Cuba Calling

An American in Cuba

2012-06-09T16:52:00.001-07:00

William Alexander Morgan being applauded by Fidel Castro, in Havana in 1959. Morgan said that he had joined the Cuban Revolution because “the most important thing for free men to do is to protect the freedom of others.”

Here is a well-written, heartbreaking story from The New Yorker about an American who was deeply involved in the Cuban Revolution. It shows a unique angle of the Cuban Revolution:

The Yankee Comandante

A story of love, revolution, and betrayal.

by David Grann

Behold Betty Fry

2012-04-21T17:31:00.002-07:00

Behold the amazing woman whose celebration of life I had the honor of attending at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Hillcrest this morning, Mrs. Betty Fry. The church was filled with her family and friends. The celebration was led by Reverend Kathleen Owens herself, who I've heard deliver talks a few Sundays at the church. This was the first time I saw her choke up. But a tremendous joy outweighed the sadness, as Betty's vibrant life came alive for us in words, song, memories .. and in the faces of her offspring. Betty's grandson, popular and talented San Diego musician and singer Nathan Fry, performed two memorable, rousing songs for his grandmother, accompanied by his long-time artistic partner Janet Hammer and two other singers.

I only met Betty a couple of times, briefly, in the months and years after I returned from my 2007 trip to Cuba. Her name always came up as the matriarch of compassion and activism behind San Diegans' efforts to right decades of wrong in official U.S. relations toward Cuba. I admired her greatly. She exemplified a kind of pure goodness, and I believe the world would be so much better off with more Betty Frys in it. She passed away at the victorious age of 93 -- about the same age my grandmother passed away at a few years ago. Perhaps that's why I found myself more emotional during this morning's service than I had expected to be.

Two great losses for revolutionary community

Coming Friday, May 6, 2011 to San Diego!

2011-04-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

A chance to see cool art, meet cool Cubans, and hear from people passionate about the cause of restoring friendly and fair relations between the USA and Cuba:

Many Americans want to visit Cuba, survey finds

2011-04-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Many Americans want to visit Cuba, survey finds

Big news on on the Cuba/USA relations front ...

2011-01-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Obama to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, allow more U.S. cash to island - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com

Here's the message as it came directly from the White House two days ago:

THE WHITE HOUSE. Office of the Press Secretary. January 14, 2011:

REACHING OUT TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE

Cuba release 'could lead to US lifting embargo'

2010-07-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Cuba release 'could lead to US lifting embargo'

Special Cuban Caravanistas dinner tonight in San Diego!

2009-07-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

All Cuba Calling readers are invited to an exciting dinner party in San Diego tonight welcoming this year's 20th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba arriving in San Diego on July 14, 2009 on their way to meet other caravanistas from all over the United States to continue to Cuba to deliver humanitarian aid and tour the island.

The evening's program begins with a Cuban meal (cooked by Cuban chef Ismael) and potluck dinner at 6 PM, followed by guest speaker Alicia Jrapko; a 13-minute documentary on the Cuban Five; a poetry reading; and concluding with testimonials from caravanistas on this year's journey, telling why they are going to Cuba.

The address of the event is the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4190 Front Street (across from the UCSD Medical Center), San Diego, CA 92101. For more information, call Betty Fry at 619-582-8288. Donations are welcome but not required.

Please reply to this E-mail letting us know you can attend. We're looking forward to an evening of solidarity and sharing.

Memories of Cuba

2008-05-16T21:50:00.001-07:00

I didn't make this video. I found it on YouTube. But it reminds me perfectly of my time in Cuba:

One more, with love

2008-01-20T00:02:00.001-08:00

Your Invitation to July 9 Cuba Event in San Diego

2007-07-02T09:03:00.001-07:00

Chance to Help the Cuban People

2007-05-24T14:58:00.001-07:00

(NOTE: I received this from a friend of mine in San Diego, a wonderful lady to helps organize goodwill aide trips to Cuba. Perhaps some readers and fans of 'Cuba Calling' would be interested in contributing to this cause to provide assistance to the Cuban people. She mentions $100, but they'd gladly accept any amount you want to provide -- they're only $1,000 short!). Here is the message from my friend:]

The San Diego Friends of Cuba group has come within $1,000 of matching the $3,000 now available for purchase of a San Diego bus to carry humanitarian aid (medical supplies, wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, etc.) and caravanistas down to Texas and then Tampico, Mexico for transport to Cuba. The humanitarian aid goes directly to a Cuban interfaith center. The caravanistas tour the island and have a close-up look at many of the communities on the island. Our objective is to end the U.S. government blockade against the country of Cuba.

