Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Cuba’s University of Fine Arts is spread out over a 163 acre campus (66 hectares) that was a country club with golf courses for Havana’s most privileged residents before the revolution. Even President Batista was not allowed to enter the country club because he was mulatto. Can you imagine President Obama being turned away from a country club because he’s black??

After the revolution, the country club was converted to the University of Fine Arts where students showing promise in the arts can receive a free advanced education in music, dance, theater, filmmaking, ceramic, sculpture or painting at this beautiful campus. Culture is highly valued in Cuba.

It’s heartening to see how much support is given to the arts in Cuba.

Time to head back to old town for lunch.

and then visit the Museum of the City.

This is “museum day.” We’re heading over to the Museum of the Revolution which is one block from our hotel. Our walk back is scenic, as are all our walks in any direction we go.

Have you noticed how there is no litter in the streets? And no billboards except for an occasional one here and there? The main billboard we saw was for the “Cuban Five,” the five Cubans who were charged with espionage while trying to infiltrate the Cuban American exile community in Miami. The spies were sent from Cuba after a series of terrorist bombings in Havana, thought to be orchestrated by the anti-Castro Cuban Americans. The spies were released on December 17th, 2014, in exchange for the American contractor, Allan Gross, accused of being a spy, who had been in a Cuban prison for five years. Cubans were delirious with joy over the release of their compatriots.

Amircal is passionate about the history of the revolution. With animation he gives us a tour of the Museum of the Revolution. He tells us that Fidel was a lawyer before he became a rebel. He defended the poor people who were being kicked out of their homes and neighborhoods so the wealthy people could build more monuments and plazas and country clubs.

The Bay of Pigs during the early 1960s was explained as a scheme by the exile Cuban community in Miami to convince the CIA, which in turn convinced John F. Kennedy to invade Cuba and overthrow the Castro regime. The invasion team was made up of expatriate Cubans who wanted to create a counter-revolution against Castro. It was a debacle. JFK apparently regretted acting on the information he had received.

Have you ever wondered how the US managed to be allowed to have Guantanamo Naval Base and its torture chambers on the island of Cuba? We were told the land around Guantanamo Bay was leased to the American military for 99 years as part of a bitter deal the Cubans were forced to agree to after the Spanish American War in order to avoid being invaded and taken over by the Americans. I can only imagine the affront it is to the Cubans to have this kind of American presence on their land. It would be like the English having a colony in Boston and doing whatever they pleased in that colony, including using torture. The lease for the naval base will expire in a about five years.

Amircal wants Americans to know that Cubans are NOT communists. They are socialists. Communism is an ideology. Socialism relates to distribution of wealth. In Communism, everyone’s salary is the same, but in socialism you make what you earn. He said “for us, it’s about survival, not ideology,” a phrase I had heard from people on more than one occasion.

We went back to the hotel to rest up for another dance workshop and then salsa dancing in the evening. When we go back to our rooms, each of us has a treat waiting for us on our beds. The cleaning ladies make various shapes out of our bath towels for our amusement. The figures are whimsical and full of imagination.

Another dance workshop. We’re getting pretty good at the rumba and Cuban salsa.

Most of the group goes salsa dancing in the evenings or goes to a club to listen to jazz.

I took a bicycle cab home to give a rest to my sprained knee and ankle. I was also determined to get a blog post out to you somehow. The internet speed here could be compared to walking to the Whole Foods as opposed to driving. Except, in the little computer room in the upscale hotel, there’s no scenery to look at while getting to your destination.

The driver said “Cuba and US have much in common. We want Cuba and the US to be ONE forever. We are like brothers and sisters.” I heard variations of this sentiment throughout my days in Havana. It’s obvious that part of the excitement is the lifting of the embargo of badly needed resources, but there is also the palpable feeling that Cubans truly love Americans—their sports, music, film and TV. But they are not keen on our government, understandably.

I didn’t see many Americans on this visit. But I saw plenty of Europeans and Canadians. Interesting to note that the Canadian government has been trying to convince the US to ease up on Cuba since the 1960s.

We’re going to the beach tomorrow. I’ll meet you there. Bueno, mi amor, nos vemos mañana, no cierto?

Es todo por ahora.