Cuba Chronicles, Chapter Six
January 5, 2006 at 2:32 am | In Trip Report |
INCEPTION
City of Santa Clara, Wednesday, September 7th, 2005, 10:30am
I woke up early and feeling great to the sounds of dogs and pigs making their respective noises - this in downtown Santa Clara - and after a great breakfast and a lovely chat with my host Yadin, I drew up a list of sites that I wanted to visit. Santa Clara is a hotbed of revolutionary sites, museums and items to see, which makes sense given its rich history and central position during the 1959 revolution.
At the top of my list was the Che Guevara memorial (and, since 1999, mausoleum). I decided to leave the bike at home and take advantage of the beautiful morning air, walking the 15 - 20 minutes from downtown to the memorial. It’s pretty much a straight line up one of Santa Clara’s main boulevards, lined with peso ice cream stands (about the equivalent of 6 canadian pennies for a surprisingly good cone of ice cream) and other small ‘businesses’.
Now, regardless of your politics, a visit to the memorial is a nearly religious experience - and the museum’s caretakers make sure of it. A huge, sprawling homage to the most recognizable face of the Cuban revolution, it’s a must-see if you’re in or around the Santa Clara city area. Entrance is free, though there is a small fee for storing your bag or backpack before entering (they aren’t allowed inside the complex). Photography is also permitted outside, but not inside.
I started off indoors, preferring to take advantage of the air conditioning after my walk right away. There are two rooms: the first is the mausoleum where the remains of Che and some of his fellow guerilla soldiers lay entombed in the wall. There is some quasi-religious music playing, very dim lighting, and an ‘eternal candle’ burning at one end of the room. Although photographs are not permitted, I asked the attendant if I could take some notes. This would prove to be a mistake as I’ll explain later, though she didn’t object at the time.
I spent some extra time walking around and reading the name under the faces on the wall, though I didn’t recognize any of them besides Che. I then left the room, went outside (the mausoleum and museum aren’t directly connected) and entered the (heavily air-conditioned) museum. Here, you can find all sorts of items and tools used by Che during his campaign in the Sierra Maestra, as well as letters he wrote and some photos of him that I haven’t seen anywhere else. All of the items have some interesting accompanying text, and some of them were quite fascinating to behold (the Molotov Cocktails made from Canada Dry bottles were particularly cool). It does get a bit much at one point, though… I could do without seeing his inhaler, or improvised dentists tools he used in the wild.
Now, I was debating over whether or not I would publish this next part of the story, but I decided to go ahead and mention it anyways.
During my time at the memorial, I kept taking notes in my moleskine notebook. Since I had asked the attendant beforehand, I figured it was alright… As I left the memorial, two uniformed police officers and one in plainclothes approached me, and asked me why I wanted to take notes here… I guess the attendant tattled on me after all. They questioned me along the usual lines (”Who are you?” “What are you doing here?” “Why are you taking notes?”). This went on for a good 5 minutes, culminating in being asked to see my passport. Normally, I’d go along with it, but I’d felt I did nothing wrong. There was a crowd of tourists there watching what was going on, and I was getting pretty upset. As I started to raise my voice, and argue that this is a public museum and not a military installation, the officers backed off and apologized. I tore out the pages with notes from my notebook and offered them to the plainclothes agent… he flashed an embarrassed smile and said “No lo necesito!”, but I insisted and he took them reluctantly in front of the other tourists. I just wanted to leave, so I also gave him my passport, whose number he made a note of.
I was a little pissed off at this point, so I only half-heartedly walked around the outside monument, snapping a few pics here and there before leaving back to town. 20 minutes of sun and 3 (20 cents worth!!!) ice cream cones later, I was already starting to feel better. I then walked all the way past the town center, to the “Monumento del tren blindado“, or “Monument of the armored train”. This is a monument to an assault that the revolutionary fighters led against a train full of the dictator Batista’s men and weapons. They used a bulldozer - which can be seen at the monument - to destroy the train tracks early in the morning, then laid in wait until the train derailed and they would ambush the troops (most of which were already dead). It was a major victory for the rebels as they captured a huge number of arms and supplies. The inside of one of the train carts is a small museum display, and costs 1 CUC to enter.
