Introduction

As Canadians, we are permitted to travel to and around Cuba. I do not in any way recommend that American readers of this photoessay go against the wishes of their government and travel in Cuba. Much as I think Cuba is a wonderful place, I do not think that going to Cuba is worth the logistics, legalities, potential huge financial penalties and personal risk to which Americans expose themselves if they visit the country.

Cuba is a country long in history and strong in contrasts.

You can’t visit Cuba without the awareness that you are visiting a communist country, at least the living remnants of one. My natural curiosity about the lives of others led me into some very interesting and revealing conversations with several Cubans we encountered during our two week stay in the country over Christmas 2003. In realizing that freedom of speech is not embraced in Cuba, and that repercussions for those suspected of speaking out against the government are swift and punitive, I will not be publishing images of any of these people, nor revealing any clues as to their identity. However, you should assume that most of the information I am sharing about the state of Cuba was sourced from individuals who live there.

The government restricts the movement of the Cuban people, even within the country. As a result, there are many people who live where their grandparents did. Real estate can not be owned, only occupied. However, farms and dwellings can be passed down through families, but can only change hands outside a bloodline through marriage and/or divorce.

Some rural Cubans believe that there is a more opportunity for them available in Havana, and despite the government's attempts to halt the influx, the city is becoming very crowded. Recently the government decreed that each person living in Havana must have 100 sq ft of dedicated living space. How this will be enforced is questionable, when it appears that many people are actually squatting in derelict old buildings in the city.

Despite the long and often tragic history of Cubans fleeing the country on innertube rafts and floating cars across treacherous seas to Florida, the people I met in the rural areas outside of Holguín on the northeastern coast of Cuba seemed delighted to report that they are very content with their lives, and are very proud of their country and its track record. This may be in part due to the fact that all of the people I spoke to have some contact with the visiting tourists, and therefore are in a position to receive US dollar cash tips.

The people in Havana looked slightly stressed, as people living in semi-squalor in overcrowded and polluted cities often do, especially people who have to wait forever for a ride home, and even then it might be with ten or so other people crammed into a ’52 Cadillac collectivo. The transportation issues throughout the country are large, but the people seem resigned to it. It is not at all unusual to see a horse and carriage full of workers trundling along a main rural road outside of Holguín, and government-owned vehicles (which comprise almost all of the traffic on the road) are required to pick up Cuban travellers if they can squeeze them in, kind of like a mass national collectivo.

A dual economy began in Cuba in the early 1990's, when the Soviet Union (and its vast markets for Cuban goods) crumbled and the large subsidies from Moscow ended. The response of the US was to tighten its long imposed trade embargo, in an effort to once and for all oust Castro. Cuba went through a severe adjustment. People were hungry. The economy of Cuba was dead in the water. There was yet another huge exodus of boat people to the US, in which so many perished. Castro's response to this dissidence was a decision to open the door a crack.

It became legal for Cuban citizens to possess US dollars.

A lottery was created. People who wanted to emigrate could enter their names in the annual lottery (the first folks to do this must have been very brave), and if picked, must come up with quite a bit of cash to facilitate the paperwork (something like US$1000, which is more than a lifetime’s possibility of savings for the average worker in Cuba, at least up until the tourist dollars started to flow), as well as a sponsor outside the country, usually a relative or family friend in the US.

One of the most significant concessions that Castro made in the mid-1990's was to allow foreign interests to once again own businesses and real estate in Cuba, purchased from the Cuban government, and for which they are regularly taxed.

Many resorts were built as a result of this change in policy, first a large concentration in Varadero and then, in the last few years, on the coast in pockets from near Holguín up to Santa Lucía (home of the bull shark feeds). More large scale development in other areas is currently underway.

The rash of new resorts has brought many western tourists to Cuba in the last decade in search of a novel beach and an unspoiled country, including Canadians, Germans, Brits, Australians, French, Spanish, Italians, etc etc. Some of these tourists bring pockets full of US dollars with which they tip the hotel and tourism workers in the hopes of or in thanks for receiving good service. Not only does this create previously unimagined comparative wealth for these people (and in doing so, effectively feed the dual economy), but the interface of western tourists and Cuban citizens also reveals the realities of capitalism and the concept of personal wealth to a couple of generations worth of people who have been previously shielded from those realities by heavy television and media governmental controls.

And as the country re-opened itself to western tourism after a 30 year hiatus, tourist taxes were imposed, the most blatant of which is the exit fee of US$25 per person (cash) on departure from the country. Cuban immigration and customs officers are extremely bureaucratic and thorough in their processing of tourists, both on entry into the country and on exit.

The day trip to Havana was organized by a hotel tour operator. It involved a one hour bus ride to/from Holguín Airport, a one and a half hour flight on a turboprop to/from Havana, lunch and a guided tour of the city. I thought it was well worth the US$180 price tag.