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.