Airport, it is interesting to consider how tourists might be received in Cuba if the dynamic of tourism dependency in Cuba was reversed, and tourists in Cuba existed within a Cuba that was not catered to tourist comforts, but instead to Cubans. The problematic nature of tourism space in Cuba, and the potential for Cubans to experience feelings of alienation within those spaces is an interesting extension of my own experience, not as a stranger in a strange land, but rather as a stranger in the homeland.

While wandering through the seemingly endless number of stalls in Havana’s crafts market, I decided to stop at a t-shirt stand. I was still deciding what souvenirs to get for all of my family, and had finally settled on an Industriales baseball team t-shirt for my dad. Although during the trip I had not been able to actually attend a baseball game (probably my only regret from the entire trip), I knew that people in Cuba are almost as crazy for the sport as Americans are. As I attempted to make small talk with the vendor using my pathetic broken Spanish, the conversation shifted to a discussion of where I was from. When I told the man I was from New York, his face instantaneously lit up as he echoed “the United States?” He then proceeded to prattle off a list of MLB baseball players who were all Cuban-born. Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, and Jose Canseco were just a few of the players the man listed. Clearly, these men were a source of great pride for the vendor.

As reported by the New York Times, “Cuba has the longest baseball tradition in the world outside the United States, and probably the most deeply felt one as well.”[i] The sport first arrived on the island in the latter half of the 19^th century just before the nation’s first War of Independence. It was spread by a combination of Cuban scholars returning from studying in the United States and American sailors who were anchored in Cuban ports. The game quickly became a hit (pun intended), and over the years has sustained itself as one of Cuba’s most popular pastimes. In 1961, the government created the Insituto Nacional de Deportes, Educacion Fisica, y la Recreacion (National Foundation of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation, or INDER) in order to oversee all athletics within the nation. It was under INDER that the Serie Nacional de Béisbol, or Cuban National Series, was established.
Today, the Cuban National Series consists of 16 teams, one from each province and two from Havana. Like in the United States, these teams are further divided into two leagues, Liga Oriental (translated as east) and Liga Occidental (translated as west). The National Series runs from November to April. Afterwards, certain players from the National Series are selected to join one of the four teams that make up the Super Series, a different series that runs from May through July. Players are selected from the Super Series to join the National Team.[ii]

Generally speaking, baseball is one of the areas through which Cuba has been able to achieve global recognition. The National Team is currently ranked number one on the International Baseball Federation’s World Rankings list (the United States is second).[iii] Moreover, as was already alluded to through my anecdote about the t-shirt vendor, some Cuban players have enjoyed international fame and success. In February of this year, Havana Times published an article that addressed the popularity of Cuban MLB players. According to the article, “While these players become untouchables for the Cuban media once they have left the island, treated as traitors by the Cuban government, the fans often maintain their interest and wish the players well.”[iv] The text then proceeds to provide a link to a website where vistors can track the stats and information about Cubans who are currently playing the United States. As this article evidences, in spite of all the bad blood that might exist between Cuba and the United States, ball players who have left the country to play in the US are still highly regarded. For the average Cuban citizen, the players’ stories highlight individuals who were not only able to make a name for themselves abroad, but moreover ascend to a level of national recognition and celebrity. These athletes are a source of pride for many fans back in Cuba and help draw attention to just one of the fields in which the nation excels.

Along similar lines, baseball has provided common ground around which the United States and Cuba have been able to establish some sort of a relationship. Only a few weeks ago, USA Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation announced that for the first time in 16 years an international friendship series would resume between American college and Cuban baseball teams. This series last occurred in 1996, and ended after the Helms-Burton Act was passed under President Clinton. This July, Collegiate National teams will venture down to Cuba to play a total of five games at Havana’s Latino Stadium. The following summer the series will take place in the United States. Higinio Velez, President of the CBF, commented, “‘These games are of great importance to our federation…It is going to contribute to the development of players in our country, and it will be an opportunity for the athletes and audience to view the development of baseball in Cuba and the United States.’”[v]

While commentators are careful not to imply that any political relationship will arise out of this arrangement, one cannot help but hope that this development will eventually lead to better US-Cuba relations.

