Viva Cuba!

From 18th till the 21st of October the Cultural Centre of Evere (Brussels) is hosting Viva Cuba! Festival of the Cuban Culture. In their words: "On the 20th October 1868 revolutionary Cubans, lead by Manuel de Céspedes, liberated the city of Bayamo. In hommage of this historic event, the 20th of October has been dubbed the 'Day of Cuban Culture'." During this week-end the Cultural Centre and the Friends of Cuba offer a series of films, two expositions, debates and musical evenings with a Caribbean touch.

On 27th of October the Iniciativa Cuba Socialista (ICS) is hosting Che Presente 2007 at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). The event celebrates the National Day of Solidarity with Cuba and commemorates the 40th birthday of the murder on Che. They will be providing several conferences, workshops and movies, as well as Cuban food, cigars and music.

40th anniversary of Che Guevara's death

On October 8 Ernesto "Che" Guevara was celebrated worldwide. On that day in 1967 he was taken prisoner by the Bolivian army and executed the next day. In a morbid way, dying was the best thing he could have done for Fidel Castro's Cuba. He has become the symbol for the Revolution. Whereas you do not see as many pictures of Castro in the streets of Cuba, Che (together with the 'father' of the nation, José Martí) is everywhere. He died fighting for the cause, and being dead he cannot do anything wrong anymore. He represents the person that every good communist should aspire to be. Every day, school children start their classes by pledging "pioneers for communism, we will be like Che!"

This anniversary was celebrated with lots of gusto in Santa Clara, the city he and Cienfuegos liberated from the Batista's troops, at the plaza in front of his mausoleum. Although Castro himself couldn't make it because of his present state, he issued the following statement: "I make a halt in my daily struggle to bow my head in respect and gratitude to the exceptional combatant who fell on October 8th, forty years ago; for the example he passed on to us as leader of his Rebel Army Column, which crossed the swampy grounds of the former provinces of Oriente and Camagüey while being chased by enemy troops. ... I thank him for what he tried but was not able to do in his home country, because he was like a flower prematurely severed from its stem. He left us his unmistakable style of writing — with elegance, brevity and veracity — every detail of whatever happened to cross his mind. He was a predestinate, but he didn’t know it. He still fights with us and for us." In his stead, Raúl presided over the festivities. Some 10 000 people attended the rally, together with his family members and family of old comrades-in-arms that have fallen with him. The second important meeting took place in Bolivia. A march to La Higuera, where he was shot, was undertaken by about 7000 people.

Hammy and I are not really Che aficionados, so we didn't know about all the planned activities. If we did, we probably would have taken our holidays two weeks later. Now we just missed out on the 47th anniverary of the CDR (Comités de Defensa de la Revolución) and the whole Che thing. The primary function of the CDR is the defense of the revolutionary values. Initially, they were founded to make sure that the American backed counterrevolution would be nipped in the bud. With the slogan "revolution in every block" CDR officials were installed in, indeed, every block. Their main function nowadays is to keep an eye out on the Cuban population, to check if everybody is still thinking in the right direction. The vigilance of the different branches differ from block to block. If the local officer is a hardcore communist everybody has to watch their step, if he's just a regular guy he'll look in the other direction in most cases. Be as it may, a large party was thrown in the evening on the 28th of September (when we were flying back home). F. and Rikkel left the day after. They told me everybody in Habana was having a blast in the street. People were cooking chicken on wood fires in these large blackened pots, the Malecon was full with people and everyone was letting it hang loose. Aah well, you can't have it all ...

More info on Cuba, Che and the CDR :

Cubanismo

History of Cuba

Radio Habana Cuba
Cuba Junky

Cubamigos (Belgian Friends of Cuba)

Dutch Cuba blog

Cuba Democracia y Vida

Wikipedia entry on Che

Time 100

Che-Lives.com

Che Guevara - Symbool van strijd

Chenge the World

Wikipedia entry on CDR
De Cubaanse CDR
The CDR: repression in Cuba

And of course the excellent books Chasing Che and The Boys From Dolores by Patrick Symmes.

"Cubans treat man who killed Che" ...

... is the headline of a BBC article. The Bolivian soldier that drew the short straw when deciding who had to shoot Che Guevara has been treated by Cuban doctors, who removed his cataracts, under a Cuban programme to offer free eye treatment across Latin America.

Never shy to use gratuitous propaganda when they can, the Communist Party's official newspaper Granma (after the boat used for Castro's first 'invasion' - more on that later) wrote that "four decades after Mario Teran attempted to destroy a dream and an idea, Che returns to win yet another battle." "Now an old man, he [Teran] can once again appreciate the colours of the sky and the forest, enjoy the smiles of his grandchildren and watch football games."

