by Bonnie Marien
When
I announced to family and friends that I was planning a trip to Cuba,
a frequent response was “Why Cuba?” Other reactions included
“Can people travel to Cuba from the US?,” and “Will you bring
me back some cigars?” The answer to the last two questions was
easy - yes to travel under certain conditions and no to cigars. The
question of why Cuba is a bit more complicated.
If
you are a member of Senior College, you have lived with the US
government embargo of Cuba for well over 50 years. The history of
the embargo is long and tortured. Most of us are familiar with at
least some aspects of it. I wanted the opportunity to meet ordinary
Cuban people and have access to day-to-day life on the island to
judge for myself if this policy still made sense after all this time.
The State Department continues to list Cuba as a terrorist nation;
yet we have diplomatic relations with Viet Nam, as well as many other
such nations. I wondered what special danger Cuba posed to us.
There
are a number of ways US citizens can travel to Cuba. The State
Department authorizes and grants licenses for travel for educational,
religious, cultural, “people to people” and
family reunion purposes. Road Scholar (known in the past as
Elderhostel) has a license to travel to Cuba under the “people to
people” category. This February my daughter and I joined one of
the Road Scholar groups for nine days.
As
my daughter said at the end of our trip, “I came with no
expectations and have been delightfully surprised every step of the
way.” We visited schools, artists, art and music after-school
programs, museums, and farmers’ markets. We had a lovely time one
day at a senior club learning Cuban folk dances. A particular
highlight was a leisurely visit to the Hemingway Farm, where he and
his third wife lived for 30 years. The home is in perfect condition
with Hemingway’s personal belongings as he left them. There are
mounted animal heads, hundreds, if not thousands, of books throughout
the house and beautiful pieces of art-work. At each turn the Cuban
people we interacted with were open and free in inviting us to ask
any questions we wanted.
Some
of my impressions are that most Cubans are well educated, but there
are few jobs for them once they graduate from the universities. All
education is free. There is tremendous emphasis on music and art
from the earliest of ages. Music is everywhere. Each neighborhood
has its own medical clinic with a doctor living in the building.
Medical care is free. There is now a dual system of food
distribution. There are government ration stores in every
neighborhood, but also many farmers’ markets, which are free market
based. There are tourists (many tourists) from Canada, Europe and
South America - just not from the US. Much work is going on, with
the help of Brazil, China and Canada, to build a deep water port,
rehabilitate Old Havana and explore for oil off the coast of Cuba.
There is so much more to add but this one last thought: yes those old
American cars are as fabulous as reported, particularly the
convertibles.
 |
| Farmers' Market |
 |
| Children playing for us |
 |
| Dancing at the Seniors Club |
 |
| More dancing |
 |
| Hemingway's typewriter |
 |
| Hemingway's study |
 |
| Che Memorial |
 |
| One of many different types of transportation |
 |
| Another popular mode of transport |
 |
| Beautiful old Buick |
 |
| Bonnie's favorite piece of art in one of the Old Havana squares |
photos by Bonnie Marien
.jpg)