An Introduction to Cuban Culture... Christina style!

September 30, 2008

Sorry for not updating in a while!!! Last week we went to the cigar factory, where cigars are still manufactured by hand. Believe me, they take their cigars SERIOUSLY. Workers are put through a 9-month training school where only 35 percent of students pass the three tests that are spread out over the 9-month training (one at three months, the next at six months, the final at nine months). The workers that make the cut are given numbers according to their level of cigar-making ability, and are assigned to making a cigar with the quality of their level. For instance, the highest level cigar makers (I think it’s 9, maybe?) are assigned only to making Cohiba cigars, which are the best brand of cigar that Cuba produces. Workers are salaried based on their evaluations, which measure how many mistakes they make in their cigars, and how large those mistakes are.

Cigars differ by brand, size and amount of certain types of tobacco leaves used in the cigar. There are specific tobacco leaves used from various parts of the tobacco plant which make the cigar burn more easily, give it a richer flavor, etc. I think they classify tobacco leaves into five different types, all of which are used for different parts of the cigar (some in the middle, others for wrapping the cigar, etc). They are divided by color and size before being rolled into cigars.

Our tour guide, at the end of the tour, starting talking about US politics (!), which was awesome, and he said that most Cubans follow the election, because Obama has talked about improving US-Cuban relations, whereas Cubans have no reason to support McCain. I don’t want to get into a huge political battle here, but I just thought it so interesting that, even though the Cuban government only puts 20 minutes of election coverage on the news, Cubans all seem to watch it and follow the election. After all, it could be very important for them to have a President willing to stick out the olive branch to their country – especially when that olive branch comes with a trade agreement. Our tour guide even talked about the recent debate that was held, which my group didn’t even watch!

Another cool thing I got to do last week was visit Temas magazine, which is a cultural magazine that accepts academic abstracts from around the world to be published and shipped around the world. It is difficult for the office to function, because internet is slow (but it’s lucky that it’s even available!), and they lack connections in other countries. I’m going to be helping out there once a week, along with another girl from my group, in order to try to publicize the magazine and make calls for papers to various academics in primarily developing or undeveloped countries, who normally would not have the resources to publish. Also, the director of Temas knows a woman that I work with at the library technical services, which I thought was pretty darn cool. Small world, no? I think it’s great what they are doing, and am so eager to use my day off of classes to work with such a cool Cuban organization!!

In addition to all the events of last week, however, I figured I would take out a small amount of my blog post to describe the Cuban food and style of dress that I have seen over the past three (!) weeks (I still can’t believe I have already been here for three weeks!). The style of dress here includes a LOT of tight jeans (how they survive in this heat, I don’t know), tight, stretchy tops with holes cut in them, and miniskirts, and all the guys wear tight, stretchy tshirts and jeans. EVERYONE WEARS D&G. I have to see at least 10 different people every day who have a D&G stretchy tshirt on. It’s apparently the thing for youth down here. Last time they had the study abroad program, it was apparently Puma, and you can still see the remnants of that trend in shirts and shoes.

Cuban food has also been a great experience. We get really fresh food served to us for breakfast and dinner, and lunch is usually a Cuban peso pizza, which us students buy at the University lunch cafeteria and consists of soft dough, a thin layer of tomato sauce, and some cheese, or a hot dog. Breakfast is always a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, and a “tortilla,” which means an omelet (not a thin type of bread) in Cuba. We also get fresh-squeezed juice served with every meal (orange and guava are typical, sometimes we get mango or pineapple, though). Dinner is often some form of cut up and fried tubular vegetable (often boniato, which is kind of like a more starchy sweet potato), rice and beans (the beans are often replaced with chickpeas and are cooked with ham), some form of meat (ham and fried chicken are popular), and a veggie (Linda usually buys us avocados, which they cut up and serve to us). We also always get a delish dessert, which often is chocolate pudding, or a kind of French-toast like adaptation to the fresh baked bread that we get served with every meal. It’s like a giant family-style dinner at home, only the circumstances and type of food are obviously changed a little bit.

In other news, classes are going really well. I have two papers due next week, and am inundated with readings for class, but I’m liking my professors (one professor actually had to leave to do some research in another part of Cuba, so we’re getting a replacement today). I recently had to read an 86-page Word document that I downloaded offline, called the “18^th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” by Karl Marx, for my History of Cuban Culture course. All I have to say is, Marx REALLY liked his analogies / metaphors…

But, the good news is that I have all my books and readings, I will be working at a pseudo-internship once a week, and I’m starting to finally feel really settled in. I’m also trying to do some “thesis research” (by that I mean buying books about Cuban migration and the government issues surrounding it, from both a sending and receiving country perspective). The books here are really cheap (5 for about $2.50 US), and I’m eager to get researching senior year!! Wish me luck!!! : )

END NOTE (PLEASE READ):

Given the fact that my blog posts are typically sarcastic, I just wanted to take the time to impress upon you all the fact that my entire experience here – all of it, good and bad – has been SUCH a blessing beyond comprehension. I'm so lucky to be here! I often say that “Cuba is wonderful,” but don’t explain the real meaning behind those words, and really want to explain the “why” of this experience. I know that it is often easy to consider all the downsides of studying abroad here (she’s CRAZY!) – I get my cross stolen, or classes don’t meet on time, or there are strange people. But, all of that is part of the experience of growing up and living life as a functioning, breathing fully-grown, independent woman of faith. I have spent most of my life living comfortably in a large house, in an upper-middle-class town, in a rich state, in a rich country, and offer praise to God for that, but I am also so, so thankful for the chance to be a part of a different walk for a few months. This has been as much a strengthening of my faith as it has been an educational opportunity, and I am so blessed, not just to possess the things that I do in the US, but to be privy to such a loving people, who are open, great friends and honest critics, hilarious, and know how to take the knocks of life and get up, dust themselves off, and keep going. There is so much more to people here than generalizations about impoverished masses, or dominating Cuban men, or coffee and cigars, or fresa y chocolate.