Further sources:

I could probably extend this post on forever, so instead I’ll leave you with a few websites and articles that I found particularly interesting:

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/LegalCenter/story?id=3012635&page=1#.T4SLKyPm_EI

-article detailing 2007 a case where a top sports agent was charged with smuggling Cuban baseball players into Florida

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/sports/baseball/26cuba.html

-fascinating article from the New York Times about how baseball would change if the embargo were to end (published right around the time Fidel stepped down)

http://www.cubanball.com/index.html

-useful site where you can learn about the history of baseball in Cuba and all the players who have come to play in the United States

On our first morning in Havana Vieja, we were guided on a tour by a representative from the Office of the Historian of the City.  We saw the Plaza de Armas and a beautiful cathedral, as well as incredible city views from the Hotel Ambos Mundos.  The historian then walked us through a residential street, which had not yet been restored.

In Havana, the focus is on tourism, not on housing, which our tour guide admitted is a huge problem.

The trash in the street, and rugged looking buildings, showed us a different Havana, one that hadn’t been restored.  When we visited the scale model of Havana, there was a color coded map, demonstrating the overwhelming use of city buildings for housing, while very few were designated as “tourist” sites.

After Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two square kilometers in old Havana were restored, in partnership with the Office of the Historian of the City, at its head, Eusebia Leal Spengler.

Spengler is well known in Old Havana, as the man responsible for the restoration.  He has refurbished more than 300 historic sites, while acting as the official historian of Havana.

However, critics reveal that while much of the city has been restored, it has been mostly for the benefit of tourists.  By law Cuban citizens still cannot stay in the restored hotels.  The restoration strategy for the city relies heavily on revenue from the tourism industry.  As more buildings have been restored, tourism has increased, allowing the government to invest even more in new restoration projects.  Leal admits to the devastation of the border between what is restored, and what remains untouched.

On January 1^st, this year, around 9:30 PM, a three-story building collapse killed at least three.  The fall is blamed on the severe housing shortage, and the need to stay in dilapidated buildings.  About 300 buildings collapse a year, while restoration efforts remain very focused in a small section of Old Havana.

In her poem, “the rafters,” translated by Krisin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen, Reina Maria Rodriguez alludes to the condition buildings in Havana.

“under us are gravestones

–it’s  said that they’re stable

and that we’ll reincarnate ourselves

on this mixed architecture.”

In talking with Wesley, a 28-year old student I met at the University of Havana, I discovered the frustration of Cubans towards the tourist industry.  Wesley saw the money come from tourists’ pockets, and fuel more tourist development, rather than fix existing problems for tourist citizens.

The housing and physical differences in the buildings of the city create an even greater division between Cuban citizens and tourists, who often stay within the restored tourist boundaries.

Sources:

photo credit, Jessie Ditmore

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/world/americas/05iht-havana.4.8600724.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.havanaarchitecture.info/restoration.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/18/2595816/havana-building-collapse-kills.html

http://jacketmagazine.com/26/meadows.html

http://www.havana-guide.com/havana-buildings.html

http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FOCUS_Web/Issue59.htm

While exploring Havana in the first few days of our trip, I found one of the most interesting, beautiful, and devastating aspects of the city to be the buildings crumbling throughout most of the streets. On our first tour of the city I was surprised to learn that between two and three buildings collapse daily, and to see the consequences of this destruction that has been going on for decades, even in some of the most prominent city buildings.

The deterioration of buildings in Havana illustrates the lack of resources available, or made available, to go into the necessary rebuilding efforts. While there was a consistent presence of construction, scaffolding, and building taking place, the extremely large amount of destruction made many of these efforts seem so futile. While walking around it seemed rather evident that without emphasizing rebuilding as a major priority – and allocating the necessary money and work to the cause – the reconstruction of so much deterioration is a quite dubious ambition.

The lack of funding for reconstruction is complicated by the city’s very prominent priority on ensuring that everybody has access to housing. This sort of paradox affirms that everyone will have a place to live, even if the living conditions are (much) less than ideal. Throughout Havana there were many buildings that from the street appeared uninhabitable, but that were clearly lived in. Overpopulation within Havana further contributes to issues with housing, especially because negative population growth is causing the population’s average age to increase, depleting the work force while hindering a large amount of civilians in need for better, safer homes.