Buena Vista Social Club

Yesterday evening, after my first day of work, Hammy and I watched the Buena Vista Social Club documentary. The DVD has been in my possession for more than a year now, but we never got around to seeing it. I'm glad we didn't before now. When you've just been to a place, it's always fun to see footage of it. So, in a sense, we're trying to prolong our holiday, I guess. I'm sure everyone knows about Buena Vista. It tells the story of how Ry Cooder and his son Joachim united some of the most famous son artists of Cuba to record known classics in the genre. The name stems from a members club in Habana where the featured artists had performed during the 1940s. The film dates from 1997, and the funny thing is that Habana has hardly changed in ten years time. There is a bit more light, more people and slightly more variety in cars.

The latest incarnation of BVSC is coming to Belgium next month. They will be performing at the Audi Jazz Festival on the 1st (Bruges) and the 6th (Brussels) of November. Other notable names are Cinematic Orchestra (October 9, Brussels), Maceo Parker (October 21, Antwerp), Jef Neve Trio (October 14, Bxl), Philip Catherine (October 31, Bxl), Ron Carter (November 6, Antwerp), and others.

Staying a bit on the Cuba trip, we'll be renting Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights tonight. This movie will undoubtably be complete and utter crap ... but the action takes place in Habana, which is good enough for me.

Cuba Update 3

The holidays are over. Back in ce plat pays qui est le mien. Before we get back to the harsh reality of the real (cold) life, a last quick update about our trip. In later posts I'll give a more detailed account with pictures.

Tuesday Hammy, Santa Lucia, and me went on a Seafari. This meant a trip with a catamaran for some snorkling and lunch on the beach of one of the small islands around Cuba. Only 12 people were on board: the three of us, Raciel (Mexico) and his girlfriend Yu (Japan, they met studying in Vancouver), and the crew. Why 7 crew members when you only need 3? Who knows. The Cuban government is good at creating useless jobs to avoid unemployment. After an hour or so, the catamaran stopped to give us the opportunity to snorkle. Unfortunately the sea was a bit rough. It was quite difficult to stay in one place and under water the visibility wasn't very high. Still, I got to see a few fishies and touch the reef. The fun was over though the moment I swam through a bunch of jelly-fish. My entire body was tingling, and not in a good way. Luckily, a dash of vinegar solved that problem. This was only a minor annoyance. When everyone was done swimming we continued our trip to the island. There we ate excellent paella with sea food. More interesting were the iguanas and the enormous amount of creepy-crawlies (hermite crabs). Iguanas are funny creatures. They seem slow at first, but they can be really fast when there food to be had. Yu and Lucia weren't too thrilled about them. Especially Lucia was a bit creeped out. They come really close since they know that the humans that visit their turf have snacks. Although they're not agressive by nature, they have sharp teeth, and they follow you around when you feed them. The big cabin where we had our food wasn't on ground level. I assured Lucia that they can't climb the wood board we were sitting on. How wrong I was. Just before finishing our lunch there was one next to her. They won't let you touch them, but they like what you've got to offer. Anyway, after the expected amount of screaming and jumping on tables, the iguana took off and Lucia and Hammy went for some more snorkling. This time they stayed close by. Since the water was a lot calmer next to the beach they got to see a lot more. On the way back the crew started blasting Reggaeton on the soundsystem. By the time we were halfway back, Raciel and some of the Cubans were getting quite drunk. Eventually, one of them urged the rest of us to dance on the bough. I'm guessing they make their own fun since they don't have much to do all day. Be as it may, it was a fun and disconcerting experience to be shakin' our ass on a boat next to a fat Cuban who's giving it all he's got.

Wednesday, a friend of our casa owner drove us to Varadero, via Santa Clara. The road to Santa Clara goes through the mountains, so we got some beautiful views, before we reached the mausoleum of Che Guevara. This is located on top of a hill, next to a big road. You can see a big statue of the most famous image of the Revolution, accompanied with reliefs and parts of his speeches and sayings. On the background you can hear revolutionary music playing. The statue itself is ugly though. At the back, there is a small museum and the actual mausoleum. Both have been done with more style and respect. The museum houses memorabilia placed within context, giving you a quick overview of the man. The mausoleum is comprised of his image, and of the images of guerrillas that have fought with him, and an everlasting flame (more an everlasting blowtorch, but who am I to judge) lit by Fidel Castro himself (naturally). I'm glad we stopped there on the way north, but I wouldn't recommend going there only for the mausoleum.