Anne Frank once wrote that despite all of the horrible things that happen in this world, she still believed that all people are good at heart – and I’m getting to see the real truth behind that statement here. So, why the decision to go to a developing nation, living a very simple life instead of the comfortable life I’m used to in a developed country? Because beauty in life, in God, in other people, and in yourself is only visible when you don’t have so many THINGS to occupy your attention. There is no need to be worried about me – I have the best protector in this universe looking out for me, and He follows me everywhere. Just be happy for me, knowing that this experience is granting me the gifts of grace, fulfillment, and love in my life. : )

Why are all the books gone, part 267... :)

I’m apologizing in advance for being bitter while writing my blog post, but I did create a text barrier for those who would like to skip my rant/explanation of the Cuban system of reading assignments. Enjoy! :)

--Begin Bitter Rant / Explanation--

Seeing as I have been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as of late, I figured that perhaps my books would magically manifest themselves in my room of their own volition. Alas, no. I received two books in class from the professor (yay socialist book system!!!) for my Sociologia del Trabajo class, but my other two classes have sent us students off to find books “de maneras individuales” (by our individual means). This phrase means, “I have no idea where you can find these books, but get creative!” We have to read these books for class, yet we are unsure if and when they will be available. It is incredible to me how much I take for granted buying books in the states!! It’s so easy!!! I walk into the Coop, check isbns, head to Amazon, and I’m done! Here, the process involves the professor listing off some articles or books one needs to or should read, walking to one of twenty local bookstores, finding that the bookstore does not carry the title (after extensive searching or asking a worker there), repeating the process five times, not finding any books, then giving up and walking home. The only Amazon here exists in my mind, as a dense forest of barriers that I have to clear before obtaining the resources I need.

The good thing about being a foreigner, however, is that I have access to internet. Internet means access to websites, and websites mean access to articles, snippets from books, etc. I wonder how many of the Cuban students survive sans internet or even computers!!! I am in awe of how resourceful and sharing people are down here – in class, the professor collects everyone’s flash drives (lots of students at UHavana have these), and uploads copies of the articles for them onto their flash drives, or finds some other means to distribute copies. There is a shortage of paper in Cuba, too, so there aren’t handouts of anything – the syllabus, book lists, and class schedule are given out orally. All my classes are literally two classes in one – whatever the course title is plus an advanced Spanish listening class.

--End Bitter Rant / Explanation--

I’m starting to get better at understanding the Cuban accent, though. When I first went to classes last week, I understood MAYBE 40 percent of the lectures in class. Now, I’m sitting at the front of the class, and I was able to understand perhaps 90 percent of the lectures that had previously been a blur of speech. I also banged out three double-sided pages of semi-comprehendible notes in Spanish today (NOTES in SPANISH!!!), which I am really quite proud of!!!

In addition to that, Diane and I visited the UHavana library, where we used an old-school card catalog to look up our books for class, then filled out two little slips of paper full of information on the book we were looking for. We handed it to a library worker, who took the slip of paper and placed it on a metal clip hanging from a balcony on the second floor. Then a girl came to the balcony and pulled up the string and removed my slip from the clip, and went to go look for the book I requested. None of the students are allowed to go into the stacks to look for their own books, so requests have to be filled out, you have to leave behind some form of identification (a copy of your passport or your student ID, which I don’t have yet) while you take the book out, and you can’t leave the library with the book. When they retrieve the book, they call out your name to pick it up at the desk. The entire process (for one book) took about twenty minutes. In the interim, Diane and I had been looking at some ancient wooden display cases of ecological books, in which a poster was displayed, saying, “ask your librarian for information about internet access!” We just laughed and mused at the irony of Cuban society for a while.

In addition to the craziness that was today, there was a robbery that occurred at ANAP last night, in which two of the girls on the second floor had their computers, cameras, and some money stolen from their rooms. Somebody had apparently sneaked upstairs through the open emergency exit in the back (there is always a guard in front, but only sometimes in the back of ANAP) around 12:00 midnight, and had gone to the unlocked, unoccupied room with the lights off to steal the Sarah Lawrence girls’ computers. The first floor, where I’m living, has more foot traffic, and my roommates and I are very careful about always keeping the door locked, but it’s still very disturbing to think that people are entering into this “secure” building without us knowing. Most high-profile buildings filled with foreigners have intense security systems, but our building is quite high-profile as a US study abroad student haven, and we don’t have a technology system to support a security system like theirs. I’m pretty neurotic about this type of thing already, but now I’m super neurotic. To think that for the next three months, I constantly have to be vigilant of all my belongings does NOT make me comfortable, but perhaps it’s a good thing, in the sense that I won’t ever let my guard down – inside or outside the house I’m living in. It’s just really tiring, when to think that back home in the woods I’m relatively free from danger…