The article has an extension of one page, but if you don’t feel like reading, at the bottom of the page you have it on video.
Not having an established route (we were on our own), we engaged in conversations with many and varied people, both in the capital and outside of it. Those who were close to the established order looked much better, worked and had some money. One day in front of Parliament we talked to someone who was apparently a printer, like my friend. He ushered us into the company premises; that was abandoned and full of dust, I don’t know what I was doing there.
We decided one day to go on an excursion to the west; We wanted to visit Pinar del Río and Viñales, where there was a cigar factory. We also visited a cave where a boat was navigated and we were at the Mural of Prehistory. Precious. Coming back we saw some small farmers’ huts and also the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. It was an unforgettable excursion.
On a walk through Havana we were (of course) at La Bodeguita del Medio where we had a Cuban mojito, we also ate at El Floridita, and also in a paladar, a small place on one floor, with a small terrace that only fit three tables . The owners went out of their way to serve us, I remember we had lobster. After a walk along the boardwalk at sunset with the girls, that was unforgettable. We saw a lot of Regime propaganda: military museums, obsolete war material, tanks, planes, a wagon in which Fidel traveled… There are some people (they don’t say it, they keep quiet) who want to go back to being slaves of the previous regime, I’m sure they’ve seen business opportunities. They were the projects of business entrepreneurs, those who only look at their navel, the selfish ones.
In spite of everything, I would love UNESCO to declare the Cuban people a World Heritage Site, due to their mixture of races and their coexistence. I would like to highlight two things: the embargo on the Cuban economy and the defects of its System. Errors that we see in that town, but also in other countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua… today. I know that it is difficult for everyone to govern, but it is unfortunate to realize how the population should have a little more awareness. I don’t know why this happens, for me the hustlers of any Regime try to take advantage of it without caring too much about others, although I still saw a lot of solidarity.
At that time, the Regime was trying to recover the five prisoners from the north, at some point the propaganda was overwhelming. And it was in 2001 when the Cuban government recognized that the five were intelligence agents. They were the ‘political prisoners’ that the northerners had taken. In the end, little by little they were released after our trip and that marked the beginning of the relaxation of political relations.
What kind of people make those people suffer? What kind of people have brought this town here? How do you think those from the north will talk about the Cuban revolution? The human experiment that didn’t work because the US never wanted it to work, that was its power. After the missile crisis, what prevented lifting the embargo on that town?
And many, many memories of the trip. But we went to see that town, not the aforementioned misery or tourism.
Continue on ‘Cuba in memory I’ https://sincristal.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/cuba-in-memory-i/
Until the next reflection.
Joan-Llorenç sincristal@hotmail.com
Sin Cristal, el blog 