One aspect of the “crumbling city” that struck me most was the attitude many cubans seemed to take to the issue. Just as the government has not made reconstruction their primary concern, many of the people we talked to seemed relatively un-distraught over the fact that many of the buildings are literally falling apart. While many complained about their low living conditions, others simply seemed grateful to have places to live. However there is clearly much discontent throughout the population due to this housing crisis, which causes poor living conditions, unsanitary streets, and over crowding in homes. Much of this discontent comes not even from the over crowding, but from the inability for young people to leave home and start their own independent lives when they are ready.

There is pride and publicity for buildings that have already been repaired and renovated, such as this building in Old Havana

While the vast project of reconstruction in Cuba is humbling to anticipate, changes lurking under Raul might indeed inspire some progress. The increase in private property, for example, could perhaps improve the housing situation through inspiring more renovation and construction. If people have more of an ownership over their property they may be more inclined to invest in improvements. Other potentially beneficial changes recently in place are “credit facilities” to help families who need to repair their homes. These changes might not only be beneficial in adding manpower to the reconstruction efforts, but also in circulating more capital in the housing market to potentially expand and alleviate some of the poor conditions and over crowding.

Apart from the lovely cultural, educational, political and social experiences we had in Cuba, the famous rum “Havana Club” played a critical role in our diet at different [an maybe often] times. Cuba was described as the “Isle of Rum” due to its high quality sugarcane, a crop introduced on the island by Christopher Columbus in 1493.

Since then, the “Quality improved drastically in the 1800s with the introduction of copper stills and the first attempts at ageing. Pedro Diago, known now as the father of Cuban rum, can be thanked for this. He had the idea of storing the “aguardientes”, or eaux-de-vie, in pots and burying them in the ground. The second half of the 19th century saw the production of a lighter and more refined rum, known as “Ron Superior” (www.havan-club.com).

The Spanish Crown issued instructions to develop a “delicate” rum to satisfy the Elites who were the primary consumers of the rum from Cuba. By 1860, Cuba was home to more than 1000 distilleries encompassing the art of “añejamiento : the art of distilling, ageing and blending premium rums.

In terms of marketing Cuban rum, the name “Havana Club” captured Cuba’s rum-making heritage and the unique atmosphere of Havana as it reflected Havana’s lifestyle as a “play ground” for the elite who travelled to  the Island for the rum, casinos, sun, beaches and prostitution that characterized the Island prior to the revolution in 1959.

Havana Club is a brand of rum currently manufactured in made in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. The brand was established in 1878 by José Arechabala but just like many private entities, the company was nationalized in 1959 after the revolution. A very interesting aspect of the distillation process makes Havana Club rum unique from other brands; that is the “Maestros Roneros” (literally “master rum-makers”) Who are the Maestros Roneros? They are guardian spirits behind Havana Club rum who oversee every step of the rum-making process, from the selection of sugar cane to the final bottling; blending and ageing of the rum with particular passion, patience and precision, as well as a strong commitment to Cuban rum-making tradition. Who can become a Maestro Roneros? At least 15years of training is necessary for one to become a Maestro Roneros!

As Don José Navarro, Havana Club’s Primer Maestro Ronero, explained “The rum doesn’t come from a magical combination, It is a cultural legacy, passed on from Maestro Ronero to Maestro Ronero, from heart to heart, from Cuban to Cuban.” (www.havana-club.com).

However, it is important to mention that during my research, I noticed the lack of women Maestro Roneros but was not able to verify whether this is a position reserved only for men or whether Havana Club had ever employed female Maestro Roneros.
Overall, Havana Club has evolved to symbolize Cuban culture and continues to maintain its reputation as the best rum worldwide, and after visiting Cuba, I agree!!!

Sources

http://www.guardian.co.uk/havana-club/don-navarro

http://adage.com/article/global-news/havana-club-rum-runs-international-marketing-cuba/229309/

http://www.havana-club.com/en/int/havana-heritage/maestros-roneros