Bilingual In The Boonies » Cuba

“…but, They Have Free Health Care and Education…”

Carrie — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:59:13 +0000

Rules in Cuba

Dear free-born, democratic country-living American friend…or stranger, here is something you can read before you once again utter the statement: “But at least in Cuba they have free health care and free education.”

Not really true. And at what cost?

Check out the photos from a 6th grade classroom in the Rocky Mountain state. They were sent by a friend whose daughter is on the hunt for a Middle School, and given that I’m their Cuban friend, they forwarded the photos.

I love them.

Check out some rules:

No Talking Bad About the Government
Must use Cash. No Mastercard/Visa
Need Government Authority to Create a Group
Anything You Write for Publication Must be Government Approved
No Computers
No Microwaves
No ATMs

I am guessing the little American school children are horrified to learn there also are no iPods, no Phineas and Ferb and no Wii. And, that there is some dudes beyond Mom and Dad who are offering up ridiculous rules.

My friend’s note:
“The teacher has the students actually play out scenarios… She said there were some pretty unhappy students under Castro, but a few escaped.”

Oh hells yeah, I would want to escape to.

Glad my family did.

Anyway, happy to see a stark and realistic picture of Cuba’s daily reality being painted.

And, perhaps one day, I will live to see more Cubans standing up for themselves and creating change.

Cause, really, living without a DVR would suck.

“Los Zapaticos de Rosa” in ingles. No guay

Carrie — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:00:53 +0000

Maria asked me to read “Los Zapaticos de Rosa”…in English.

“Can’t, Ma. It’s a poem. Have to read it in Spanish.”
“But, then I can’t understand it!”
“Look at the pictures and I will translate as we go.”
“But, I can’t understand!”
“Just listen to the rhythm and keep your ears open, you’ll get it.”
“OK, but then you have to read it in English, please.”

It is not possible at all to capture the lyricism of the Cuban poet’s Los Zapaticos in my choppy translation. “And so the girl and her mom walked toward the beach.” “And a Russian woman and an English woman pulled out their hankies…”

I have known this poem since I was a little girl, and it feels like sacrilege to read it in English.

The translation showdown between my daughter and I pretty much sums up what is going on with our Spanish, our quest for bilingualism. It is slow. It is choppy. She gets the simple sentences, and her teacher insists she understands everything he says, but when we read Spanish books together, the complex sentences seem to basically just piss her the hell off. She wants to get it, but she doesn’t want to do the work.

She’ll grab a Spanish book off her shelf, but attempt to bribe me into reading it only in English. No guay, I tell her. Both. She doesn’t like it when I read in Spanish, and then quickly translate it to English. She wants it all in one language at a time.

My fault, for sure. I speak more English than Spanish to her these days, and when we hang with other bilingual Latinos, guess what language we speak? Jes. Ingles.

I am figuring out how to survive this downward spiral, wondering how to give her a boost this summer. Maybe it will be Miami for an extended period, or I may have to invite myself to Mexico with friends who head south of the border for weeks and weeks every summer.

Or maybe I just have to speak more Spanish to her. There’s a thought.

From Los Zapaticos de Rosa by Jose Marti:

Se vio sacar los pañuelos
A una rusa y a una inglesa;
El aya de la francesa
Se quitó los espejuelos.

Abrió la madre los brazos,
Se echó Pilar en su pecho,
Y sacó el traje deshecho,
Sin adornos y sin lazos

And by the way, the first Blogs by Latinas Awards are going on now. Bilingual in the Boonies and Tiki Tiki Blog, my other blog, are nominated. I’d love the vote! Street Cred and all.

Plus, there are some awesome sites nominated. Go look, find some gems, and vote.

Lifting the Cuban Embargo. Muchas Opiniones.

Carrie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:57 +0000

From Time magazine, a story on the growing number of Cuban-Americans who want to lift the embargo and travel ban.

A couple of quotes:

The survey by Miami-based Bendixen & Associates, the largest Hispanic polling firm, also found that 48% of older and more conservative Cuban exiles known as historicos support lifting the prohibition, up from 32% in 2002. “I think that all exchange is good,” says one, 68-year-old Miamian Lala Suarez, who before coming to the U.S. was imprisoned in Cuba by Fidel Castro’s government after the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by militant exiles.

and…

If the travel ban were lifted altogether, recent studies suggest some 3 million Americans would visit Cuba each year. It’s uncertain whether they would be effective ambassadors. But after almost a half-century of failed policy, most Cuban Americans have decided that letting Americans travel to Cuba would be more effective than keeping them away.

The video above is from last year, during the presidential election. I had not seen it, so if you haven’t either, there you go. A growing divide between the young ones and the historicos.

Me? I think Cuba must be seen to be believed.

