Cuba - Day 3

I went out and started walking along the coast in order to reach the US Interests Section in Havana. In front of it, there a square full of black flags, each one with one white star on it. There were 168 flags in total, and the monument was founded in 2006. The 168 flags represent the number of Cuban victims as a result of "American terrorism" (this is what they say - not me), and as for 2006, the number coincided with the total years of the "struggle against imperialism" counting since Cuba's independence war in 1838. All over the place there are posters with anti-American propaganda. On the other hand, the building of the Interests Section has a big electronic board in which they transmit contra-revolutionary messages sometimes at night. This is the closest to the cold war I've been to...

The US Interests Section Building in Havana, and the "Flags Square"

The next stop was Copelia Square. There stands "Copelia Ice Creams", in which Cubans can buy ice creams with Cuban pesos (this is the same place where the movie "Fresas y Chocolate" was filmed). This place is administered by the government, and the employees who serve the ice cream are state employees. I did not eat ice cream, and the place was quite empty in the morning. However, when I passed by again in the afternoon, it was full of Cubans, who were standing in line to get into the square (there was some maximum capacity). For those wondering what was the price of the ice cream, it was 5 Cuban pesos for four scopes.

I then decided to go to Habana Vieja, which is the name of downtown Havana. So I went again to the street where the American Cars passes by, and I raised my hand giving a signal to the next one to stop. My Cuban friends told me that the only thing I have to say is "Capitolio", which was my final destination. Speaking more than that could expose my real identity (being a tourist). I shared the cab with another 5 Cubans. I reached my destination, and payed 10 pesos to the driver as everybody else did.

Downtown Havana is a sample of an old city of the nineteenth century. Narrow streets, lots of squares and colonial houses. The "Capitolio" is an almost exact architectonic copy of the American Capitol building. It was constructed when the Cuban government was highly influenced by the US (before the revolution of course), and it was the home of the national assembly. Today it is the building of the science museum of Havana. Behind the Capitol the cigars factory - Partagas - can be seen. In its surroundings, many Cubans were trying to sell me boxes of cigars at lower prices, probably false or stolen from the factory. I did not buy any, not because I really didn't want them, but because my flight back to Israel was through the USA, where Cuban cigars are forbidden by law.

The Capitol building, today the Science Museum

One of the narrow streets in Habana Vieja

In front of the Capitol is the Central Square. There stands the statue of Jose Marti from which the gold stick was stolen (read Day 2 of these series). In the square there were many Cubans senior citizens discussing out loud about last night baseball game. In the surroundings there were many stores, but only in a few of them received Cuban pesos as payment - the rest received only foreign currency.

It was close to noon, so I sat on the stairs to the Capitol to wait for S, a nice young girl who I met the night before at the Jewish community event. She came together with her friend M. They came to show me around the city. The first thing we did is going to the Museum of the Revolution. S and M bought the tickets for the three of us at low prices (for Cubans). The exhibition presents the history of the revolution, starting from Cuba's independence from Spain.

"Che" Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and me in the Revolution Museum

Afterward, we went for a walk around downtown but we decided to go back to the Vedado area. So we took the bus. This was an incredible experience. The "guagua", that is how they call buses in Cuba, had 3 workers: the driver, the guy who check that everyone has a ticket and another guy standing at the back entrance checking that nobody will step inside the bus without paying. Three workers for one bus... Is this the reason that Cuba's unemployment rates are significantly lower than the continent average? Also, take into the consideration that each person pays 0.2 Cuban pesos for his bus ticket, so I haven't seen numbers, but at first sight it seems like a very non-profitable business... Of course, public transportation - and specially in Cuba - is not intended to be profitable.

M invited me over to have dinner at her house. After taking a shower I went to her house. She lives in a two stories apartment, and the apartment and furniture in it was well above my expectations. M's room was big enough, a queen size bed, TV, VCR, bookshelves full of books about Communism, Cuba, Che Guevara and even Chavez (all of them with C), and a wall full of pictures of Che and Fidel in the begging of the revolution.

The apartment, which was in the highest floor of the building, was property of her family before the "triumph of the revolution", and they are still the owners. Regarding rented flats before the revolution, the government expropriated the apartment from the real owners, and transferred the ownership to the tenants who were living there at that time. In Cuba tenants are the owners of their home, and it is forbidden to own more than one residence. The houses cannot be bought or sold, but can be exchanged between two families who are wiling to do so.

M is 17 years old, and she is the Chairwoman of the union of senior high school students in La Habana province. She is a supporter of Fidel and the revolution. She praises Fidel and Chavez. However, there are some issues which she dislikes about Cuba - and she does not hide that - specially in issues concerning to liberty rights. She does not like the difficulties to travel abroad, o how people are labeled as "anti-revolutionary" or deserter because of issues which are not that serious. He is against of demonstrations in which people burn flags and pictures of the President of the USA. She thinks that is immoral, even thought she dislikes President Bush policies very much. She is very idealist and very bright at her young age. We also talked about Israel, Zionism, constraints, political prisoners, the opposition, the government, Fidel and Raul, the economy, etc. Her mother also explained to me about the rationing booklet. With this booklet, Cubans can buy food in local currency at subsidized prices. However, she said, it is not possible to satisfy all the needs of family only with the food provided by the government. The products that families buy with the booklet are rice, beans, pork meat, salt, pepper, oil (every three weeks) and other very basic goods. To buy almost everything else Cubans have to pay with CUCs.

The economic situation of Cuba has been deteriorating significantly since the fall of Soviet Union. This is when Cuba entered the "special period" as denominated by the government. The perceivable feeling is that the economy might collapse in any particular moment, however, the political repression is keeping it alive.