Cuba: A Personal Perspective

As the news of Fidel Castro stepping aside poured in, it reminded me of a trip I took to Cuba 13 years ago.

It was going to be all sun and games as far as I was concerned. But Cuba turned out to be a little more than that.

Too often we hear about academic and political perspectives that at times could be intellectually polarizing.

Rather than attempt to offer yet another intellectual opinion, I would like to share my personal experience with Cuba.

I visited Cuba in 1995. It’s not until one stops and thinks does one realize they are in a communist country.

A country filled with beautiful beaches and genuinely engaging people. However, I could not stop but observe that behind the infectious smiles there was sorrow.

Most people stopped at the smiles and didn’t bother to think beyond this. Naturally, they concluded all is grand in Cuba.

Not me. I wanted to see more.

After a few days of hanging around the hotel overrun with tourists, I befriended a tall, handsome, lanky hotel worker. I found out that he had earned an engineering degree in Russia. Yet, he was handing out towels to tourists for a few bucks a month.

Something was not right with this picture.

One day, after insanely shooting hoops in 90 degree weather, I asked him to take me to Havana. He told me he could not. I naively teased him to take me. He looked around and politely refused.

That left an impression on me.

Most of the people who visit Cuba could care a rat's bum about the plight of its people. They were there, as far as they were concerned, to buy cigars, enjoy the breathtaking beaches, party and if they were lucky, meet someone for an amourous encounter.

Besides, it wasn’t their place to pass judgment. Who could blame them?

One day, I rented and hopped on a motorped and headed for a nearby town. I had grown tired of the fabricated environment around me.

It’s hard to meet Cubans in Cuba. It’s tough since they are forbidden to fraternize in any way – like walk on beaches - with tourists.

This struck me as plain wrong.

The chain on my bike got jammed along the way. No sooner than I had a chance to assess the problem a young kid jumped out of nowhere and fixed it. Just as quickly he was gone and standing off on the side of the road.

He then waved to me laughing, "Go, go!"

Off I went.

As I rode along I saw abject poverty as I have come to understand it. It’s easy to dismiss Cubans as destitute but if they were depressed they had a funny way of depicting it.

I witnessed pharmacies with little medicine. When I visited a bank I could feel the eyes of several spies observing me. Like the hotel worker I met, I spoke to educated people without jobs.

This is what I saw and observed with my own two eyes. Can looks deceive in the case of Cuba?

Was it a mirage? Was there something I was missing?

Following the trip, I returned to Canada wondering if Fidel Castro had indeed pulled off the greatest mirage of our times. He certainly fooled Western leftists – who curiously remained silent on Cuba’s human rights record. Maybe Cuba had some positives, but it was far from a revolutionary project to which all nations could aspire to.

I also wondered about Canada’s relationship with the tiny island blessed with brilliant baseball players, boxers and musicians. I'm not sure what to make of Canada's long standing decision to remain friendly with a dictator. Was it progressive or merely predicated on maintaining economic ties? Sometimes it just came off as plain confusing.

Sure, we sent food, old DeSoto cars and city buses that still had “Pie IX” (a major boulevard in Montreal) splashed on the windshield, medicine and other stuff. But as a whole what have we done of any concrete value besides build a few profitable hotels? Specifically, was our “progressive” stance beneficial to the Cuban people?

If we have, I just didn’t see it in revolutionary Cuba.

At the end of the day, Fidel Castro was a dark cloud that covered a spirited society he could not break. Now this cloud has a chance to give way to clear skies.

I don’t know what the future holds for Cuba. Hopefully the people will finally have a say in what direction the country heads. Personally, I hope the Buena Vista Social Club will reopen one day to help signal and usher in a Cuban Renaissance.

Indeed, Cuba deserves nothing less.