Comments on: There’s No Crackheads in Cuba, and Other Things that Strike the American Traveler as Strange

By: Delia Harrington

Delia Harrington — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:16:25 +0000

I have a friend down there who’s American-born, but his parents moved the family down there when he was 10 or so. He’s now a teenager and the whole family is very happy with the change–he can be out all day and night and no one worries. it’s amazing how safe and comforting it is to live in Havana. And you can see the stars! did you notice that?

There’s also a pretty big homeless/undocumented problem just outside of Havana, and other major cities like Santiago. “Palestinoes” or people from the West (yes, they call them Palestinians because they “have no home” and “invade someone else’s”…oof!) leave for the cities and a better life, but if they can’t trade for/buy housing, they’re stuck. without registering as moving from one province to the other, they fall off the books. they build shanty houses, don’t receive ration books and have even worse plumbing than most Cubans, if that’s imaginable. they often don’t pay the (admittedly low) cost of housing/utilities, but they barely get them anyway. And often their children don’t/can’t go to school because of their status. I saw a great docu about them and I’d love to go back and do more research on it.

Just another example fo how Cuba is never straightforward, and always has another side to show! If I remember the name/find a link to it (I believe it’s native cuban, so it’s probably not on the net) I’ll send it to you

Really loved hearing the perspective of someone from a major US city!

delia

By: ivis

ivis — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:28:06 +0000

my parents are both cubans we live in miami, like every miami cuban american its a right of passage to go to cuba. ive been 7 times from the age of 5-19 spending 10 days to a month at a time over in my family town of santa clara and then heading back to other providences.. and one thing ill tell you is that you dont understand how easy going, relaxing, free you fell there. yes its wrong how fidel and the government has cuba but me being of cuban decent loves going there.. at the age of 7 my mom would let me and my siblings ride bike and horse all over the town.. but at 7 i couldn’t go to the corner park in my street… its a different life style

By: neha

neha — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:51:16 +0000

Have I mentioned before how much I love your writing? Flawless, and precise as ever! Also, I am aching to go to Cuba. It has been building for years now. It seems like a far away dream, but it’s one of the main reasons I want to visit the United States, its proximity to Cuba (Ha, bet no one saw that coming). Till then I’ll keep reading your posts.

By: tam

tam — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:22:56 +0000

Love it, spent time in Havana,
probably my favourite country on the planet.

By: laurenquinn

laurenquinn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:37:52 +0000

Dude, super interesting! Nicely done. Really, I love this. (Though I still maintain that’s it’s the weirdest Chinatown I’ve been to. Which I guess your piece confirms.)

By: 9mos

9mos — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:28:16 +0000

Love it- great post. There are actually about 10,000 Chinese Cubans living in Cuba today, the majority in Havana. You can find a lot of the older ones at the Casino Chino, a social club right outside the gate to Barrio Chino. Here’s a little piece I did about them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/collazoprojects#p/u/30/ZyMLgxBJMN0

My dream is to stay in Havana long enough to collect oral histories of the people I met at Casino Chino.

By: spunkygirlmonologues

spunkygirlmonologues — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:51:06 +0000

Fantastic! Reading your post made me want to return to Cuba and explore it a little more before it changes too much.

By: Ben Hair

Ben Hair — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:32:25 +0000

Wow. Thank you for opening my eyes to all that is Cuba (no naivety or sarcasm intended). Not only was I ignorant of the local culture, but I knew absolutely nothing about the history of the country, be it pre- or post- Castro. You’ve done a great job (in this post; I look forward to reading the others in the days to come) of describing what seems to me to be both the glaring cultural differences and the more nuanced day-to-day stuff that comes gradually: the absence of ads and the realization that there are no ads. I couldn’t put my finger on what made Morocco feel so different from the West, but that takes care of a big chunk of my confusion! Lucky you to have lived in pre-post-embargo Cuba! What you have experienced there will be unlike anything else people see in the years to come. Yes, that is jealousy speaking. Again, looking forward to reading your past posts and thanks in advance! Your writing is a lot of fun to read.

By: Renata

Renata — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:17:12 +0000

I’m flying to Cuba in a week and I get all sorts of looks from people when I tell them about my trip. People just can’t put political views apart and see the historic moment we are going through. This year might be the last chance we’ve got of going to pre-post-embargo Cuba (I loved the way you put it). I think I’ll print cards with the link to your blog and hand it out to people who give me those weird looks when say I’m going to Cuba.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:37:49 +0000

I swear there is a conspiracy to make me go to Cuba. Cheap flight ads galore, I keep coming across little mentions and photos of it, and now adding to the pressure is your article It’s really interesting to combine what I read about Cuba on traditional travel sites with your insights. It really does sound pretty damn cool there.