The real Bizarre in Cuba

Carrie — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:17:00 +0000

I was totally OK with watching Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel enjoy the fruit that is Cuba on his new series, Bizarre World, and share it with the world. I was happy to get another glimpse at mesmerizing Cuba today. But, he (to the left in a Travel Channel photo) completely ignored the reality and made the Cubans out to be happy house slaves.

The New York Times review said this:

“What’s truly bizarre about Mr. Zimmern’s presentation of Cuba — which is, it should be said, quite nicely shot and nearly always interesting to look at — is its failure, or refusal, to connect any dots between politics and the life he sees around him. Why is Cuba one of the few places where the tree rat is hunted for food? Why don’t you see anyone using cellphones? Why are the streets full of ancient American automobiles?

A one-hour cable travelogue doesn’t need to get into an analysis of whether Cuban poverty is a result of the American trade embargo or the policies of the Castro regime (both of which Mr. Zimmern acknowledges). But the show ought to be able to say that the citizens are poor and that they lack freedom, rather than saying that the Cubans are “a people who’ve learned to enjoy life’s simple pleasures without the frills.”

Bravo, Mr. NYT.

It is unfeeling, onesided crap like this episode and other Cuban stories I have read that make Cuban-Americans distrust American media. It tells the “happy,” how-cool-are-they-and-how-lucky-am-I story. Where’s the story about not being able to find milk for your child or an aspirin for your never-ending freaking headache?

The episode was gross and a complete insult. And, to piss me off it has to be bad, for I am a bit more forgiving of media than my Cuban relatives and friends.

I am among the very small number of Cuban-Americans who believes the travel ban should be lifted. I hold out a hope that connection between everyday people of our two countries would lead to change and freedom. But seriously, if what would come to pass would be Americans living Zimmerns experience — using Cuba as some beautiful whore they can use, pay off and walk away from — forget it.

If the Cuban people can’t enjoy the gem that is their country, then you shouldn’t either.

At the end of the episode, Zimmern said the visit taught him to appreciate his privileged life back home. Was he talking about his “stuff,” or the fact he has compete and total personal freedom?

The Cuban people have neither.

Had I produced the episode of Bizarre World: Cuba, you would have seen this:

Tourists can rent yachts and catamarans to cruise Cuba’s many beautiful uninhabited islands. Cubans aren’t allowed on boats that far out to sea. Bizarre.
Tourists can scuba and catch big, fat lobsters in Cuba’s unspoiled coral reefs. Cubans get arrested if they trap, or sell, lobster. Bizarre.
American, want to take the family on vacation to Europe, to the Caribbean, to anywhere? Save your pennies and go. The majority of Cubans aren’t allowed to leave the island. Ever. Bizarre.
Untold number of souls risk everything each year — and have for decades — by jumping on rickety rafts and heading to the United States. Too many have been lost. Those caught and returned: Jailed. Bizarre.
A million plus Cubans marched in the May Day Parade. That’s because if they don’t, they get reported to the local Communist Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. Mucho problema. Bizarre.
Cubans hunt and eat the tree rat, hutia. That’s because most of them go months, or years, without access to meat. Bizarre.
And more about meat: It is illegal for a Cuban to sell or purchase beef on the black market. Doing so risks jail time. The beef is for the big, fat tourist. Bizarre.
The government tells Cubans to marinate banana peels as if they were beef and pretend. Bon appetit! Bizarre.
Tourists can rent the room in the Hotel Nacional in Havana where Frank Sinatra and Eva Gardner spent their honeymoon. The cost for one night runs from $142 to $211 USD. The average Cuban earns about the equivalent of $12 a month. Bizarre.
Speaking of hotels, up until two years ago, it was illegal for a Cuban to even walk into a hotel. Bizarre.
Americans can go to the hardware store and buy whatever they need for their home. A Cuban can be arrested for “illegally purchasing” construction materials. Bizarre.
Want a little sexo on your fabulous Cuban vacation? Hey, turista, for the cost of a cheap lipstick or a bottle of shampoo, some hot cubanita — or cubanito, depending on your preference — will rock your salsa-loving world. Bizarre.
Hey, you think the American president is a sucky one and want to post all over the internet or put up a sign in your yard or yell from a street corner. Go for it, Free Man! Do it in Cuba? Jail. Bizarre.
American, you hate your local newspaper? At least you have a free press. In the a country that owns its press, 22 journalists are jailed for writing the unapproved. Bizarre.
Dislike where you live? Sell your house and move. Cubans can’t. They’ve got to find someone willing to trade places. Bizarre.

Here’s a link to Zimmern’s blog post about Cuba. Read the comments.

Bizarre World series aptly kicks off in Center of the World Bizarre: Cuba

Carrie — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:05:00 +0000

The Travel Channel kicks off a new series called Bizarre World Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m EST. The first episode is focused on Cuba. It is hosted by Andrew Zimmern, who also does the Bizarre Foods show.

