Jan30th through February 4th

First, I must apologize. I did not keep up with my journal writing, even to the poor extent that I did last week, in which I recounted my days a day after the fact. It is Sunday afternoon, and I’m recounting the whole week’s events – but in a different light from the previous week.

I talked to a friend this week via AIM who has traveled on six-month plus trips to Russia and India, two of my own Holy Grails of travel. He only read one of my last entries, but advised me that while I was very thorough, I was not very succinct or tangential. In the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, my entries “avoid emotional pitfalls and confine themselves to relating the events of daily life in the utilitarian style of a ship’s log” (I’m reading Love in the Time of Cholera). So in order to be more interesting and more introspective, I’m going to do a retrospective on this week mostly regarding really interesting things. I’ll try to stay chronological, but many of my musings are culminations of the week.

Firstly on the topic of classes – to refresh your memories, we’re taking courses on Cuban history from the 1400s to the present day, Cuban culture, Cuban international relations, and a Spanish course. History is surprisingly everyone’s favorite subject, mostly due to the pair of professors. They go off on necessary tangents of world history to help us understand the context of the Cuban aspect, while essentially spinning a great tale of a much storied country. It helps as well that they butcher some English words to keep things amusing, like “chips” for “ships” – “Cuba went from one chip a month to over NINE HUNDRED CHIPS during eleven months!” – and “chopping” for “shopping” – “It was like a chopping mall”. The class is three hours long, two days a week. Cuban culture also will be a lot of fun. The class lectures last only an hour and a half, but almost every week we also have cultural outings in which we tour museums, visit theatres, and actively seek out the Cuban culture. We will also take a four day trip to Trinidad and make stops at important villages along the way.

One of the most interesting things we already learned of the culture is in regards to names. While Cubans have a large number of strange Russian and African names due to obvious factors, the US’s influence as a forbidden yet highly visible fruit is most visible in Cuban names. I’m not referring to James, or Richard, or anything general like that. Some Cubans, especially those in the Guantanamo region, have taken to naming their children Usnavy (pronounced Oos-nah-vee) or Usaf (pronounced Oo-sahf) after the US armed forces presence. Senor Cuevas told us as well of the names Madeinusa (pronounced Mahd-een-oo-sah) and Onecent (pronounced Ohn-eh-cent). Though we’ve yet to meet anyone with these names, I’m convinced they do exist – though I’m still having enough problems figuring out the names of the people I meet in the street.

Cuban international relations looks to be the most difficult class – not as far as subject matter, but insofar as taking notes and understanding where the professor is going with the class. The way we are given our lessons are circular and repetitive, and despite the fact that we discussed the US and Cuba’s reasons for certain foreign policy decisions and the factors that go into that decision-making for at least two hours, I took less than a half-page of notes. Of course, the class also goes from 2PM to 5PM in the afternoon: prime siesta time, so the lack of notes could be attributed to that as well. The party line was towed pretty steadily throughout the afternoon, and hopefully we can expand in the future.

I was placed in the intermediate Spanish class which wasn’t so much a surprise considering my lack of knowledge of both Spanish and English grammar, but because for the past two years I have taken topics courses taught in Spanish. I think it will be an important remedial class in my Spanish, especially being here. The first class was a little basic, going over beginning conversations, but we also covered some idiomatic phrases and words specific to Cuba, which was helpful. While it isn’t helping my academic requirements, I welcome it as development for my language skills.

Valerie and I have been talking a lot this week about the limits of the enclave programs of American University. Enclave programs are groups of AU students who generally live together, take classes together, and venture out together. This is opposed to direct enrollment programs in which the student is typically enrolled in the college dormitory or finds housing outside of the college, takes classes along with the local students, and is responsible for their own social life. We’ve definitely had some trouble immersing ourselves here in Cuba. Most of the day I spend speaking English as opposed to Spanish, which is no fault of the Cubans but rather the nature of this program. We’ve made very few friends with students or just regular Cubans, save for the two guys that Jessica met – one who is attached to her and his friend who presumably wants to get with one of the other girls here. Essentially, guys only want to hang out with American women, and Cuban girls are too submissive to start up conversation with American guys, and I’m not as forward as the catcalling Cubans when it comes to approaching women.

Furthermore, a lot of the people that approach us inevitably want something. Earlier this week I was sitting on the Malecon playing my harmonica when a family of five approached me. First they offered me a pull from their bottle of rum, which I would never pass up here, but after a little chatting they asked if I could buy some sodas for the kids. I ended up buying sodas for the two children, three beers for the husband and his sister and myself, a pack of cigarettes, and a pack of crackers. While they definitely appreciated the luxury and I feel much too guilty not giving when I am able to, it was fairly obvious that I was being taken advantage of. The desire to know me beyond an American or someone to drink with was not there. Still, I hope that with a little more time and impatience I can start spending more time with the real Cuban people.