If we can get 10 people to give $100 each we'll reach our goal. All the person has to do is:

Write a check for $100 to IFCO (Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization)
Write 'San Diego Bus' on the memo line
Mail the check to 418 W. 145th St. New York, NY 10031

The donation is fully tax deductible. We need the money by June 1st so the driver, Bill Hill, will have time to select one of the buses already located, and get the necessary licenses for the vehicle. Do you know 10 people through your travels to Cuba who could donate $100 each? We're so close to meeting our goal.

The person/organization can come to our party at the Malcolm X Library on July 9 and paint a message and signature on the side of the bus (like the one pictured) before it leaves for Arizona. Speaking of the July 9 party (2-7 PM at the Malcolm X Library in San Diego, FREE FOOD! and music!) I hope very much you can come and bring your friends.

Cuba Comment: Cuba's Varadero vs. Mexico's Cancun

2007-05-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

In response to the posting Varadero: Cuba's Cancun, 'Hola' said . . .

"Just one thing . . . Cancun would like for one day to be as beautiful as Varadero."

Che Guevara - "Soy fanatico!"

2007-05-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

Comment from a young Habanero I met on the Malecon one night (translated from Spanish):

"What do I think of Che Guevara? Oh, man, I'm a fanatic! He was so good. He did so much for Cuba. Sometimes I think if he had lived, he would have been a better president for Cuba than Fidel."

Cuba Comment: "lift the ban on travel to Cuba"

2007-05-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

'Desertmom' said:

"I hope that your trip, and other trips like yours to Cuba, will encourage the new congress to try to lift the ban on travel to Cuba. I'd love to go there."

Cuba Comment: "no one undertstands what we have gone thru"

2007-05-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

In response to the posting One Man's View of the Emabargo, 'Hola' said:

"'Unjust and ethically unacceptable!?' Well the late Pope went back to his homeland and took a lot of time, money and effort to make sure that his people would enjoy freedom. Shame WE cubans haven't had the "grace" to have a Cuban Pope that would fight for Cubans against this horrible dictatorship that's close to 50 years of the most horrible crimes against us the Cuban people. I know most of the time no one cares and futher more no one understands what we have gone thru. The day all Cubans are free and have the opportunity to speak up without fear of being thrown in jail for telling the world what they think . . . Then they we will know. Let's wait for the rat to finally die and leave us Cubans in peace to take back our lives."

Cuba Comment: "never felt more welcome or safe"

2007-05-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

As expected, 'Cuba Calling' has elicited some heartfelt comments from several readers. For the next few posts, I will feature various comments, representing several perspectives. In some cases I will also offer a response to a comment. And, in the true spirit of the blogosphere, feel free to comment on the comments! As an added bonus, I'll illustrate each featured comment with a new photo or video clip from Cuba not yet presented on the site. Let's get started

Comment from 'CubaSi' . . .

"I believe that you will be able to see many things your government does not want you to see... The 'What' will be all around you, the 'Why' is the one I would guess you will find challenging. I have been travelling to Cuba for the past 25 years, I go at least twice a year, sometimes three. This last November I travelled the whole month of November, all over the Island, and have never felt more welcome or safe . . ."

Podcast: Socialism in Cuba from a different perspective

2007-05-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

In honor of May Day, I've posted to the upper right a podcast from a Scottish lad about socialism in Cuba from a perspective to which Americans are rarely exposed. Though recorded last August shortly after Fidel Castro took ill, it reinforces many of the things I saw and heard while visiting Cuba for 10 days last month. The full podcast discusses both China and Cuba and can be found at this link. I have edited it to include only the portion on Cuba, to the right, which runs just under nine minutes. To hear it, just hit the pink (get it?) "play" arrow.

"Nike"

2007-04-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

"Nike." That's all the Cuban teenager said as he walked past me on the cobblestoned streets of Trinidad de Cuba, a colonial-era mountain village and UNESCO World Heritage Site near Cuba's south coast. I had fallen behind the other members of my research delegation, staring in awe at the quaint beauty of this pristine village.