Below is the press release and details, plus two sneak peek videos…I may fast-forward through the part where they eat hutia.

Personally, I think he needs to go back and do a Bizarre Foods episode focusing on all the weird stuff Cubans cook and are told to imagine is meat.

Anyway, I look forward to watching…Here is the release from the publicist:

“To most people in the United States, Cuba is a strange country. It can seem so far away even though it is only ninety miles off the U.S. coast. In Cuba, you can find relics of the cold war era just about everywhere you look. But beyond the many reminders of the past, there is a vibrant people and interesting culture.

Millions of people spill into the streets to celebrate International Worker’s Day, otherwise known as the May Day Parade. While marching with the people, Andrew meets world class boxer Teófilo Stevenson. Teofilo is one of the greatest Olympic boxers in Cuban history and he symbolizes the fighting spirit of the Cuban people.

Since the revolution in 1959, the embargo has stopped the import of new American cars. The law has kept classic American car culture very much alive. So, in true Cuban fashion, Andrew rents a gorgeous cherry red 1957 Oldsmobile convertible to get around the streets of Havana.

Andrew shares a delicious lunch with two locals from Vinales, Dago and Omar. They spend an entire evening preparing a freshly slaughtered pig and a Hoodia (a common tree rat) for a roast. The preparation is quite an event as Dago and Omar serenade both Andrew and the pig that will soon be their lunch. The entire neighborhood, including a full band, comes to celebrate the event by singing and dancing.

Even though one trip ends with a broken boat and a rainstorm, nobody Andrew is with seems to mind. Cubans are not wealthy, but they are incredibly rich in spirit. And they have learned to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Andrew’s time in this beautiful nation taught him to better appreciate the privileged life he leads.”

Juanes plays La Plaza

Carrie — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Juanes is going to play in Cuba, in the Plaza de la Revolucion, a stark and scary place where Cubans have been forced to listen to decades and decades of crazy. (Happy Last Birthday, by the way, to the Bearded Dictator). Cubans in exile as ticked-offo. I love the Colombian’s music, so I am curious. I get Yoani Sanchez’ take. She’s so damned good.

I hope he shows Cubans in Cuba what they are missing, among the bazillion things, hanging out at concerts whenever and wherever they want, and I hope he sends this message loudly, over and over and over and over again:

Hoy voy a buscar estar mejor
La vida tiene solucion
Aqui no hay nada imposible
No creo en el jamas

Libertad, al fin, would be nice.

No Creo en el Jamas

Cuando la vida me da golpes

Y me manda para el suelo

Es cuando yo mas siento
Que tengo que levantarme
Que dar la cara al miedo
Es una forma de vencerlo

No voy a darme por vencido
No voy a darle mi vida al miedo
El miedo es un asesino
Que mata a los sentimientos
Se que no estoy solo
Yo se que Dios esta aqui adentro

Y necesito silencio para poder encontrar…
Mi propia voz y mi verdad
Y al final de la oscuridad
No me siento solo
Se que estas conmigo

CHORUS
Hoy voy a levantarme y no voy
A resignar mi corazon
Hacer lo que quise y no pude
No lo voy aceptar
Hoy voy a buscar estar mejor
La vida tiene solucion
Aqui no hay nada imposible
No creo en el jamas
No..
No creo en el jamas
Noooo…

Si darse por vencido es una forma de morir
Entonces yo jamas le quiero dar gusto a la muerte
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Pienso en mi familia
Y el corazon late mas fuerte
Que no se puede vivir pensando cuando se va morir
Vivir sin soñar es tanto como morir estando vivo
Yo creo en el presente
Y eso me aleja de la muerte

Y necesito silencio para poder encontrar…
Mi propia voz y mi verdad
Y al final de la oscuridad
No me siento solo
Se que estas conmigo

Assimilation: It’s a process

Carrie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:46:00 +0000

My 19-year-old nephew — just a month shy of moving from Havana to Miami — got a grand tour of the ritzy and lovely city of Coral Gables. He saw the big houses, the lovely tree-shaded streets, the Venetian Pool and the Biltmore Hotel, two beautiful examples of architecture and design and Miami history.

At the Biltmore, a guy saw my nephew and his parents looking at the golf course in wonder, walked over and handed them a club. Here, pretend you’re golfing, he said. Take pictures. They did. The pictures of my Cuban immigrant relatives “golfing” at the Biltmore are hilarious. They’ve made their way via e-mail to Cuba and around the country. I hope it is an omen of good luck, wealth, prosperity.

The day after the Biltmore experience, my nephew says: “I am 19 and that was the first time I’ve ever been in a hotel.”

