Stream of consciousness, bare with me. We’re roughly half way through our time here on the island and still exploring new spaces and groups. What an outstanding opportunity we have here to take in this space as it currently stands before whatever comes next. April fools day took its toll on our group. Sarah thought she broke her toe jumping off a roof, and Kate was robbed in broad daylight losing her laptop, Cuban ID and a whole bag of Euros. Jack was also bitten by a ferocious street dog and has spent the past week absolutely convinced he has rabies. We spent three hours waiting in the hospital that day, and his prescribed treatment has been a series of five separate rabies vaccines and antibodies over the next fortnight. At this point we’re just hoping that he doesn’t lose the leg.
Following a Reiko Hillyer guest appearance, the concept of ‘space’ has become particularly interesting to me. If you stop and look at any public space for long enough you become viscerally aware of how Cuban history is still playing out today. Colonial foundations with rows of ornate columns support two to three stories of 60’s style ostentatious modern architecture that are capped off by big USSR-esque utilitarian concrete blocks. Walking out of our house and up the Avenida de los Presidentes, you can see statues of men like Simón Bolívar (the South American Liberator), Antonio Maceo (the Bronze Titan), and of course José Martí (the poet, patriot and padre de la patria) among other powerful bases that hold a pair of bronze hooves or feet from statues that were torn down during the revolution without clear replacements in mind. Then you’ll look up as you get to the Plaza de la Revolución and stare into the 150 foot faces of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos (the other two “comandantes”). These images are everywhere and they begin to define the spaces to which they belong. Their perpetual presence begins to define Cuban progress. Working to take it in as it stands without placing an unfair value of “potential” on the world in which we are currently moving through. Pensamientos y nada más.