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Published: October 22nd 2017
Manaca Iznaga
Plantation owner's residence. Today was another long travel day. We bade farewell to Trinidad early in the morning. I felt sad to leave this vibrant, colorful town as I would have liked to explore it in more depth. Today was the final day of our tour, and we were to drive back to Havana, with two stops en route - The Valley of the Sugar Mills and Che Guevara's memorial in Santa Clara.
The Valley of the Sugar Mills is located just outside Trinidad. There, we visited Manaca Iznaga plantation. The former plantation owner's house was relatively intact, as was a tower on the premises, and some former slave quarters (now used as residences). This tower was used to view the operations of the plantation, which was staffed by slaves. I thought of the tower as an evil panopticon - a vantage point from where those in power control the activities of the workers. I know it is irrational, but I didn't want to pay CUC 2.00 to climb the tower because I didn't want to imagine myself in the shoes of a slaveowner surveying his property (both territorial and human). Throughout my stay in Cuba, I wondered about race relations among the
Manaca Iznaga
The evil Panopticon/Eye of Sauron. people there. On the surface, it seems good; I saw people of different races mingling and there is obviously a fair amount of interracial marriage. But, with race, appearances usually deceive no matter where you are. I guess race relations have been at the back of my mind lately because of recent developments in the various countries I have lived in - the US with a political regime that seeks to divide rather than unite, Brexit being driven by xenophobia, and Singapore's own Presidential (S)Election where the government amended the constitution on the (paper thin) pretext of maintaining racial harmony.
On our way back to Havana, we stopped by the Che Guevara museum and memorial at Santa Clara. It was a big, grand square. After the memorial, we ate a buffet lunch in Santa Clara at a Don Quixote-themed restaurant. There were tributes to Don Quixote in the decor, but it wasn't as kitschy as I initially feared it would be. I hate kitsch.
On the way to Havana, we viewed a documentary film about Che Guevara's life and another on Operation Pedro Pan (also known as Operation Peter Pan), a strange program run by the Catholic Church
Che Guevara Memorial
Note the placement of his rifle. and the US State Department in 1961-62 under which Cuban families were allowed to (encouraged to? scared into?) send their minor children, unaccompanied, to the US. The children were given visa waivers and placed with relatives, foster families, or church-run group homes. Some reunited with their families quickly, some after years of separation, and some never. Some had good experiences, some were exploited and/or abused. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about how this operation came to be. Some parents who were against the idea of the new government in Cuba after the revolution wanted to send their children out of Cuba, and other parents feared that their children would be forcibly removed from their homes (apparently, someone convincingly forged a legal document draft of a supposed law stating this would happen) and so they pre-empted that by sending their children away. And then there was the US government, in particular the CIA, covertly trying to foment dissent in post-revolutionary Cuba through a campaign of disinformation and fear-mongering.
The relationship between the US and Cuba is so tangled and the dynamics of the relationship have been fraught with so much misunderstanding and miscommunication. What I am
sure of is what I see in every country I have visited: getting to share experiences and trade our perspectives with the locals on an individual level through interpersonal contact shows how we are all so much more similar than different, and that cultural differences have little bearing on how we can (and should) treat one another. Oversimplifications based on ideology, assumptions, and/or misinformation make it a whole lot harder to interact in a civil manner. Ultimately, it is the little people - especially those with no safety net - who suffer the most when these oversimplifications get in the way. Whether or not the US was right in imposing economic santions on Cuba, in the end, it is the average person who is most severely impacted. In every country I have lived in, we overcome shortages by simply importing. Cuba doesn't always have this luxury. But, one sees human ingenuity at work everywhere in Cuba. Cars are somehow kept running for decades by jerry rigging engines and adapting parts. So many workers on their own account supplement their incomes by buying, selling, and providing services, or just simply gaming the system. The highly educated population, which has little access
Human Ingenuity at Work
Sheer ingenuity keeps such old cars running for decades. Workers on their own account utilize them to make money. to information other than those from official media (anyone else think this is a ticking time bomb?) finds creative ways to pass information and news around. Human ingenuity knows no bounds and Cuba is a fine example of that.
We rolled in to Havana at 4.30pm, and, after a quick rest, Jeff and I went out to seek wi-fi to no avail - the nearby hotspots were all overloaded. After yet another failed Mission: Wee-Fee, our group had one final dinner before we bade farewell to one another. We departed for home the next morning.
Acknowledgements: • My deepest gratitude to Peggy and Jeff Sr. for sponsoring this trip. Jeff and I will forever treasure this experience.
• I adapted parts of this blog entry from Jeff's Facebook
ramblings musings.
Travel Tips for Cuba: • Cuba has two currencies: the CUC which tourists use and is pegged to the USD, and the CUP which locals use. I understand that independent travelers often pay in CUC and get change in CUP, which complicates matters somewhat.
• Bring toilet paper.
• You'll never imagine what can be in short supply in a country with centralized production and economic
sanctions. Even toilet seats are scarce. Adaptability and a sense of humor are key.
• Mission: Wee-Fee. Getting a sim card is an absolute waste of your money. To access the internet, one needs to purchase wifi cards for CUC 1.50 each, find a hotspot, and hope to God you can get on. Most of the wifi hotspots we tried were overloaded. Be prepared to stay offline for days at a time.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Reflections
It might be the angle of this photo, but it looks like he's stood up in a hurry and is pulling his pants up? Hehe I doubt they would depict Che in that light though :) I was curious about race relations in Cuba too, the only real insight I have into the country was via my love for the Buena Vista Social Club, which gave me an idea of the Afro-Cuban life there, but not of the rest of the population. Thanks for sharing your travels...Cuba has been on our travel shortlist for a log time, and it might be time to give it a boost to the top!