I was getting pretty hungry by 2:00pm, so I went back to the town center, where I had earlier spotted what looked like a fast-food joint. On closer inspection, it was a fast-food joint in Cuban pesos. This meant that I could buy 5 hamburgers and a glass of juice for what amounted to about 40 Canadian cents. Now, you get what you paid for… the burgers were literally bread and patty - no condiments - and I didn’t bother asking what the meat was, nor did I want to know. But they actually tasted pretty good… I had one at the restaurant, then I wised up, went back to the casa with the remaining 4 burgers, and got some ketchup, tomato, hot sauce and onions to freak them up with. Hmmmm… this is a tasty burgah! I was stuffed until dinner for less than a couple of Canadian quarters. I was always pretty much the only non-Cuban there, and this place became my mainstay lunch visit for every day I spent in Santa Clara.
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I spent the remainder of the evening sitting around the town square, writing, listening to music, talking to strangers - who cease being strangers once they know your name - and girl-watching. After the sun went down in a dark red blaze of glory over the horizon, I made my way back to the casa, where Yadin had made sure a *huge* meal consisting of half a fried chicken, home fries, rice and much more was waiting for me. Stuffed beyond anything I’d eat over here - I generally don’t eat much, but feel terrible to leave food on the table, especially delicious Cuban food - I capped off the night having a drink with Yadin and talking while watching clips from Telesur on one of the state-run networks. After Telesur, we watched some Cuban shows, and I have to say that I was very impressed with the production values of Cuban television, all things considered. I mean, I catch some arab shows here sometimes, and they look like the producers, artists and designers came out of retirement after a 20 year hiatus. Cubavision compares very favorably to Al-Jazeera.
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A note about my run-in at the Che Guevara monument: Yes, I was bothered, annoyed and upset at what happened. In retrospect, though, it really wasn’t a big deal, and it was the only “incident” I had in my two months in Cuba - and one which was arguably my own fault. I don’t exactly look harmless and unsuspicious, and they don’t often get people walking around taking notes. I’ve had much worse things happen to me in the United States. I’ve also heard scarier horror stories arising from similar situations elsewhere, especially in Latin America.
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I was waiting eagerly to continue reading your chronicles, and even a bit worried that you were not writing anymore.
And this new story is no exception of why I am interested in reading. Is kind of funny for me to read about the trip of some foreigner through my country, mostly because I feel very familiar with everything you say, and I almost always know what you mean. I’ve might even been at that burger place in downtown Santa Clara, which is perhaps the Cuban city I know the most besides Havana, my birth place.
And sorry for the incident, those things happen. As you said later, I’ve also heard about worse experiences in several other “free-world” countries.
Anyway, keep writing about your trip. It is interesting and entertaining, really.
That’s very gratifying to read - especially coming from somebody who lives there!
As for feeling familiar with what I’m saying, I think the fact that I’m a foreigner actually gives me an advantage in being able to describe it, since Cuba is so different than what I’m used to, I’m able to remember every detail vividly. On second thought, though, even within Cuba things change very much from city the city.
I will definitely keep writing, and I’m grateful for your kind words.
Why don’t you write about the people and how they go hungry. You seem to find food everywhere and without a problem.
I was born in Cuba but it’s not my home. I’m an American that has tried to give my children what my parents gave me “a free country”.
I want to understand how people live and is it as bad as we hear. I’ve never been back and don’t plan on it because I can’t help everyone my family left behind so if I don’t match the faces with the names it won’t seem so wrong to me that I have food and my kids are with us and not in some work camp.
Did you not write this stuff because you didn’t see it and it’s all peachy there? Were you blocked from writing how people make lines after lines for scraps? Were you blocked from writing how if you get sick and have to go to a hospital you have to take everything from a light bulb to towels? Did you just not see any of it??????
