I have had several people ask me to describe the culture in Cuba.
You know not what you ask.
Cuba is first and foremost an alien civilization. Just when I think I have everything figured out- everything changes.
The first thing that you absolutely must know is that Cubans are crazy. You might think that it is a good idea to follow a large crowd of them across the street since they are more familiar with the traffic rules and know when it is safe. You would be wrong, and shortly thereafter, dead. I once got stuck in the middle of the main road, which is six lanes wide, with 10-15 other pedestrians. All of us trying to crowd as tightly as we could onto the yellow stripes as the 60 year-old cars sped past on both sides.
Similarly you must never be tempted to put too much trust in the powers that be. “These bare wires are out where I might step on them, they must not be live.” “This rusty grate has been place on a hole over the sidewalk, it must be safe.” These thoughts would also be your last.
But just as you must never trust Cuban judgment, you must not ever think that you can do it better. You can’t. They grew up on this island and will whoop your butt every time. We once came across a broken off chunk of concrete sticking up out of a hole in the sidewalk. You might trip over it, but you wouldn’t fall in. We studied it for about 5 minutes before realizing this was the best possible solution. It had even been turned sideways so that the lighter color of the broken off side would contrast against the gray of the sidewalk and give it the best visibility.
This is how el paquete and machinas came to be. They may be odd, dangerous or illegal, but they are the only way. My two photo professors know exactly how to stack their backpacks to best balance the class projector. And if you take all the seats out of the front of the bus and allow people to hang off the outside of the doors then you can transport the maximum amount of people for the minimum amount of cost. Which is exactly the goal of a socialist society. Not so very different from capitalism when you get right down to it.
Imagine a society which tells itself that it is in perpetual revolution but spends its life sitting in doorways. A people who are at once the laziest and the most inventive you could ever meet. Not because they don’t care, but because it would make no difference if they did. A revolution which executed traitors in the streets but which also provides subsidized ice cream for almost free because the citizens of a tropical country should have access to ice cream. And the museums, galleries, and movie theaters cost half as much as the ice cream.
This is the dichotomy of Cuban culture. Certainly Fidel Castro is a tyrannical military dictator. But as far as those go he’s not the worst. He’s simply different from all the tyrannical military dictators we chose to support in the past.
The same problems exist here, but with vastly different solutions. The doctors and medical training here are recognized as the best in the world, but they lack the supplies to help their patients. As opposed to the US where we have more pharmaceuticals than we know what to do with but our medical care sucks. Avoidable deaths happen either way.
Sexism and feminism exist here too, but in very different ways. As the American women are waking up and demanding more power and more respect, the Cuban women are going back to sleep. I can name just as many female leaders in the revolution as men, and I have been told that Cuba of the 80s was an incredibly empowering place to be. But I have also been told, with notable regret and bitterness by my 60 year-old Spanish professor, that the Cuban generations are getting progressively more and more conservative. She simply shrugged in agreement when I pointed out that this is counter to the typical social-political progression. She said she regretted it, but she didn’t know what to do about it.
I think the phrase “culture shock” is misused. I am rarely shocked by what I see around me, but I am often fatigued by trying to constantly understand and fit things into the ever-raveling spider web of social rules which exist.
The longer I live here the more I see, as is to be expected. But it feels as though I understand it less and less. Cuba has been isolated for so long that it operates by rules all its own. Some things are very foreign and trying to kill you, some things are trying to kill you but worryingly familiar. And some things simply are, without caring about you one way or the other.
And always there is the feeling of unwanted “otherness”. I believe this exists in all cultures, but as an American I will always be more prone of it. The unfortunate birthright of a world concurring superpower.
These are by and large just thoughts. Thoughts written late at night after a generally good if slightly weird day. I think I need to find a boyfriend, or hire a male escort, to accompany me in the city; I’m generally much more pleasant at the end of the day if I haven’t had to dodge catcalls all afternoon.
And I’m not pretending it will all be better once I go back to the states. That’s the danger of having “your eyes opened” on a study abroad trip, it’s often so hard to close them again. In many ways I think that the US and Cuba are more alike than they know. The whole world honestly. The simmering, festering discontent which is so prevalent here is perhaps the one link which Cuba undeniably shares with the outside world. We may be lucky enough to avoid immediate disaster this November, but it won’t solve any of the problems which have been plaguing us for the past year and a half. In some ways it might be safer to stay in Cuba – they’re old hands at this whole social revolution thing but we’re 200 years rusty and the ever encroaching social upheaval on our horizon is going to be messy to say the least.
Kesia Lee 