For what it's worth, during the Obama administration, I visited Cuba with a U.S. tour company. We were required to register with the State Dept. as a humanitarian mission. Each of us had to bring 15 lbs. of consumer goods, e.g., OTC medicines like aspirin and antibiotic cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, band aids, etc. The gover…
For what it's worth, during the Obama administration, I visited Cuba with a U.S. tour company. We were required to register with the State Dept. as a humanitarian mission. Each of us had to bring 15 lbs. of consumer goods, e.g., OTC medicines like aspirin and antibiotic cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, band aids, etc. The government had deputized the Catholic Church to receive and deliver these items to the locals.
We didn't see any Potemkin Villages and I returned home with no illusions. In Havana, we stayed at a nice hotel run by a Spanish hotel chain, but other than that we were free to wander the streets and talk to anybody we liked. My high school Spanish came in handy. There are two forms of money in Cuba, one for Cubans, and one for tourists. Our money was extremely valuable, theirs was practically worthless. The few stores where they were allowed to shop were almost devoid of goods. But at that time, people didn’t appear to be going hungry.
Our tour guide was surprisingly forthright in her disdain for how her country was being run. Yes, she made sure we received the mandatory speeches about "the Revolution.” And she didn't have to sugarcoat the fact that people get good medical care in Cuba, as long as you follow all the rules, because if you miss one of your mandatory pre-natal visits you risk losing custody of your infant. (Your baby belongs to the State, not to you.) She was also upfront about the hideous condition of housing in Havana, where you could wake up after a rainstorm with the ceiling on top of your face, because fixing a decrepit old roof was out of the question. She explained why the Cuban divorce rate is sky high: three unrelated couples with one child apiece cannot maintain intimacy while sharing a three-bedroom apartment with one kitchen and one bathroom. As our tour was ending, she asked if I could send her some books on astronomy for her son. He was very interested in that subject and NO BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE.
I also learned that Cubans cannot choose their professions. You work where they tell you to work. This explained the dead eyes of the hospitality staff at the hotel, who do their jobs flawlessly and without a glimmer of human feeling. Again, through our tour guide: every little girl took ballet lessons, every little boy played baseball, because these were the only two possible pathways to a prestigious career, that might also lead to the possibility to defect.
In Cuba, I met beautiful, industrious, kind, talented people, full of humor, frustration and rage, with nothing but good will for us Americans and tourists from all over the world. I could cry thinking about them now. These people were trapped, and they knew they are trapped. Back then, Castro was still alive, making his four-hour speeches. It was clear from their affect that they were waiting for him to die, in the hopes that things would improve. Things did not improve. I am so inspired and terrified for the Cuban people right now, taking to the streets. They literally have nothing to lose.
I went to Cuba as part of student performing arts program. I was there with classmates and teachers and we stayed for a week. The year was 1998 and I was a teenager. I was born in Mexico and so young at the time that there were no issues with immigration. It has been a while since then, but this is what I remember:
1. Beggars outside our hotel who begged for food/goods rather than money.
2. Having given the extra food I had packed to such beggars (not much foresight on my part).
3. Our hotel was not luxurious by any means. We barely had any furniture in our room (what it lacked on furniture it made up on cockroaches, though).
4. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but the hotel food was terrible (salad with just lettuce and no dressing, flat tasteless pancakes with no butter or syrup, milk with curd). Moros y cristianos was the only food that tasted OK.
5. Feeling hungry and being unable to find anything resembling a restaurant or store near the hotel.
6. We visited a pizzeria and an ice cream parlor (coppelia) in Habana 1 time each during our stay. In both venues, were the only costumers and we paid with dollars. These were the 2 filling “meals” I had in Cuba.
7. Fidel propaganda billboards and anachronistic cars.
8. Empty Habana streets.
9. My friend twisting her ankle and her being sent to a shaman/witch doctor, rather than to a proper clinic.
10. Beautiful beaches that’s were almost empty.
11. Few Europeans, many of them wearing Che t-shirts.
12. Lovely and warm Cuban people.
13. Interestingly, we could watch VH1 from the hotel TV along with the Cuban Channels (only that one random American channel though).
You were in Cuba in 1998, during the terrible Special Period (1991-2001) that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. What you’re describing is consistent with those years of extreme deprivation and poverty as the result of Cuba’s loss of its nanny state. By the time I visited in 2011, the country had recovered significantly due to foreign investments in tourism. I also had the impression that a small amount of private enterprise was allowed. We visited an outdoor market in Havana where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were available for sale, apparently by private citizens (although prices were fixed).
