I’ve wanted to visit before the massive invasion of pasty white baby-boomer Midwest-American chubbers ruined the perfect picture of Havana I had built up in my head…I had visions of rescuing some beautiful mixed Russian-Cuban girl with green eyes and a sexy accent. I would steal her away from the grips of Cuba’s failed blend of communist-run socialism…
Where to begin in deconstructing this offensive, ill-informed piece of travel writing on Cuba that was published in Men’s Journal? While this account by a Navy SEAL is a particularly egregious example that peddles in exoticized stereotypes, sexism, and fat-shaming, it’s not unusual for writers to claim expertise on Cuba after having spent only a week there (in this case, only four days!).
This piece reinforces one of the mostly widely held misconceptions by Americans: that it’s possible to see Cuba “before it changes.” The “frozen in time” trope—the notion that the island underwent no changes between 1959 (the triumph of the Cuban Revolution) and December 17, 2014, when the Obama administration announced a restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba—is the number one pet peeve for Cuba scholars and experts.
The truth is that Cuba never stopped evolving after the Revolution, but the rate of change has accelerated particularly in the past 25 years. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuban economic conditions shifted dramatically in response to the crisis of the early 1990s, commonly referred to as the “Special Period.” This may be news to Americans, but tourism and foreign investment didn’t begin with President Obama’s measures. Canadian and European tourism and investment since the mid-1990s—in addition to an increase in remittances to Cuba, largely from relatives living in the U.S.—brought about massive changes in Cuban social and economic life, including a re-introduction of income inequality.
What follows are nine other misconceptions that new-to-Cuba writers should be aware of:
1. There was no capitalism in Cuba before Americans began arriving in large numbers
Even if you had traveled to Cuba 15 years ago, you wouldn’t have witnessed a strictly socialist society. Over the last 25 years, a hybrid model has been implemented that includes elements of both socialism and capitalism. Cuentapropismo, licensed self-employment, has been allowed and even encouraged in varying degrees, with a marked increase when Raúl Castro assumed the presidency in 2008. One of the peculiar elements of this hybrid model is the almost complete lack of any notion of “customer service” in Cuba. Anyone who has ever sat down to eat in a state-run restaurant will have had the experience of being given a lengthy menu, only to be told a few minutes later by the wait staff: nada más tenemos pollo (we’re out of everything except chicken).
2. The presence of Americans will lead to chain stores and other features of American-style capitalism
This myth, seen in this CNN Travel piece, is related to the previous one. If we accept that capitalism has been an element of the Cuban economy for over two decades, then it should follow that Cuban-style capitalism will never be an imitation of our own system; the disregard for customer service in Cuba is a clear example. Raúl Castro’s government was exceedingly wary regarding the expansion of private enterprise, and Cubans are hyper-vigilant about not returning to a relationship of neo-colonialist deference to the U.S; there’s no indication that a new president (Miguel Díaz Canel) will change this. National sovereignty is a priority not only for hardline Communists, but for all Cubans.
3. Cubans are poor, but happy
Rick Steves is way off base when he suggests that Cubans are satisfied living on $20-30/month and have been trained by Communist handouts not to work hard. This statement not only smacks of racist notions about “lazy natives,” but is patently false. (Of course, this trope reflects a broader romanticization of underdevelopment/poverty beyond Cuba that westerners often reproduce about the “third world.”)
Cubans are not happy in poverty; they’re incredibly frustrated and tired of the meager state salaries that only cover the cost of food for one week out of the month. So, while Americans are fascinated by the fact that Cubans can appear to be happy—i.e., drink, dance, and laugh—in the face of material lack, many Cubans “sing so as not to cry” as the song “Qué Pasa” by Cuban hip hop group Orishas declares. It’s not the poverty that makes them happy; they laugh and joke despite their poverty because otherwise, life would be too bleak to keep going.
As for the stereotype about not working hard, of course Cubans working for the state and earning less than $1/day don’t feel the need to put in much effort. Would you? As an oft-repeated expression goes, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” But give Cubans the means to start a private business, where the amount they earn is pegged to how much they work, and most will work eagerly. Many cuentapropistas do just that, tirando pasajes (working as licensed or unlicensed taxi drivers) 10-12 hours/day.
