I sit in a overtly gaudy hotel lobby seemingly coming straight out of the film Scareface and stare at an endless oceanic skyline. From this vantage point I can seen a cluster of cab drivers in my foreground and towards the middle of my vision a group of young men and women sit like models for a painting watching the great background of sky in sea. My mind is constantly drifting away into the visions of this city, the colors, the smells, the lights flashing on the darkness of the city streets at night.
Before I came to see the city of Habana with my own eyes my view of the city and the people was confused and convoluted. It seemed where ever I turned for assurance another hugely variant opinion was offered. Some said, “ you will find nothing in Habana the poverty is immense and all modern conveniences are non-extant.” Others said, “ what ever you need is at your figure tips all you need to do is have the money to afford it.” I heard that the people would be incredibly friendly, and I heard the exact opposite. Of course not one of the personal opinions was completely sound or true. As most seasoned travelers know where ever you go there is good and bad, stability and instability.
I am fortunate to have the time to post a number of field entries on my experiences here and Cuba and maybe these posts can represent a pre-formed perspective that does not try to define a society or my place it but shows how society and self are constantly in a state of flux.
But even after a week here the nature of Cuba as a country of course is far different than the United States. In the States for most members of the middle and upper middle class things like power, food supply, and consistency of lifestyle are all luxuries that we take for granted. Here even members of slightly raised social stature, i.e. usually people who have family sending money from abroad or who own some of the relatively new restaurants and tourist attractions, do not know if there power grid will fail or what kind of products will be lining the walls of their under-stocked super markets. It is humbling to observe how fluidly people are able to deal with these daily discrepancies and still manage to produce incredibly powerful art, delicious and sophisticated dishes of food, vibrant musical venues etc.
This aside I can’t help but wonder if the world I have seen in these first few weeks is the romanticized image of Cuba that continues to grow a thriving international tourist industry.
I will be reporting about my attempt to descend under the mask of tourism into the true psyche of this island. To achieve this goal I am seeking out as many Cuban relationships as I can find which has not been that hard, at least scratching the surface. I can reassure all the readers that as my grounding in this place increase along with my abilities in Spanish. I can and will offer an honest but personally biased perspective of the island of Cuba as it seems to transition on to another phase of life in the slow wake of the Castro’s and the United states green light beckoning on the horizon.
Lawrence