Paintings

Latin Cuban

Cubans feel bedeviled by the U.S. embargo

The bus driver is off-duty now, sitting outside in the muggy Havana air and dreaming of what isn’t.

“Imagine cargo ships loading up in the morning 90 miles from here in the United States and unloading here in the afternoon,” he says.  “Imagine that.”

The Cuban bus driver is named Alejandro, and he is working again after having retired from a government job 12 years ago.  His wife is also working.  They need the income.

I came to know him in July as part of a delegation of educators organized by Witness for Peace.  We were in Cuba for 10 days, talking with education officials and students, visiting schools and meeting with professionals.  We also had opportunities to mix with everyday Cubans in the street and at night clubs.

Speaking through an interpreter friend of mine, Alejandro continues to talk about the U.S. embargo against Cuba, which Cubans refer to as “the blockade,” and he wonders why 50 years of that form of punishment isn’t enough.

The whole thing started out afflicting only the targeted group, the upper-level bureaucrats, he notes, “but it long ago trickled down to the average worker.”

It has affected his life in the same way it has most other Cubans, in the availability and cost of food, medicine, electronics, clothing and construction materials. 

“Products take six months to be shipped from China, for example, so there’s extra cost,” Alejandro says.  “Things like milk, chicken, other nutritional items that we need, we have to pay extra because it is too far.”

Rice is the main staple in the country, as are beans and pork.  A portion of the food is provided each month through ration cards that every Cuban receives, but it is insufficient.  The rest must be purchased from salaries that in most cases amount to $20 U.S. or less per month.

If you wish to break the law and purchase from the black market instead of authorized markets, then you may save a little.  That is, if you’re not caught.

“This is all directly related to the blockade because there isn’t enough food to go around,” he says.  “Theoretically speaking, if the blockade was lifted, we could get more rice within one day.”

While it is difficult to examine the strength of that argument, it seems to be the consensus among Cubans I spoke with, including two young men and a young woman enjoying an evening on the Malecón, Havana’s version of a seaside boardwalk. 

According to them, U.S. citizens have come to believe that Cubans are living under the thumb of the Castros, that they have no freedoms, that they are poor beyond belief.  Therefore, the United States imposes economic sanctions on the island nation to bring the government to its knees.

Naturally, they say, the effect is to further impoverish Cubans.  They don’t blame me and they don’t blame American society.  They lay it, instead, at the door of Washington.

“But we believe Obama will be different,” says one of the men, looking at the sea as it reaches to the north.  “We hope so.”

There is some reason to be hopeful in Cuba these days.  Public transportation, which was nearly non-existent 10 years ago, is bad but slowly improving.  The purchase of new buses from Russia and China has helped, an important development in a country where many do not own private transportation.

The education system, free from primary school through advanced studies, is continually assessed and tweaked.  Jorge Gonzalez Corona, an adviser to the Ministry of Education and a longtime teacher who spoke with our group, says classroom ratios have been reduced from 45 students per teacher to 20 per teacher.  The number drops to 15 in high school. 

Teachers stay with their students from 1st to 6th grades.  “We do that,” Gonzalez says, “because we believe that the affection and bond between the students and the teacher benefit educational acquisition.”

At institutions of higher education, the focus is on preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow, the same as it is in the United States.  Before the revolution, there were three universities.  Today 700,000 students are enrolled in 65 universities around the country.

The current push is to build what Gonzalez calls “micro universities.”  These are urban schools that will hold classes in junior high school buildings in the late afternoons and evenings, maximizing the investment in the buildings and allowing working adults to get additional education.

Education is one of the government’s highest priorities.  It is the collective philosophy that education is a basic right and the avenue for improving society.  That attitude stems in large part to the vision of Jose Martí, Cuba’s national hero, who said that “education begins with life and ends with death.”

Even health care, another government priority, is doing well.  Like education, health care is free.  Cubans don’t worry about insurance companies or losing their life’s savings when they have to undergo expensive medical treatment.

Nor do they worry about the treatment.  Cuba trains more doctors per capita than the United States, and medical researchers are heavily involved in cancer research.  Gonzalez says the country produces vaccines for 13 infectious diseases.

Of course, there are problems.  For non-essential treatment, you’ll find yourself on a waiting list, and the best medicines made by U.S. pharmaceutical companies are nowhere to be found.  And the scarcity of goods is an ongoing worry.  While Cubans are not the poorest people in Latin America, they are poor.  Cuba is clearly a third-world country.

But life seems rather peaceful.  Havana, a city of 2 million, is much like any American city.  In fact, Old Havana is a snapshot of what America was like in the 1950s, old cars and all.  There are more vintage American cars on the narrow streets of the old section of town than I think I’ve ever seen before.

The embargo part, though, cannot be overlooked.  It is on the minds of Cubans, young and old.

It’s on Alejandro’s mind as we sit in the shade.  I ask him what he would say to Barack Obama if the president were sitting in front of him.  He pauses to reflect.

“Specifically, I would say just take away the blockade,” he says.  “It is killing our people.  Essentially, it is choking us to death.  We’ve been going like this for 50 years.”

Alejandro looks at me for a moment, then he shrugs.

“And so we continue.”

 

About the Author

Matthew J. Bosisio is an assistant professor of journalism at Augusta State University in eastern Georgia.

How did Ernesto Guevera's trip through Latin America in his early twenties shape the Cuban Revolut. he became?

From The motorcycle diaries book, this is a project I am having difficulty with. Three examples of the question would be great and any textual proofs/ support if possible
Graciaasss ! ;D

He saw a lot of poverty and big differences during his travels. The Cuban revolution was just a start for him in his idea to change all latin America (and perhaps all the world). If you don't want to read the book; just watch the movie!

cuban link and nino from latin homicide in boston

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