I knew he was referring to the grey Nike trail running shoes with bright orange Nike swooshes I had on. Several times while wearing them back in Havana and elsewhere on the island, I noticed young Cuban men casting pensive glances at my feet. Little things like that are constant reminders of a half-century U.S. embargo keeping so many brands and products we take for granted out of bounds for the people of this long, skinny island.

I decided I didn't want this young man to get away so easily, since he was the first to actually say something about my shoes, as opposed to just staring at them. I caught up to him and asked, "Que tipo de zapatos tienes tu?" ["What type of shoes do you have?"] I had to repeat it twice before he understood me. 'Zapatos,' like 'dificil' remains one of the hardest words in Spanish for me to pronounce smoothly.

He said his were jogging shoes. They were some Chinese brand and featured even more bright orange (my favorite color) than mine. The next word out of his mouth was 'cambio,' and before long we were trading our shoes. We lined our left feet up next to each other to ensure a decent fit, then sat on the sidewalk to take off and trade our shoes.

As we walked to where my delegation was meeting for its next tour, I got to to know a little bit about this young man. His name was Miguel Alejandro, seventeen years old, finishing school and training to work as a chef. His favorite sports: snorkelling and track and field, especially long distance running. He said he lived in a small house down the block with his mom and sister (so many young Cubans I met had no fathers at home; many said their fathers were living in the United States; I imagine some fathers were serving time among Cuba's large prison population.)

I asked Miguel Alejandro how he liked life in the small town of Trinidad de Cuba, and in Cuba in general. He told me it was great. Before parting, we exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to keep in touch. Of course, like most Cubans, he didn't have an e-mail address or a computer to access the Internet, but he had a friend with both and said he would reach me that way.

We waved goodbye, and as he rounded the cobblestoned corner to his home, I imagined this young man someday making Cuba proud in a future Olympics or Pan American Games.

Are They Poor?

2007-04-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

It's the most common question I'm getting asked by my friends and coworkers about Cuba now that I've returned. Take a look at the picture of a Havana market and the video of a typical busy street on the outskirts of Havana and decide for yourself if Cuba looks like a poverty-ridden country.

My answer is always somewhere along these lines: they have a lower standard of living and make do with less than the average American is used to. But then I always say, "BUT."

BUT I saw no sign, anywhere, in neighborhoods shabby and spiffy, areas rural and urban, of anyone who had "fallen through the cracks." No homeless people sleeping on cardboard boxes like Market Street in San Diego. No mentally ill being dumped on Skid Row by uncaring hospital workers like Los Angeles. No dirty-faced hungry toddlers peddling Chiclets to passersby like Tijuana. No walls being built to keep slum-dwellers away from the well-to-do like Rio de Janeiro. No heartless teens beating a sleeping vagabond to death like Fort Lauderdale.

There were also no homeless shelters or circus tents devoted to the homeless -- because there were no homeless.

So, while communism in Cuba is kind of a drag to live under in some ways, from what I saw it has effectively eliminated some of the things about capitalism that are a total drag.

One World Body's View of the Embargo

2007-04-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly voted for the 15th consecutive year to end the trade and financial blockade of Cuba by the United States. The vote was 183 to 4.

Cuban Rainforest

2007-04-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Las Terrazas is a rainforest ecological preserve in Cuba's westernmost province of Pinar del Rio, west of Havana. We visited it to see how Cuba is developing eco-tourism as one element of its tourist industry and planning transportation infrastructure to get tourists to sites like these. Las Terrazas used to be filled with coffee plantations, which destroyed the natural landscape. Here's more from the Global Exchange Web site:

"Las Terrazas is a 12,000-acre preserve that was completely deforested half a century ago. In 1968 reforestation began, along with an experimental town that was intended to coexist in harmony with nature. Six million trees were planted with 27 species of hardwood, the hillsides were terraced, and the town of Las Terrazas was founded.

From the mountain mahoe trees that are harvested on a limited basis, Cubans make baseball bats. And in the shade of carob trees grow small amounts of coffee.

In 1985 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the area Cuba's first biosphere reserve. In 1991, the 26-room Hotel Moka was built in order to attract eco-tourists for bird-watching and hiking."

The day we visited, a true tropical rain poured down for the entire afternoon. After lunch, a local family offered us shelter in their humble home. Our tour guide for the day, in the green shirt, was Rodolfo.