4. An open door is an invitation for tourists to enter someone’s home
This is yet another falsehood disseminated by Rick Steves, who states, “I found that, unless a door is locked, it’s all public.” I can’t stress how presumptuous and arrogant this is. It’s true that Cubans on the whole are less concerned with privacy than Americans are, but this is partly because of the phenomenon of viviendo agregado, whereby multiple generations and in-laws are forced to live under the same roof due to housing scarcity and the historic difficulty of selling one’s house (which only became legal in 2011; before that, people either conducted sales on the black market or found another party with whom to “trade” houses). However, an open door in a country where it’s incredibly hot and humid nine months of the year does not mean a stranger can enter without an invitation. Cubans don’t want to be treated like they’re on display for all the world to see and photograph.
5. Personal essays about Cuba travel debacles contribute a valuable perspective (this tip is meant especially for editors)
Writers whose only angle is that they traveled to Cuba completely unprepared, without reading so much as a short internet article, contribute nothing useful to the conversation. The sole focus of “In Cuba, No Cash for Gringos” is how the writer got by with almost no cash, as he never bothered to research the fact that American credit and debit cards don’t work in Cuba. He seemed to expect everyone to take pity on him, including the owners of the B&B where he was staying, as if they weren’t running a business. This type of entitlement and navel-gazing should not be encouraged by editors.
6. Holding the Cuban tourist industry to U.S. standards is a valid angle
This should be a no-brainer, but travel writers shouldn’t go to Cuba expecting to find the same amenities they find at home. A 2016 profile by Business Insider apparently decided to “expose” the run-down accommodations in Cuba. The reporters actually broke the law by filming in a state-run store, where no cameras are allowed, in order to show Americans the lack of variety and quality of the products sold. Like the Navy SEAL piece, this is disrespectful and represents the worst of American ethnocentrism. And while we’re on the subject of filming: if you’re ever invited to an Afro-Cuban religious ceremony—and by invited, I don’t mean walking into a house where you hear drums being played because the door is open—always ask the host if you can video or audio record it. There are rules against filming these rituals, though they are only selectively enforced by religious practitioners.
7. You can get to know Cuba by only visiting Havana
As with most countries beyond the U.S., Cuba’s capital is dominant culturally and economically. However, it doesn’t represent Cuba as a whole. There’s a centuries-long history of regionalist antagonism between the capital and other parts of the country, particularly between eastern and western Cuba. Cubans who live in “el campo” (the interior) typically find Havana natives arrogant and overbearing, and Havana natives often consider those beyond the capital to be “country hicks.” Some tourists take a day trip to nearby Viñales or Varadero, or even to Trinidad in central Cuba. However, most never make it to eastern Cuba, site of Cuba’s vibrant second city, Santiago de Cuba, and the region where both Fidel Castro’s uprising and the nineteenth-century wars of independence against Spain were initiated. Each of these places has a distinct feel and culture and staying in Havana won’t give you a full range of experience.
8. Cubans are either for or against the Revolution
The polarized opinions in the U.S. regarding the Cuban Revolution—shaped by the anti-communist Cuban exiles who arrived in the 1960s and 70s and amassed a disproportionate amount of political clout—do not reflect the views of Cubans on the island. In order to counteract the hardline stance of the Miami Cuban exile community, which has been likened by journalist Ann Louise Bardach to a mafia in its intimidation of anyone who dared suggest normalization, a leftist, pro-revolutionary rhetoric emerged in the U.S. However, this latter group has often been an apologist for the Castro regimes, ignoring the ways the Revolution historically suppressed dissent, political organizing centering on racial identity, LGBT rights, and religious expression.
In contrast, most Cubans on the island have more nuanced views of the Revolution and are neither self-identifying communists nor gusanos (worms, as Fidel Castro referred to dissidents and defectors). Cubans value the crowning jewels of the Revolution, namely, universal, free health care and education, and basic food subsidies. While it would be naïve to pretend these systems haven’t suffered declines since the Special Period, most Cubans still benefit from them and recognize their necessity. What they don’t appreciate is the historic lack of freedom to travel beyond the island, engage in private enterprise, sell their homes, have access to the internet, and express their political opinions. Save the last example, all of these restrictions were eliminated during Raúl Castro’s reign. In short, the majority of Cubans recognize both pros and cons of their political system.
