CUBA 2014: Local minima and local maxima

               I had a very introspective high point on Saturday morning in Veradero. I asked for a wake-up call at 5:30 and took my cappuccino to the beach with my camera to take pictures of the sunrise. It was magnificent. There were fisherman preparing their nets, there was the evening security staff (who you normally never even notice because they are not really meant to be seen) changing shifts, there was a man named Rafael cutting coconuts and he gave me one… In Cuba, there are these tiny birds – kind of like finches, I suppose, but they sing with voices that make them sound huge and beautiful. It is a very tropical sound, and it was the only sound besides the waves that I could hear. The sunrise reflected on the water in such a way as to bathe the ocean in sparkling pink and orange. The air was cool and fresh. As someone who loves people, but needs time away as well, this was the morning that I really treasured after a week of constant movement and conversation. 

     Fisherman leaving the harbor at dawn to catch fish. The color of the ocean is just amazing here.

                                                 My kind of breakfast: coconut and coffee.

                My low point was realizing the situation of the Cuban people because of their structural disadvantage. As a nation, Cuba has been blocked from participation in the global economic system, and within the country, individuals are deprived of freedoms which are part of our taken-for-granted value system. One could never describe the people as powerless or lacking in agency, I just find it very sad that the government has left them in such a difficult state of poverty. On the flip side, I have never met a group of happier, more generous or kind people who live in a world free from crimes against each other. I guess this is part of the magic of Cuba. Once you have connected, it causes you to want to return and ask more questions, dig more deeply, discover more.

                           One of countless windy, mysterious streets to explore in Habana Vieja

                Understanding Cuba means letting go of certain media directed ideas. One of these is the perceived link between poverty and crime. We must be very careful when extrapolating our cultural biases and problems to other places, and this is one of those places. Another is the low skilled Cuban immigrant stereotype. The Cuban educational system is exceptional and there is an abundance of overly educated and underemployed Cubans. Third is the idea of oppression. Cuba is a place much more complicated than a dichotomized view of oppressor and oppressed or of democratic and undemocratic. There is much more going on in this system and to think of it as simply communist or “third world” is to misrepresent its complexity and to fail to comprehend its richness. 

                                                            Saying goodbye to Havana

                I have covered some of the cultural biases of our own locality in my first posting on culture shock. Learning from the Cuban people has taught me a lot about hospitality, kindness and generosity. It has taught me how to speak from my heart instead of my head and that two languages are better than one if you want to express yourself. It has also made me realize, again, and I never get tired of realizing it, how very privileged Americans from the US are by their simple birthplace and how undeserved that truly is. There is no legitimate entitlement to our birth privilege or prosperity. This realization is humbling.