Varadero is, according to our driver, not Cuba. Here you find the all-inclusive resorts, postcard beaches and ... well that's about it. The only Cubans that are allowed in are those that live or work there. Officially there are no casas particulares, just hotels. Although we did have the address of an illegal casa, we opted for a budget hotel: the Turkino (Mount Turkino is where Castro's base camp was located during the uprising). That night we hooked up with a Slovakian and 2 English girls we had already met in Trinidad to hang out in one of the rooms and get drunk. The next day, the girls got into some serious tanning. Since I got burned the first time we went to the beach, I remained in the shade. In the evening we had sea food by the sea and went for a midnight swim.

By then our time was almost up. Lucia had to catch her plane back to Holland Friday morning. So, Hammy and I traveled to Habana, where we hung out for two more days. This time around Habana wasn't as stressy as in the beginning. We didn't have a hectic schedule and we had gotten used to the jinitero's by now. About two hours before we had to go, we got to see some good live music and we saw our two Flemish friends from the busride again (we saw them earlier as well but that's a different story). At this last moment we decided to smuggle some extra rum (you can only take 1 bottle per person). Luckily we got it all in Belgium.

In conclusion: we have gotten a glimpse of Cuban life and culture, drank rum and smoked cigars every day, and met nice people.

Cuba Update 2

Aah, thank god there is more than one city in Cuba. Habana was an interesting experience, but the incessant harrasment by the jiniteros (hustlers) gets to you after a while. Viñales on the other hand is an oasis of peace and calm. We were able to just stand about on an intersection and talk with someone without anyone trying to sell us something.

We took a bus from Habana to Viñales. During the drive we met a Dutch girl, Santa Lucia, who thought we were speaking South African. And we´ve been hanging out together since. We´ve also met a lot of Flemish people. And, everybody is here for the same reason: let´s go before el Jefe is dead.

Anyway, like I said Viñales was great. A quiet, peaceful village with only one bar with live music, some shops, and a lot of nature. The day after our arrival we went on a horse-back ride through the hills. Our guide was quite talkative, and explained to us the different things we saw, like pineapple crops, and the cooperative farms and such. After about an hour or three we stopped at the house of a local campesino ( farmer), who farmed tobacco. There we smoked a hand-rolled cigar, which was way better than any factory-made cigar you´ll ever have. Next, we took a swim in a local pool, next to a smallish waterfall and some palm trees. In one word: the bomb.

The next day we went up to the local beach, for a day of relaxing (and unfortunately a lot of mosquito bites). There I got a serious sunburn. You win some, you lose some I guess.

After a day or three, and great mojito´s, we had seen enough of the (nonetheless beautiful) environment of Viñales. Next stop: Trinidad. There are only two ways (besides hithchiking) to get there: bus or taxi. The bus goes to Habana, and after a 2 hour lay-over there is another one to Trinidad. This takes about 11 hours. By taxi, it takes 6 hours more or less. If you can pool a cab it costs a few CUC more, but it´s a lot easier. So, Hammy, me and Santa Lucia hooked up with two guys from Antwerp we met by chance and booked us a cab. This makes 5 people, while a normal cab only takes 4. So, we chartered a minivan. Since Cubans don´t like to waste anything, they filled out the bus with 2 Austrian girls and 1 Israeli girl (who were going to Cienfuegos, which is on the way).

Trinidad is a Unesco Heritage site with a lot of colonial houses, a church and some museums. We got around the center in half a day. In that time you get to see pretty much all there is to see (including of course jiniteros). Here again the country-side is amazing. There is hiking to be done, horse-back riding, a great beach, a trip with a steam train (if it didn´t break down about a week ago), etc. Yesterday evening and the day before we got together with the Belgians we met at de Casa de Musica, where (you guessed it) there is live music to dance to, and cocktails to be had.

Today we went up to the amazing pearly-white beach we dreamed about. Unfortunately it started raining hard after an hour or two. It´s peculiar to see the blazing sun over the water, and extremely dark clouds over the beach. After an hour or so, it cleared up though. Tomorrow we´ll be going for a Seafari, which is a catamaran trip to an island, where we should get to see some coral reefs, beautiful fish, and iguanas strolling on the beach.

The most amazing part of Trinidad is our Casa Particular though. Our hostess is extremely friendly. Her husband is a musician (trovadores in Cuba, or Mariachi in Mexico). One morning he sung a serenade at our window to wake us up. Yesterday we had lobster outside, just the two of us. Before our meal he sang us several classical Cuban songs. How cool is that!