9. Trump’s new Cuba policy makes American travel to the island almost impossible
Roughly 620,000 Americans traveled to Cuba in 2017, evidence of a dramatic increase in U.S. tourism since Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations. Notwithstanding the Trump administration’s June 2017 rollback, the newest regulations retain many Obama-era policies. The most significant change is that Americans are no longer able to create individual travel itineraries using the “people-to-people” category, but instead must travel with licensed tour operators. They are also prohibited from engaging in financial transactions with any hotels or stores owned by the Cuban military, as laid out on the List of Restricted Entities.
More concerning than these changes is the breakdown of relations in the wake of the alleged “sonic attacks” that caused 25 American diplomats to suffer a variety of serious symptoms from late 2016 to mid-2017. In September 2017, the State Department evacuated 60 percent of its embassy staff from Havana and expelled a proportionate number of Cuban embassy staff from Washington; this despite the fact that it never officially claimed the Cuban government was responsible. Incidentally, Cuba would have little to gain in perpetrating an attack that would place diplomatic relations with the U.S. in jeopardy, particularly in terms of getting its long-stagnant economy moving.
Almost a year later, there is still no clear answer regarding what caused these diplomats’ symptoms, and in January the State Department softened its original travel warning. As one Miami-based tour operator founder stated, “The travel warning never made sense…There was never any evidence of any threat to public safety or any threat to U.S. tourists…Our travelers have repeatedly stated that they felt very safe in Cuba.”
The most important take-away from all this is that the Trump administration’s actions have had the opposite effect of their stated intent. First, as has been the case for nearly 60 years, the measures primarily hurt not the Cuban government, but Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits. For example, visas for Cubans applying to visit relatives in the U.S. have been indefinitely suspended. Second, although it’s impossible to quantify how the State Department’s actions have impacted travel to the island by non-Cuban Americans, Cuban cuentapropistas (self-employed entrepreneurs) have reported a notable downturn in American tourism.
Ironically, despite the State Department’s stated intention to prohibit transactions by Americans with Cuban government-owned entities, it’s independent, small business owners who are suffering. This is because organized tour groups—who for the sake of logistics usually seek centralized lodging at hotels rather than casas particulares (private B&Bs)—tend to go through official channels and work with state-owned institutions and transportation modes. Thus, the Trump administration’s policy actually disempowers Cuban entrepreneurs and serves the interests of the centralized Cuban government.
Given the many challenges facing Cuban entrepreneurs, it’s disheartening to see Cuba listed as one of the 10 places on Fodor’s No List 2018. The piece overstates the problem and can only harm small business owners. There are abundant alternatives to staying at hotels on the State Department’s restricted list and it is widely known that casas particulares provide foreigners with a much more fulfilling experience in terms of interacting with Cubans. Even if Americans travel with an organized tour group, there are still many impromptu opportunities to interact with Cubans, and there are few experiences on the island that U.S. immigration officials can police.
Another reason to take Fodor’s overly cautious recommendation with a grain of salt relates to enforcement: it’s still unclear to what extent immigration officials are currently enforcing Trump administration policies. During the Clinton era, the draconian Helms-Burton Act was passed, tightening the embargo, but de facto enforcement wasn’t prioritized and few Americans were being fined for traveling “illegally” to Cuba (i.e., through third countries). Enforcement and fines were ramped up during the Bush years, and then relaxed again under Obama.
The Fodor’s piece also overstates the impact of the “attacks” that affected U.S. diplomats. Investigations are ongoing and there is no reason to believe the average American visitor faces any health risk. To the contrary, Cuba is one of the safest countries in the world, due to the almost complete absence of civilians owning firearms and drug-related organized crime.
I hope these tips prove useful for travel writers who seek to present an accurate portrait of Cuba. While U.S.-Cuba relations have sadly turned hostile again with shades of Cold War-era espionage, writers can avoid taking a similar step backward by shedding the tired tropes of the past.
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