Saturday, November 8, 2014 The sixth in a series of seven entries; all delayed by one week.
After breakfast, at 9:15 we were due for another lecture. Professor Marta Nunez delivered a presentation that most agreed was very insightful. A PhD in Economics and Professor of Sociology, Dr. Nunez lived for a time in Moscow. Her presentation was about gender equality in Cuba but ranged far beyond that.
Same sex marriage is on the agenda for legal approval, while marriage itself is of less portent. Legal marriage and common law marriage – or as they refer to it 'consensual union' – have equal weight.
Homophobia is rampant in Cuba but the law offers protected class status for both sexual orientation and gender identity. Mothers, Dr. Nunez proposes, are to blame for this in that they don’t want their boys to be thought of as "sissies." They keep their girls in the kitchen with them to learn the fine art of homemaking but send the boys out to play baseball and soccer. Later the wives, who make up 60% of the ‘professions’ in Cuba – doctors, lawyers, engineers - fret that they must work “a second shift” caring for the home after their professional day jobs. The men, who do more manual labor, do no work in the house. All of this results in a statistically shorter lifespan for women. The message I received is that women sacrifice years off their lives so that their boys aren’t perceived as being gay and grow up to be chauvinists at home. Amazing.
Dr. Nunez described the economic plight of Cuba explaining the lack of capital available for business incubation and growth even after the socialist government loosened rules allowing for slightly more private enterprise. The people of Cuba are pragmatic in nature. They are incredibly patient and will wait forever for something to happen. There is really no religious orientation in the country. Until the Pope visited, Christmas was not celebrated, it was just another work day.
Her descriptions of the drastic downturn suffered here as the Soviets left in the nineties were dramatic. The Soviets had really fueled the economy of Cuba. Without that support, the country was left with nothing. There was no food, constant black outs, curfews, and with no income crime and thievery became commonplace. Bars appeared on every first floor window and door and remain there to this day.
Havana was once a city of mansions and wealth. With the exception of mansions sold to foreign governments to serve as residences and embassies, the fine stately and ornate homes have been left to crumble. It breaks your heart to drive about this city and see what it has become as you visualize what it once was.
After the lecture, we boarded our coach for a short drive to Revolution Square, where Castro used to deliver seven hour speeches, for a description about the lives of Jews as the government fell to Castro’s rebels in the sixties. Later, we visited a local market. Half of it is a more traditional farmers’ market with growers selling their product (vegetables, fruits, meat and more) where much was on offer adjacent to a government owned “supermarket” which was devoid of goods. We saw the ration amounts for various items and the artificially low government set prices for those items. Since they aren’t available, you cannot buy them. At the farmer’s market, many of those items are available but at a much higher free market price.
The corn and carrots at the market are stunted. There are virtually no green vegetables; we saw only a tiny amount of broccoli and it was unappetizing. The avacados, however, were huge. When we thought about it, the only green beans we ate in a restaurant were from a can and there are none to be seen here in the market. Vicky showed us a ration book issued to her family and we all thought about the differences between Cuba and The States where everything is plentiful.
Next, we visited the Wisenthal Center exhibit, “We Remember” at the Centro Hebreo Sefaradi de Cuba, the Sephardic Synagogue. Outside the sign read, “The Holocaust was a tragedy for the Jewish people, one that will be remembered for all time by Jews and non-Jews alike. Thousands found passage to new life—and many found a new home changing the Cuban Jewish community and even Cuba itself.”
Here is some history from the Synagogue.
In 1933, after the initial wave of Nazi anti-Semitic violence, panic swept through the German-Jewish community and 37,000 people fled Germany. This emigration slowed, however, after the initial rush. At first, the Nazis encouraged and, in some cases, forced emigration. The chief obstacle to Jewish emigration was the unwillingness of other nations to make visas available so that Jews could emigrate. Traditional anti-Semitism and the economic conditions due to the Great Depression caused international fear of flooding the labor markets and closed most escape routes. Thousands of the immigrants who made it to Cuba were on temporary visas. They were allowed refuge, but not permanent residency. Many wanted to go to the United States to be with family members, but with immigration restrictions to the United States, most refugees were in limbo. Cuba’s immigration policy during the 1930s was to provide a transit visa for a fee—at times up to $500, plus a deposit or promissory note that the refugee’s expenses, for at least one year, would be deposited in a Cuban bank following entry. The refugees were not permitted to work until they had permanent status, but they were allowed to remain in Cuba until they received immigration papers from another country or permanent resident status in Cuba.
One can imagine the emotional response to this situation among our group.
We left the Synagogue for a more lighthearted time enjoying lunch at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in downtown Havana. “Joe,” a Spaniard named Jose Abreal y Otero arrived in Cuba in 1904 and found work as a waiter. He traveled to the U.S. and worked again as a barman in Florida. Returning to Cuba in 1916, he got a job at The Greasy Spoon café and later opened his own business: Sloppy. American businesspeople looking for a drink found him. Later, Joe bought a dirty warehouse on the corner of Animas and Zulueta Streets and opened his new bar there. This Sloppy Joe’s is not akin to the Sloppy Joe’s in Key West, Florida. On the walls, one finds pictures of Babe Ruth, Frank Sinatra Ava Gardner, Joe Louis and many more. Now owned by the Cuban Government, Sloppy Joe’s makes a mean Cuban Sandwich and serves fine cold Crystal Beer along with, yes, sloppy joe type sandwiches.
After lunch, we walked past a man delivering food to a neighboring restaurant and then two blocks to a side street where five vintage convertibles awaited us. Joyce, Jeff, BR and I piled into a 1956 Ford Fairlane and were treated to a one hour tour of Havana and some residential neighborhoods. We saw Saturday baseball games, mossy trees in public parks, row upon row of rotting mansions and an entire neighborhood of beautiful Embassy mansions.
Back at the hotel by 4:30, we are told to meet back in the lobby at 7:15 for dinner. We pack and rest and then head out again, this time to La Casa Restaurante, another Private Restaurant in a home. Again, you cannot chew the fish. The chicken is much better.
My takeaway from these days in Havana is that this was once a vibrant and beautiful place populated by people of great wealth surrounded by even more people with no economic foundation. The Revolution resulted in the confiscation of the property owned by the rich (who fled) and, under government ownership, property has gone to waste and ruin. This is a story that here, unlike France or Russia where similar things occurred, has yet to come full circle.
We all agree that we would be happy to invest in land here and simply wait. Of course, we cannot do that because foreign investment here by Americans is illegal under both American and Cuban law. The local people cannot invest because they have no money and the government allows precious little private ownership of real estate as we would understand it. As a result, there is rampant rot and decay.
Will it all turn around when the Embargo ends? Most agree that it will but that the transition will be long, painful and frustrating. Even if the Embargo ended right away, which I predict it will (President Obama has nothing to lose at this point) this place will not sparkle in my lifetime. I fear there is not enough polish nor are there enough people here willing and able to scrub.
Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Havana, Cuba
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2025-02-11