Sabes 50 Cent? ME ENCANTA FIDDY CEN!!!

As a preliminary note on this blog post, it’s looking like I won’t be able to post pictures. I’m going to try to put up some pictures on Facebook, but it seems as though blogspot won’t let me post pictures on this site. It could be the slow internet connection, or the Cuban government (if you’re a conspiracy theorist), but the point is that I can’t post pics. I have tried emailing pictures to my family, as well, but that hasn’t worked. Hopefully Facebook will work – if not, I’ll have photos for everyone when I get back.

One of the most interesting things about coming to Havana has been the huge impact of the US on Cuba, which becomes even more interesting when one considers that Americans are pegged as the “horrible capitalist influence” to the North. Everywhere I go, I see Coca-cola cans (from Mexico), and I have also seen Budweiser bottles, American tea biscuits, ripoff Sunsilk look-alike hair products (called Sedal), and Dolce and Gabbana (or Puma) shirts and accessories EVERYWHERE. I have also heard from many Cubans that they are familiar with American movies like Sister Act, or know a lot of American music from artists such as 50 Cent, Lauryn Hill, Rihanna, and other R&B, hip-hop, and reggaeton artists. I asked one guy at a party in-residence one time if he knew that the artist of the song that was It is amazing how people sing along to songs in English without knowing what the words mean, and get so excited when you tell them you are an “americano.”

I cannot believe that the Cuban government can so openly oppose the United States by doing things like erecting a statue of Jose Marti (a national Cuban hero and famous poet) holding a baby, pointing in an obviously accusatory fashion, through a series of Cuban-erected black flags, leading towards the US Interests Section (pretty much an embassy); while at the same time playing “Bob el Constructor” (Bob the Builder), DragonTales, movies featuring Julia Stiles in a hula skirt, SCRUBS in English with Spanish subtitles (ZACH BRAFF!), and the movie “Turner and Hooch” on any one of three, government-controlled Cuban tv stations (meaning limited programming).

Yet, there are national sodas sold everywhere, bottled in Pinar del Rio (TuKola, which is basically Coca-cola, and Refresco limon, my fav, which is basically ginger ale with a lemon-lime twist). It’s incredible how the national pride blends with an equally deep dependence on American culture.