'Totalitarian Police Sate'

2007-04-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

For those Americans who dare to visit Cuba, this is what the United States Department of State tells them about the country:

COUNTRY DESCRIPTION: Cuba is a totalitarian police state, which relies on repressive methods to maintain control. These methods, including intense physical and electronic surveillance of Cubans, are also extended to foreign travelers. Americans visiting Cuba should be aware that any encounter with a Cuban could be subject to surreptitious scrutiny by the Castro regime's secret police, the General Directorate for State Security (DGSE). Also, any interactions with average Cubans, regardless how well intentioned the American is, can subject that Cuban to harassment and/or detention, amongst other forms of repressive actions, by state security elements. The regime is strongly anti-American yet desperate for U.S. dollars to prop itself up.

Scary truth? Scare tactic? Some of both? You decide.

Some Favorite Havana Pictures

2007-04-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Below is Havana's main Catholic cathedral. One night I walked by it and heard beautiful choral music coming from inside. I stepped inside and enjoyed a touching concert of religious songs performed by terminally ill children visiting from Venezuela. Only about a third of the pews in the enormous church were filled with concert-watchers.

These flags stand in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which passes for our embassy absent full diplomatic ties. Behind the flags is an electronic sign placed on the side of the building by the U.S. government that conveys pro-American, anti-Castro messages periodically. Considering this propoganda, the Cuban government responded by placing a barrage of flags to block the sign.

Crime in Cuba

2007-04-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

I can only think of one country in all my travels where I possibly felt as safe, and seen as little crime, as I did during my ten days in Cuba -- and that would be Denmark, where I lived as an exchange student in 1985-86.

In my ten days in Cuba, I visited a dozen or so cities and towns, five of the country's 14 provinces, and several busy transportation facilities, including the main airport, train stations and bus depots. I walked through working-class housing projects. And, on my own and often late at night (one of the few times I could break free from my delegation), I visited shabby Havana neighborhoods that would have looked at home in some of America's worst inner-city gang territories.

Through it all, I never felt threatened or in danger, never saw a single crime or fight, never heard a major argument (unless it was about baseball). All I saw were Cubans going about their business, chatting in small groups of friends, sitting on park benches, playing chess and dominoes, dressed nice heading out to a night on the town, riding bikes, and, near tourist areas, a few hustling foreigners with offers of cigars.

I also saw police officers, lots of police offers. They stood on nearly every third or fourth street corner, in every other park or plaza, singly or in pairs. They would stand quietly on guard, saunter casually along, pull over speeding pedi-cab drivers, question overly drunk passersby and offer directions to lost tourists. They insisted to see ID cards from all Cubans they questioned and often wrote citations for what looked to me to be minor offenses. They were a constant presence and proved hard to get used to for this San Diegan, grown accustomed to living in one of the most under-policed large cities in America.

I walked some of Havana's darkest, dingiest alleys, almost to dare, challenge and test the surreal sense of safety and security I felt in this foreign country. Nothing bad ever happened to me, night after night.

I was told by several Cuban parents that, although their country's socialist system has some room for improvement, they cherish the fact that their young children can go out and play in the streets, even at night, without parental supervision . . . and come home again safe and sound.

It made me wonder how many parents in some of the worst parts of Tijuana, Chicago or Caracas -- or most other large cities in the United States and throughout most of the the rest of Latin America -- could say the the same thing?

In my opinion, Cuba's unbelievable lack of crime may be attributed to a few factors, including the heavy police presence, fear of imprisonment, less racial conflict, absence of sharp class differences, and a sense of national pride and community solidarity that usurps individual priorities.

I grew up and live in a country where TV news broadcasts feed us stories of murder, mayhem, crime and cruelty on a daily basis. I live in a neighborhood where muggings are on the rise, theft occurs regularly and the best the police can do is tell us to 'be on guard.' I have close friends who struggle to escape pasts scarred by gang violence. I live in a nation where emotional issues related to crime and punishment shape national dialogue, win and lose political elections, raise great walls around well-to-do neighborhoods, erect bars over the windows and doors of less well-to-do neighborhoods, and inject lifelong paranoia into the American psyche.

I had no idea that, in Communist Cuba, there existed a society and a system that had found a way to largely eliminate the kind of crime we hear about every day, and sometimes are victims of, in the wealthiest nation on Earth. It's a bright spot in Cuban society, one I never learned about in my own country, and a factor that the Cubans I met cherish greatly.

Cuba Cars

2007-04-15T22:20:00.000-07:00