Until recently, Cubans in Cuba were not allowed even to walk into hotels. It was a fact I knew, but did not think about until he said it.

Can you, my free American friend, believe that?

In the two weeks I just spent with my (step)sister, her husband and their son, I have enjoyed watching them, and listening to them. (Selling beef meant jail time, reusing disposable diapers is a given, they knew nothing of their famous and brave neighbor,Yoani Sanchez). It has been interesting to see all the paperwork required for assimilation. Thank goodness, my parents are helping them.

I have been amazed by their hope and strength, and have been sad for them too. They arrived in Miami with just the clothes on their backs, and a small suitcase filled with family pictures. Everything else was left behind. Forever gone. They miss their daughter and granddaughter, who are not expected to arrive until next year. Not that wholly different from Cubans who have fled their homeland for generations, but this is my first time watching it close-up. (By the time I was born, my mother had been here 10 years.)

Before I returned to Nashville, I set my nephew up with a Facebook account and my brother-in-law up with a blog. They have stories to tell. Good ones. But at the moment, I am going to let them own their stories and stay relatively silent on what I learned from them. In time, I’ll link to my brother-in-law’s blog. But, not until his daughter’s passage to freedom is secured.

Explaining the rules of American life — insurance, licenses, taxes, etc. — it’s clear we are a complicated and imperfect country. But we are, for sure, a country of people who wake up daily to promise and possibility.

And, as long as we don’t sneak a dip into the pool, we can hang at the Biltmore and pretend to play golf, if we feel like it.

On the first day of freedom, my family said to me…

Carrie — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:45:00 +0000

…”es como un sueno!”

It’s like a dream!

But it is not.

My step-sister, her husband and teen-age son walked through the gates at Miami International Airport yesterday afternoon. My father was reunited with his daughter on free soil.

Their new life has begun.

It’s big and it feels so good. So good to celebrate the possibilities open to them and listen to their joy.

They’ve been here less than 24-hours, but my mom says they’ve been busy. My brother-in-law took a picture in front of the TV, they ate peach ice cream and carrot cake, wore soft new pajamas, went to apply for their Social Security numbers and deal with work papers. They called their daughter and her family in Cuba. They told her she’s going to love it when she gets here next year. They miss her already, too.

This afternoon, they are headed to a store to buy clothing, for they arrived only with what they were wearing and carrying a pile of old family photos.

I am 900 miles away, and will be for a few more weeks. But, I am so itching to get to Miami to celebrate there with them. And to hear all the stories.

They’ve promised me lots of good stories.

I believe it.

Reunification: The family arrives from Cuba next week

Carrie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:12:00 +0000

I am not very sure how my father will survive the next few days with calm.

His oldest daughter will step onto a plane in Havana next week and when she lands in Miami, less than an hour later, she will step onto ground firm with freedom and possibility — for the first time in her life. Her father will be there to embrace her and guide her. It will be only their fourth meeting in 48 years, so there is a lot of catching up to do. A lot of embracing to do.

My step-sister, her husband and son actually purchased their plane tickets to Miami yesterday. They were granted permission by the United States government to immigrate and their paperwork sped up a few years under the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. Three other relatives are expected to arrive in early 2010, si Dios quiere. We’ve been working on this for quite a while.

My mom reported that my step-sister and her family were out of their minds with joy yesterday when they spoke. Their apartment was full of friends who came by to wish them well. The phone lines here in the states were on fire as my extended family shared the good news too. Al fin!

When I spoke to my brother last night, we talked about the mind-blowing idea that our relatives will, for the first time in their lives, be completely free. Where they travel, what they say, where they live all are open to them. Personal choice. Imagine that? As an American, it’s a bit of a difficult thing to imagine and understand the squelching of spirit that happens in Cuba. And, I am guessing my relatives have no real understanding yet about how huge their world is about to become.

It will be my pleasure to watch them get it.

And to watch my father embrace his oldest daughter.

Al fin.

The right Che t-shirt, if there is a right Che t-shirt

Carrie — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:03:00 +0000

If you want to piss a Cuban-American off, wear a Che t-shirt. (OK, OK, there are countless ways to piss a Cuban-American off, but the Che tee is a really easy peasy super quicky way.)

The man hailed as a freedom fighter, defender of the poor, blah blah blah, is seen by Cuban-Americans as nothing more than a murderer.

Complaining about stupid, mis-informed American kids wearing Che t-shirts is very, very popular among Cuban-Americans. So, here’s one that will make the gang happy. Not that I think my 66-year-old mother will go wear one, but it gets the point across:

The design: A Che head with the words: Suburban White Kids Unite!

The design is from the very clever company, SMASH Tees. See full image here. (The suckers have a Flash site, so I couldn’t grab a better image.)

Bravo.

Wish I had thought of it.