What I'm grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Our ‘Día de Acción de Gracias’ (literally Day of the Action of Thanks… terrible translation) was surprisingly delicious here. Debra (Jake’s dad’s lawyer friend) cooked a fantastic meal, complete with turkey, gravy, stuffing (I had forgotten about stuffing… mmm), excellent salad (again, with vegetables and flavors that didn’t know you could find here), sautéed greens, amazing candied boniato (a root vegetable that is common here) rather than yams, and Jake’s sister came to visit from the states and brought some canned cranberry sauce with her. So we were pretty well taken care of. Oh! And in the dessert department (as I write this it’s making my mouth water, and I’m a little jealous of myself for being able to eat this) we had boniato pie (rather than sweet potato pie), carrot bread (Debra’s own recipe; sooo gooood), and homemade brownies.

Although our group was kind of a mish-mosh (six American students and 3 Cubans, one of which was fairly uncertain about the origins of Thanksgiving and thought it had origins in Judaism until we corrected her), the whole affair was definitely something to be grateful for. I find that I like Havana a lot more on a full stomach, and after such a great meal I started to reflect on my experiences thus far. I won’t expound on them too much here (otherwise, my final post would be rather anti-climactic), but as hokey as it sounds, I realized how lucky I am to be from a country like the United States. I’m thankful to live in a society where my ability to express my personal opinions is valued (and legal), and to know that my country was founded on principles such as self-realization. More than anything this year, though, I’m grateful that my life has afforded me the opportunity to go abroad so that I can realize exactly how fortunate I am. Many Americans take their fortune for granted, considering such liberties to be givens because they’ve never known anything else. However, after having had this experience I believe more strongly than ever that we owe it to ourselves, and to other citizens of the world who aren’t so blessed, to exercise our rights and take full advantage of our freedom so that we appreciate them to their fullest extent.

So now I’m off of my soapbox. Hope everyone else’s Thanksgiving was restful and delicious!!

Amazing Blogger (Bloggress?)

In my constant quest to learn more about the true Cuban experience, I have stumbled upon an amazing Cuban blogger named Yoani Sánchez. Her blogs are mainly about daily Cuban life, but she speaks her mind freely about these instances, which is an unbelievably brave thing to do here. I think there was an NPR segment on her a few months ago, and Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people of 2008. Her site has been blocked in English and in Spanish by the Cuban government, so I have to use some fancy maneuvering to be able to read it, but you in the States can go directly to her site by clicking here. I hope it sheds further light on what it is like to be a citizen in this country; it certainly has for me.

What is this ‘blog’ you speak of?

Out of nowhere, this carefree, laid-back Cuban lifestyle has turned into one full of deadlines and, dare I say it, activity? This past weekend was pretty fun:

On Friday, Michael and I went to the Bellas Artes, an art museum in Old Havana. The museum takes up two buildings, one of which is dedicated to older international art, the other to specifically Cuban artists, typically from a more modern era. But I was in a sentimental mood on Friday, so we went to the international one. The art was mostly from the “schools” of famous painters of the time, but the architecture of the actual museum was absolutely stunning: winding staircases, marble floors, and a beautiful stained glass window on the ceiling of the palace. There were also some ridiculously well-preserved artifacts from over 4000 years ago in the empires of Ancient Egypt and Greece. Nothing too fancy; just a nice day at the museum. Hopefully we’ll go to the Cuban one soon.

Friday night a group of us went for dinner at the apartment of Jake’s dad’s friend, who we knew was a laywer of some kind. Deborah, an American, has lived in Havana for 20 years doing various research and litigation for Cuba. On our way there, we all expected her to be some sort of human rights’ lawyer; kind of a logical conclusion when you realize that suing any business here would in effect be suing the government, which I can’t imagine going over very well. And as for suing each other over personanl property, quite frankly there isn´t much to argue over. But the truth was actually more interesting. Deborah is currently representing Cuba in an American case against Bacardi, the rum company (The family, once a part of Cuba’s high society, fled after the Revolution). Apparently Bacardi is afraid of the embargo ending, and having other, more authentic, Cuban brands enter in the American market. In particular, there’s another rum company, called Havana Club, that they’re worried about, as well as Cohibe, the brand of cigar that Fidel smokes, which is highly coveted in the U.S. by cigar afficionados. The case has been in litigation for about 12 years, each time being appealed by the Cuban government. The main problem in the court rulings is that the legal definition of property rights in the United States doesn’t really apply to Cuba. In the United States a person or company can have rights to a brand, but in the case of Cuba it’s a whole country claiming ownership, since the government in effect owns every company. Also, I suppose it would be a politically-charged situation, to say the least, if they recognized Cuba’s right to own a brand that was previously owned by an individual and then taken by appropriation.
Deborah invited two of her friends to dinner with us (I guess the idea of entertaining four 20-somethings on her own didn’t really appeal to her). The woman, Patricia, is a social psychologist who works with Cuban companies in various industries to improve worker morale and participation. Unbelievably fortunately for me, this is exactly the topic I chose a few weeks ago for my Sociology of Work final paper, so you can imagine I will be contacting her very soon. Deborah’s other friend, Jesús, is a stage and set designer for Cuban theater. After talking to him for a while we found out that he had actually designed the set-up for a Cuban production of Cabaret happening that weekend. At the end of the night, he invited us to attend the Sunday showing, and we parted ways.
The food, by the way, was absolutely stellar. I was beginning to forget what curry tasted like (how she found it here, I’ll never know). We’re currently in talks to see if we can have some sort of mish-mosh Thanksgiving dinner… fingers crossed!