I’m not a Cuba expert, but it seems that COVID dried up the tourism industry and Cubans are again suffering from hunger and shortages of everything. Cuba is a small but very fertile island and it surprised me to see how much of it remains undeveloped (we saw the entire length of the island from the plane).
For what it's worth, during the Obama administration, I visited Cuba with a U.S. tour company. We were required to register with the State Dept. as a humanitarian mission. Each of us had to bring 15 lbs. of consumer goods, e.g., OTC medicines like aspirin and antibiotic cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, band aids, etc. The government had deputized the Catholic Church to receive and deliver these items to the locals.
We didn't see any Potemkin Villages and I returned home with no illusions. In Havana, we stayed at a nice hotel run by a Spanish hotel chain, but other than that we were free to wander the streets and talk to anybody we liked. My high school Spanish came in handy. There are two forms of money in Cuba, one for Cubans, and one for tourists. Our money was extremely valuable, theirs was practically worthless. The few stores where they were allowed to shop were almost devoid of goods. But at that time, people didn’t appear to be going hungry.
Our tour guide was surprisingly forthright in her disdain for how her country was being run. Yes, she made sure we received the mandatory speeches about "the Revolution.” And she didn't have to sugarcoat the fact that people get good medical care in Cuba, as long as you follow all the rules, because if you miss one of your mandatory pre-natal visits you risk losing custody of your infant. (Your baby belongs to the State, not to you.) She was also upfront about the hideous condition of housing in Havana, where you could wake up after a rainstorm with the ceiling on top of your face, because fixing a decrepit old roof was out of the question. She explained why the Cuban divorce rate is sky high: three unrelated couples with one child apiece cannot maintain intimacy while sharing a three-bedroom apartment with one kitchen and one bathroom. As our tour was ending, she asked if I could send her some books on astronomy for her son. He was very interested in that subject and NO BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE.
I also learned that Cubans cannot choose their professions. You work where they tell you to work. This explained the dead eyes of the hospitality staff at the hotel, who do their jobs flawlessly and without a glimmer of human feeling. Again, through our tour guide: every little girl took ballet lessons, every little boy played baseball, because these were the only two possible pathways to a prestigious career, that might also lead to the possibility to defect.
In Cuba, I met beautiful, industrious, kind, talented people, full of humor, frustration and rage, with nothing but good will for us Americans and tourists from all over the world. I could cry thinking about them now. These people were trapped, and they knew they are trapped. Back then, Castro was still alive, making his four-hour speeches. It was clear from their affect that they were waiting for him to die, in the hopes that things would improve. Things did not improve. I am so inspired and terrified for the Cuban people right now, taking to the streets. They literally have nothing to lose.
I went to Cuba as part of student performing arts program. I was there with classmates and teachers and we stayed for a week. The year was 1998 and I was a teenager. I was born in Mexico and so young at the time that there were no issues with immigration. It has been a while since then, but this is what I remember:
1. Beggars outside our hotel who begged for food/goods rather than money.
2. Having given the extra food I had packed to such beggars (not much foresight on my part).
3. Our hotel was not luxurious by any means. We barely had any furniture in our room (what it lacked on furniture it made up on cockroaches, though).
4. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but the hotel food was terrible (salad with just lettuce and no dressing, flat tasteless pancakes with no butter or syrup, milk with curd). Moros y cristianos was the only food that tasted OK.
5. Feeling hungry and being unable to find anything resembling a restaurant or store near the hotel.
6. We visited a pizzeria and an ice cream parlor (coppelia) in Habana 1 time each during our stay. In both venues, were the only costumers and we paid with dollars. These were the 2 filling “meals” I had in Cuba.
7. Fidel propaganda billboards and anachronistic cars.
8. Empty Habana streets.
9. My friend twisting her ankle and her being sent to a shaman/witch doctor, rather than to a proper clinic.
10. Beautiful beaches that’s were almost empty.
11. Few Europeans, many of them wearing Che t-shirts.
12. Lovely and warm Cuban people.
13. Interestingly, we could watch VH1 from the hotel TV along with the Cuban Channels (only that one random American channel though).
You were in Cuba in 1998, during the terrible Special Period (1991-2001) that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. What you’re describing is consistent with those years of extreme deprivation and poverty as the result of Cuba’s loss of its nanny state. By the time I visited in 2011, the country had recovered significantly due to foreign investments in tourism. I also had the impression that a small amount of private enterprise was allowed. We visited an outdoor market in Havana where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were available for sale, apparently by private citizens (although prices were fixed).
I’m not a Cuba expert, but it seems that COVID dried up the tourism industry and Cubans are again suffering from hunger and shortages of everything. Cuba is a small but very fertile island and it surprised me to see how much of it remains undeveloped (we saw the entire length of the island from the plane).