Dear Cuba...

Reposted from the original post date of 4/14/2014 because my thoughts and observations still hold after my fourth trip, with a few additions and updated thoughts after digging even deeper.

Dear Cuba:

I love you!  After my third trip to visit, I am even more in love than the first time I set foot on your shores.  I love your passion for standing tall against the US and the "normal" unbalanced relationship most Caribbean islands have with it.  I still love the ideals you have tried to maintain since the Revolution.  I do wish you could be a bit more open and give your citizens more freedom to make their way.  I have witnessed the energy and drive of your people and believe given the permission and a little help they would be able to help you with your economic woes.  I wish my country wasn't so threatened by you and could just let you be.  I wish the Cuban-Americans could just get over their anger and let policy normalize and see what happens.

But more than all those political and economic issues, I love your strength.  Your people are solid and strong.  I love your music.  There is a beat to every footstep in your streets and the music playing everywhere adds energy to everything. And I love that the music has so many ethnic roots. I love your vibrant rainbow of skin colors from white to black, with 36 gradations  recognized along the way.  I love that a group of boys hanging on the Malecon might have a very pale blond boy, a very black one and few of other shades.  I learned that its not that simple and of course, you, like all lands with slave holding history, still haven't quite figured out how to erase race, but still a walk down any street in Havana had so many diverse faces,which is a delight for a portrait photographer like me.  Surely with some more of the new dialogue on race and work to show more positive images of Afro-Cubans, you will be able to rise to be an almost racially neutral country.

How is Cuba doing after the Pandemic and under the US Embargo?

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Cuba now was to see how it was holding up after the Pandemic and having tourism frozen for almost three years. In general, as the US has focused on itself, I have been very worried about how developing world countries were faring in these difficult times for all. 

Cuba depends heavily on the foreign currency it receives through tourism to pay for much needed exports. The Embargo makes international trade very difficult in normal times, since they have a more difficult route using the international banking system and lending money. Instead they have to pay ahead for anything they want with most trade partners, unlike almost any other country. So tourists bring valuable dollars and euros. After Obama loosened the US rules against Cuba in and expanded travel and the ability for Cuban Americans to send money to the country in 2016 leading to a flurry of economic activity, in 2020 Trump locked it down even more.

Also, many Cuban families survive on money from families who live elsewhere and Trump’s changes made getting that money there, much harder. Biden hasn’t done much to loosen anything and even though remittances are allowed again now, Western Union hasn’t opened up services again yet.

Add regular supply chain delays to that mix and unfortunately what I saw was a tougher situation than I have seen in the past. Cubans are guaranteed monthly food rations. They get a per person allotment of rice, beans, cooking oil… at vastly subsidized costs. But as the years go by the allotment includes less and less. We were told over and over again that when chickens are available it means waiting in line for SIX hours. I was told that it was getting better now that things are opening up again, but it was a bit of a shock to see the crowds outside each neighborhood Bodega where residents are assigned to pick up their food.

On the other more bright side, since I was last there in 2015, the private sector continues to grow. Now if you do have foreign currency there is much more Cubans can purchase. This economic change had begun before my last trip there and I had seen lots of little farmers markets and some food carts. But now everyone seems to run a little store selling misc things they can get their hands on out of the fronts of their street level houses. There also are now retail storefronts filled with little booths for people to rent and sell things like shoes and cell phone cases. To most of you it will look like a very feeble economy, but to me it looked quite promising and to be the road to a more open economic system that might be able to flourish if the Embargo is lifted and goods and money are allowed to flow more freely into the country. In the way they have allowed home owners to create B&Bs to rent rooms and restaurants called paladares to sell meals, giving locals ways to bring in money, it does seem that mostly out of desperation the Communist government has been forced to figure out ways to open the system and hopefully spread the wealth a bit and to be able to tax revenue from the growing black market that has popped up. (I add that these topics are very complicated and I am giving you a VERY simplistic view, so please forgive my vast generalizations.)

Cuba's Architecture

 Cuba has amazing diverse architecture styles that make an incredible backdrop to it’s rich street life. While the Castro government did set out to restore many of the old buildings that were abandoned long before the Revolution, as people moved out to the newer parts of town, a lot of Cuban buildings are various states of disrepair. The contrast between those that are in great shape and those that aren’t is a feast for the eyes. Street scenes are rich and colorful and I wandered for hours looking for clues to figure out just what the state of Cuba was these days. FB limits how many pictures I can post but here’s a batch that begins to show the variety of styles and sites.

Photos from Cuba 2022-23

 Click HERE to see my photos from Cuba

Street Scenes in Havana, Cuba