Friday evening we went to another large march, this one held under the façade of UNESCO. The Latin American Jose Marti Award was being presented to Hugo Chavez by Fidel Castro. The seated audience was mostly trabajadores sociales, a group of student Communists, medical workers from around Latin America (we played a fun game of “Guess that flag!” and saw everything from Guyana to Argentina to Jamaica), and some Cuban secondary school students. The event started out with the Cuban and Venezuelan national anthems, then a multi-country dance, and then the reading of a Marti poem which almost every Cuban was reciting. Then an Argentinean diplomat started the program with a speech in which he lambasted Bush & co. for being imperialists with an evil agenda. After he finished in about fifteen minutes, we were treated to our first speech by Fidel Castro in person. He spoke much slower than I expected, and were it not for the absolute boredom his words inspired I could’ve understood the whole speech – which clocked in at an hour and a half: short by Castro’s reputation. At one point while watching the screens that relayed the view along the Plaza de la Revolucion the cameraman cut to a shot of Chavez listening to Castro – in his lap were two children (presumably his own) who were dead asleep. Surprisingly, the majority of the Cubans grew restless as well, and very few were intent on what Castro had to say. While I was moving along the side of the seated audience to get a closer view of Castro, someone behind me yelled out “Hook ‘em baby!” I wheeled around and saw this short young guy beaming at me who asked “Are you American?” I said yes, and he told me that he was as well. He went to UT as an undergrad, and had been out a few years. He was in Cuba illegally, but we traded a few stories and tips. He was flying out a few days later, so the odds that we would see each other again were slim. Castro finally finished speaking, and so we listened to the first few minutes of Chavez speak, and then decided to book it, which turned out to be a good decision as he spoke for a little less than three hours.

It was exciting to see both Castro and Chavez in the same setting and at such a great venue as the Plaza de la Revolucion. Both berated the Bush administration quite a bit, and it was interesting seeing the Latin American solidarity against the US. I’m not the first to say it, but we are definitely entering a new era of Latin American – US relations, with many south of our nation turning against us and banding together. Both presidents referred to Bolivia and their recently elected indigenous president, Eva Morales. Next year Cuba will host the Non-Aligned Countries meeting, which will undoubtedly move more nations behind the anti-American cause.

Saturday, we experienced our first tropical storm. While the day started off hot and sunny and we contemplated heading to the beach, a few hours later it clouded over and suddenly the sky burst open. I could picture a hurricane in Havana now after seeing the quick ferocity of this storm. This was the cold front that people had been talking about during the week which I didn’t believe was coming. I was quite wrong. Later, Diana, Valeria, Scott, and myself went to Senor Cuevas apartment, which was truly eye opening to me. The head historian of the university and a self-proclaimed friend of Castro lives in El Pentagono, a small apartment complex with five radial wings. To the extent of where he lives, there is definitely no inequality between the people. We watched a movie called Un Rey en la Habana, which was supposedly banned in Cuba because of the less than sophisticated way in which it portrays the Cuban people. The movie was a comedy, but every other word is a curse, which is all I could find that would not be so enjoyed by Fidel. I laughed a lot, and it made me believe finally that Latin Americans have a sense of humor, as opposed to Sabado Gigante and the other terrible comedy hours that Univision and Telemundo put on.

We had agreed to meet at three forty outside of his apartment, but we didn’t show up until four, which worried Delio to the point where he went downstairs to wait for our taxi. Unfortunately, we missed him, which is surprising because he had gone downstairs with a small US flag and was waving it on the corner by himself in the rain. Two police officers stopped him and asked what he was doing, and replied that he was waiting for the US students who were coming to watch a movie with him. He was carded (the police card suspicious Cubans), and when they realized he was a professor at the university, they apologized and sent him on his way. We couldn’t believe that he would do this, but we’ve since learned that you can’t put anything past this energetic old man.

We also met Redondo, his mulatto “servant”, as he called him. He was a young man around 21, who walked around in cutoff jean shorts and nothing else. Delio was quick to tell us that Redondo modeled when he was done working with Delio. A modeling picture was on top of the television, and while he ran to go get us some cola, he received two calls on his cell phone and one on Delio’s phone from someone named “Mamita”.

What really surprised me was some of the things he confided in us. First, he showed us his newest book, which he said was sold in dollars while he was paid in national pesos. Then he showed us all the gifts that his American friends would bring to him and he was very proud of – old, obscure movies, two or three year old Times and Newsweek magazines, and other little trinkets. What hit me in general is how limited the Cubans do live, even the more educated people. There’s no maxim here about getting ahead just by working hard. For the most part, it’s ingenuity and entrepreneurship that gets you ahead, and only by a little bit. Still, to see such a smart, respected old man be so content and willing to give when he has so very little to give in the first place is a touching sight.

Hopefully this edition of my journal was a little more interesting that last weeks. I still have some more general points to share about, such as the differentiation between social classes here, getting routinely taken advantage of, and any adventures that I have experienced or will in the next week. Thanks for reading.