So, on wednesday we´re driving up to Varadero, via the mausoleum of Che in Santa Clara. Thursday we´ll head to the beach one more time to watch the all-inclusive-don´t-want-to-know-the-inland-tourists (just like a zoo). Friday it´s off to Habana again, for some live jazz. The day after, we´ll be taking a last stroll in the town center, and then (boo hoo!!!) our time here is up.

Cuba Update 1

It took me a while to post anything about our, i.e. my girlfriend (whom I will be calling Hammy from now on) and I, trip to Cuba. There just isn t a lot of internet available here. I m guessing it is a control issue that the governement is having. Yesterday we tried to get some access. It took is an hour to find some. In the whole of Habana only two places offer internet. By the time we found these places it was getting a bit late, by which I mean that it was 5 in the afternoon. By that time there was no more access. Apparently there is a limited amount of time slots available.

Anyway, I will keep it short, since I only have little time (and working with a modified qwerty keyboard is bloody annoying). I will update everything in detail when we get back. So, we arrived saterday evening. A quick cab ride took us to our casa particular (a private house that offers lodgings, loads cheaper than any hotel), Casa Oralia. Oralia, the landlady, is very friendly, and the room seems clean, so we are happy. The next day she made us a copious breakfast. Just before taking off for our first day of sightseeing, she tells us that there is a broken main and that the entire block will be cut off of water. Because this is not our problem she hooks us up with a friend of hers who will rent us a room for the same price, what we appreciate of course. By the time we are settled in it is almost noon, meaning we already lost a lot of time. No matter though, the sun is shining bright, we are on holiday, so life is good.

We start walking towards the historical center, situated about a half hour walk from our casa. Underway we get acosted by this couple, Roberto and his wife (cannot remember her name, but let s call her Monita). They tell us that there is a music festival going on in honour of Compay Segundo, who just died recently, and that they know a place playing good music later on. Against our better judgement we follow them to a bar, where there is no live music, just a dj. We order some mojitos. They start explaining about the chabito. Although there are only two currencies in Cuba, the peso cubano or nacional, for locals, and the peso convertibele, for tourists, they claim that there is a third option that gives better exchange rates. This is a well known scam described in the Lonely Planet and on the internet. But hey, let them talk. When it becomes clear that we are not going for the bait, they try something else. Monita says she works in a cigar factory, which means she can get better prices. After a lot of talk, she eventually takes us to the home of (what she claims) her aunt, who is in charge of the cigar production. About half an hour later we finally buy a box of Romeo y Julieta, after opening the box, checking the contents and smoking a random cigar, for CUC 35.

For the next few days we have visited all the main sights and museums, of which I will talk later, when we are back. Three days of Habana is sufficient to see most of what there is to see. The biggest problem are the jiniteros, touts, who try to hustle you all of the time, making you feel like, as the Lonely Planet puts it, money on legs. We have just arrived in Viñales, a smallish town, where there is a lot of nature to see, horse riding to do and we can visit a relatively nearby pearly white beach. Time to wind down after the crowded streets of Habana. We have just checked in our casa here. The landlady showed us 5 booklets with positive comments of previous guests, all claiming that she is the best cook in the whole of Cuba, so I am curious now.

That is all for now. I will end by saying that I have been true to my word. I am drinking rum and smoking cigars and we are enjoying the good life. Oh, and dad, yes, the girls here very hot, but so are the guys. The mixing of colours has done wonders.

Fidel here we come !

Only five little days and my girlfriend and me are off to Cuba. We were planning on going for some time now, but there was always something that came in between. And then Fidel Castro got sick. He even relinquished his power to his brother Raul. The man isn't getting any younger, so his death can't be put off for ever. If we want to see the commie time-warp that is the revolutionary Cuba, we have to go before the Big Kahuna does.

We should arrive in Havana Saturday evening, which means that our first visits will be there. Afterwards we're going to visit the beautiful Vinales Valley (listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999). Then it's off to the historic city of Trinidad (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988). From there we'll probably do a few day trips to towns in the vicinity. Somewhere down the road we'll make some time to relax at a pearly white, palm tree covered beach. Let's just hope that we won't get in the middle of a hurricane, which is quite possible since now's the season for it. For now we're good, but it's best to keep an eye open.

If we can find some internet over there I'll be posting our adventures. I can't wait to see sixties cars, hear dope music, smoke cigars and drink rum all day.