This is part 3 of a 5-part series about our week+ long trip around Cuba in January 2017. If you landed here directly — don’t forget to go back and start with parts 1 and 2:
- Getting to Cuba, and first impressions
- Free healthcare or modern luxuries? Cuba’s economic paradoxes
- (This post) What growing up in China taught me about Cuban society
- Tobacco farming and the art of cigar rolling
- Fantasies of a San Fran-Cuba
Everything we heard about Cuba before our trip seemed fantastical and surreal.. It was a Caribbean “time capsule” from the 1950’s, full of exotic vintage cars and dilapidated mansions. The Communist/Socialist/Fidelist government kept the island’s economy poor and industries nationalized, yet manages to provide universal free healthcare and some of the best-trained doctors and nurses in Latin America. It boggled my mind that such a culture was possible, and existed just off the shore from Florida. At the same time — it sounded so much like my childhood (growing up in China) that some of iit had to be real (?). We landed in Havana with bated breath, not really knowing what to expect.
Wait actually, let me rewind a little bit to set a little context — I grew up in semi-rural China in the 80’s, the first decade that China “opened up” economically and entered the international community. Looking back on things, I’d rate my childhood as being basic, but not really lacking. In fact — living so basically made me appreciate the occasional splurges that much more. My parents and extended family all worked for local state-owned enterprises or universities, and lived in state-owned housing. Sure, we didn’t have western “luxuries” like running hot water, reliable power, or supermarkets. But on the bright side, my family had job security, we bought fresh organic produce every day from local farmers, and we knew our neighbors. One of my favorite childhood memories was of buying meat for special occasions. For Chinese New Year’s eve’s, one of my aunts would splurge and buy a live chicken that we’d cook for the family meal. I learned to help the grownups kill and clean a chicken, and saw it go from roasting pot to the dinner table. If I happened to be the youngest grandchild that year, I’d get to nibble on the chicken head.
OK — back to Cuba. I was surprised that as we drove around the island and saw life in the cities and countrysides, memories from my childhood came rushing back. So many aspects of Cuban life felt comforting and familiar.
For example, back in China we used to take post-dinner walks around the block, and greet all our neighbors who were sitting outside or taking their walks as well. In contrast — I’d say the favorite post-dinner pastime in the US is probably watching TV. In the Cuban country-side and suburbs, everybody seems to know their neighbors as well. A ubiquitous local pass-time is sitting on the rocking chair, and watching people walk by. According to our tour guide, her parents and grandparents would often sit on the patio after dinner, and happily talk to their neighbors and gossip about people around town.
The unifying symbol of Cuban life has got to be the rocking chair. We saw at least two rocking chairs on every single porch across Cuba. I learned that rocking chairs are family heirlooms, and a common gift for new mothers. Moms can comfortably feed and hold their baby while rocking in their chair.
With all the Silicon Valley talk of the app-based “sharing economy”, I kept seeing reminders that life in Cuba is the real pre-digital sharing economy. Maybe it’s because people know their neighbors. Maybe it’s because most people in Cuba have similar economic statuses. Or maybe because Cubans are constantly reminded of their revolution and feel a bond against a common Western enemy? I’m not sure. I’m sure many complex variables contribute to this bond, but the end-effect is pretty nice.
We stayed in several Cuban homes during our trip, and walked around towns outside Havana and in the countryside. We saw neighbors trying to help each other with fixing cars, house chores, or even getting groceries. We saw friends chatting on street corners or playing dominoes in a side alley. We heard that theft and crime are extremely rare, and we never felt unsafe. It’s funny that if I was walking in a US city and saw groups of men “loitering” at street corners, I probably would’ve jumped to a very different conclusion.
In “pre-Uber” Cuba, we must have passed over a hundred hitchhikers during our drives criss-crossing the country-side. Different types of Cubans (from single men, to pregnant women with children, to commuters) stood by the side of the highway, or clustered around intersections. Many of them held out their hand, or even waved wads of cash at passing cars. This really surprised me — since nobody hitchhikes in America any more, and nowadays it’s only seen as a setup in horror movies. I learned that in Cuba this is common practice for commuting, and it’s even more common around the holidays because people try to go home but there’s very few cross-island buses. On one of our rides going westward, our driver picked up two nurses who just got off work, and they rode with us for almost 1 hour before getting out and walking the rest of the way home.
Like in China in the 80’s and 90's, almost everyone in Cuba had a basic income and was guaranteed housing. Richer people may have their own means to buy larger houses and pay for the upkeep, but even the poor was granted basic housing by the state. We saw the whole gamut of housing, ranging from bare boned single-room concrete houses in smaller towns, to large mansions in Old Havana. Many homes were heavily weathered by nature and starting to crack and crumble, but the ones that were rented out for tourists were consistently clean and well maintained.
In another parallel to China, Cuban society, education, and culture were all deeply influenced by its recent revolution. The two revolutions overlapped in the 1950’s, and both were fueled by deep anger against Western imperialism and the corruption of the ruling elite. Both countries have since settled into its own form of socialist/communist economies, and were governed by groups that seem to have a lot in common. A single governing group continues to hold a strong grip over the country, revolutionary propaganda was ubiquitous, and people still hero-worship the revolutionary leader (from Mao to Fidel).
Change may be coming in Cuba with the passing of Fidel and Raúl’s announcement that he’ll step down in 2018. We talked to a few locals during our trip, and heard mixed feelings and apprehension about the future. People said that in spite of the many hardships, at least the citizens are more or less equal. But they’ve been seeing that with the country opening to tourism and development, the characteristics of historic cities are changing. Also — people are fearful that as certain groups benefit more from tourism and make more money, Cuban society may become more exclusive and race-based like the United States.
There’s lots of obvious differences between China and Cuba as well, but I won’t go into it too much here because they *are* pretty obvious. Suffice to say, Cuba is steeped in rich, vibrant, and multi-cultural Caribbean traditions. One of my most striking memories of Cuba was of people living publicly — like having dinner outside with their doors wide open. Music often played out from house windows or on the streets, and amazing undiscovered bands performed beautiful rhythms..
We discovered our favorite band, Violines Internacionales, during a dinner in old Havana. They were selling home-made CD’s with pixel-y album art for $5 each. When I asked if they recorded their performances, the lead singer said in Spanish “we can’t afford to record videos — we can barely afford to make these CDs!” Well — we bought a CD and I’ll put it online soon to share the wealth. In the meantime — here’s a video I captured that night. Hats off to you, Violines Internacionales — here’s hoping that Cuba opens to more tourism, that you guys become Internet famous, and that your videos be shared widely! 🥁 🎺 🎹 🎼