Sam’s parents were in town last weekend, and Saturday night they invited us all to dinner. Also in attendance was our advisor at the University of Havana, Carmita. All in all it was a great night, full of interesting conversations about Cuba, funny quirks in both English and Spanish… a very international experience. The food was delicious for the most part (I was extremely pleased with my 8 CUC lobster dish, though others were not so pleased with the maggot-inhabited hot sauce they ordered for their French fries… *sigh* such is Cuba). It was nice to get everyone together for something; we’re usually off doing our own things exploring the city, and occasionally napping heavily.

Sunday I finally gave in and began doing research for my final papers. In total it’s going to be around 30 pages of academic writing, in Spanish, so… don’t be surprised if my blogging languishes severely. Later that day Mike, Sandra, and I went to Jesús’ Cabaret production. The set was fantastic, and the stage went straight through the middle of the audience—apparently the first stage of its kind in Cuba. As it was all in Spanish, the songs were a little hard to understand (even though I knew most of them in English), but the dialogue was very clear and, surprisingly, I understood it all! It struck me as a little odd, however, that the show was so popular even though it makes such a blatant mockery of the totalitarian, puppet-on-a-string mentality of Nazism; to me there is little difference between the two systems in that respect. But, as Michael so accurately put it after the show, I guess “There’s nothing a Socialist hates more than another type of Socialist.”

After the show Mike and I rushed back to the residence to eat dinner, and then we were off to the movies! Last weekend the movie theater right next to our residence had a festival of films based on Cuban literature. Ever since we arrived in Cuba, we’ve been hearing non-stop about this one movie, Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate), and how it’s probably the best Cuban film ever made. So when we saw that it was showing Sunday night, we knew we had to go. To our great pleasure, the movie was subtitled in English, as the version played in the theater was off of a DVD compilation of films endorsed by Robert Redford’s independent film organization.
I loved the movie. Basically it was about a young Cuban student who is a diehard member of the Communist Party. He gets assigned to investigate this supposedly counter-revolutionary gay man, who actually knows more about Cuban art and culture (and is thus arguably more “Cuban”) than he. Of course along the way each realizes that the other isn’t just a stereotype, and they both learn to put a human face on what before they each considered to be “the enemy”. Beyond the plot, the movie did a really fantastic job of throwing in small comments and scenes that depicted exactly what life in Havana is like. While I was watching the movie, I kept thinking that once I get back home, I’ll be able to show the movie to my family so they can get an even deeper understanding of my experiences this semester.
In a complete contrast from classic Cuban film, on Monday I went to see Speed Racer with Michael, which was good because if I was ever going to see that movie, it would be in a situation where I´d only have to pay 5 cents.

Along with the harsh reality of final papers, the realization that the “real world” is rapidly approaching us has also begun to set in. Classes have been registered for, and people are once again talking about modifying their resumes for recruitment in January. I usually have a hard time readjusting to classes after breaks as it is; I can’t imagine how jarring this transition will be.

Election Night in Havana

Experiencing the American election abroad has been really interesting, especially in a country with such a unique perspective as Cuba. In general, Cubans are very supportive of Obama, since he has spoken openly about reinstating diplomatic relations with the Castro regime. Below the surface of this initial enthusiasm, however, many of them still see him as just one of many presidents before him, and are aware that little beyond Cuban-American relations (if even that) may change. Being a black non-Obama supporter has added another level to the whole experience, since people automatically assume that I voted for him (even more so than in the United States!); I have been personally congratulated several times on his victory since Tuesday, by students and professors alike.

The actual night of the election was absolutely amazing. A few weeks ago, some of the American students went to the American Interests Section (which basically does everything an embassy would do, it’s just not called that, for obvious reasons) to cast their absentee ballots. They met the American Citizen Services Officer, who invited us to an election night party at the house of the head of the U.S. mission (a.k.a ambassador). So Tuesday night we got pseudo-dressed up and caught a bus to Miramar, more or less the suburbs of Havana. The wealthiest Cubans used to live there during the 50’s, but they all fled during the Revolution, so the government appropriated all of their mansions, and now most of them are embassies. Once we got to Miramar we had to show some form of American identification in order to get on a shuttle to take us to Cubanacan, another neighborhood with basically the same story as Miramar, but with even wealthier people. The head of the mission lives in Cubanacan, in the house that was originally built with the intention of housing the U.S. President on his visits to Cuba… oops.

The house and its grounds were absolutely beautiful… I’ve honestly never been in such a lavish place without taking a tour of some sort. The gardens in the back were beautifully maintained, with a tennis court, swimming pool, and vegetable garden all on the property. The event was catered by the house’s staffed kitchen, to the delight of all American stomachs that had been starved for anything legitimately resembling American cuisine (I was beginning to forget the taste of pesto…). The open bar stocked with beer, wine, and various cocktails was also a lovely addition…

By far though, the most refreshing part of the evening was the overwhelming presence of academic and political figures (both Cuban and American), who were not afraid to speak their minds about the current situation in both countries. One of the most frustrating parts of the semester so far has been spending time in a country, all the while forming opinions about my experience with no one willing to validate or correct them, or share any of their own. Since we got here, Cubans and visiting Americans alike have been trying to walk the policy line—some more convincingly than others. Many of them seem hesitant to disagree outright with the current Cuban government, while at the same time they struggle to say something that doesn’t sound as though it came straight from a Communist Party pamphlet. We got to speak to economists and diplomats, one of whom set the record straight on a lot of Cuban “news” we’ve been hearing since we’ve got here. By far, though, the most valuable (and probably the most obvious) thing he told us was that we shouldn’t take his word for it that the American side of the story was any more accurate than the Cuban version, and that we should do our own research once we get back to the states (and out from the watchful eyes of the Cuban government’s information censoring departments). It really hammered home the fact that by no means will this experience end once we touch foot on American soil again, and that only as we learn even more after the semester’s end will we realize the true value of the time we spent here.