“Wiseoneofmany”,
I don’t write about what you said because throughout visiting the entire island of Cuba - cities, towns and villages - people didn’t really seem to be going hungry. Is there poverty? Yes, of course. Is it more abject or striking than anywhere else in the world? No, it isn’t.
I wasn’t born in Cuba, but I feel more at home in Cuba today than almost anywhere else in the world. We could sit here and pontificate all day about the meaning of “freedom”, but it’s something difficult to define and even more difficult to find - as much in the United States as in Cuba.
How do people live? Well, that’s what I’m trying to convey, in the most non-political tone possible. I do apologize if I fail at that sometimes, but all I can do is write what I saw - the good, the bad, and everything in between.
To answer your question, no, it’s not as “bad” as you seem to hear. This was my 4th time in Cuba (and my longest stay), and I’m returning again early this year.
You say you can’t “help everyone your family left behind” - but you can. The best thing you can do is to learn about Cuba from people who are living on the island right now. One thing that is certain is that you’ll never be able to get the truth about Cuba from sources in the USA, that’s a guaranteed, proven fact.
Is it all peachy? No, of course not - Cuba has many issues (some of them new and endemic) that it needs to deal with, not the least of which is national identity.
I wasn’t blocked from writing anything, and the “scraps” you mention are generally organically-grown, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables grown in urban community-owned farms. I stayed outside of casas and with many friend - new and old - and food was not a problem.
As for hospitals, I can’t comment on that since I didn’t go to one. Again, though, the people I dealt with generally spoke highly of the health services offered.
Con amistad,
Steve
Steve, thank you so much for your comment and for trying to give me an idea of life in Cuba. I know I have ideas in my head that are there from growing up watching my parents cry over a land they lost. I also know that the United States as well as any other Country has it’s issues and sometimes freedom is in our minds but when I can go to the store and buy my children food and things they need it’s hard for me to think of others that can’t.
I’m glad you see people being given good amounts of food because what I have discuss with Cuban people from Cuban is very different. I have seen Cuba through the eyes of someone that spent his life working for the cause only to see himself with nothing. He had to go back but he was able to explain so much to me. I couldn’t understand how the people accept it all and after speaking with him I had a better picture.
As for learning about Cuba and helping that way. I try to learn everything I can about Cuba and have instilled into my children the need to know not only how to speak but to understand the Country itself. I’ve tried to let them learn without the issues of the past and I hope that they will visit Cuba like you have done.
Keep writing and remember those of us reading are traveling with you and thank you for doing this.
Iàm from Cuba and in this moment I`m stay in Ecuador since october, 2005…I remember my country very much…
Cuba is very nice place
I like the new visual appearance of your blog. It’s really great.
I have built and extensive web site about the Armored Train of Santa Clara. I’m sorry to say that you are peddling propaganda. I’m sure you get detained all the time and asked for your “papers” when taking notes at monuments and museums all over the states. We live in a nazi state didn’t you know? Puleeeeassse.
“Conductor”,
What part of my writings led you to say that I’m “peddling propaganda”?
I wrote:
It was an assault that was led against Batista’s men, the rebels did derail the train, they did recover a large cache of weapons, and it was a very decisive turning point in the rebellion. I didn’t cheer for one side or the other, but just stated the facts.
I’ve been detained and asked for my papers on several occasions in the US. If you would’ve followed the link where I said “I’ve had worse things happen to me in the United States”, you would’ve come across one such (quite humourous) example.
I never said the US was a “Nazi” state - you’re just sensationalizing what you seem to assume to be my point of view on the United States. This being a blog about the Republic of Cuba, I would prefer to continue writing about Cuba, and not the US - if that’s alright with you, of course?
Cheers,
Steve
PS - I almost removed your comment thinking it was spam, since your handle links to a commercial site selling tshirts.