From the mailbag
Why we blog:
Dear Val Prieto,
I discovered your blog this evening (4/19/06) and have registered for Google Alerts in order to receive your daily writings. You and your bloggers have finally provided me with the information I have been searching for as I try to put down on paper the extraordinary experience I had visiting Camaguey and Havana this past November. It had been 50 years since I had been in Cuba and after a week on an humanitarian mission to the Jewish communities, I returned to Philadelphia with a heavy heart and a resolve to educate myself about what has happened since 1955.
Fortunately, there are several web sites and numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction. However, reading your blog has given me a new perspective and I look forward to absorbing the comments of Cubans living in Miami.
It appears to me that most Americans are woefully ignorant about the revolution that has decimated this magnificent island and torn its people apart. Not only have we forgotten "The Maine" and all of the machinations of the US government, but we fail to fully understand what is really happening to Cuba and to the men, women and children living in a totalitarian state.
Please do not categorize me as one of those Americans who travels to Cuba "on vacation." It was anything but a vacation; it was a mission to deliver desperately needed prescription drugs and medical supplies. In both cities, I was able to visit people in their homes and synagogues; we shared meals, attended religious services and visited cemeteries where we prayed over the graves of loved ones. I do not speak Spanish, but this will be rectified as soon as the next beginners' class is offered at a nearby college this summer.
While surfing the web, I came across a truly awful site composed of Canadians who purchase all inclusive resort vacations in Cuba. It appears from their postings that Cuba is a playground to which they return several times a year. They rarely travel into the countryside and/or cities. The restaurants we visited were filled with European and South American tourists in Havana. I have since learned that they spend only a few hours or a day in these locales and then are transported back to the government tourist hotels and beaches.
Almost five months have passed since my trip and I am still overwhelmed by the experience. I look forward to learning more from you and your contributors.
Adios!
(name withheld)
Philadelphia, PA
That just makes everything we so SOOOOOOOO worth it. Thanks for sharing.
Ditto...!
This gentleman is a mensch in the real meaning of the word. I am very heartened by this email and it gives me a little more hope for Cuba's future without the beast.
And thanks to him for his humanitarian work with people who really need the help.
Val,
Isn't this the best answer to your previous post, "Y Por Que? ... "And Why?" . . . "One at a time" ... Thanks! I wish you well!
Melek
"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."
Wow! And this person wants to learn from us...I am humbled. It's the other way around for me...I need to learn more about compassion and love from this person's fine example. Thank you for helping the people of Cuba. Welcome kind soul from the City of Brotherly Love! Let's learn from each other!
Thank you all for commenting on my 4/19 email to Val about my trip to Cuba in November. Being referred to as a "mensch" made my day!!
I had spent two weeks in Havana with my late Father in 1955. The Island Paradise was deeply etched in my memory. I shopped for alligator shoes and handbag, embroidered dresses, magnificent lace work and ate cocoanut ice cream everyday. After falling in love with Cuban food, I believed one could exist solely on black beans and rice. An evening at Tropicana was utterly fascinating and memorable. We rode buses along narrow cobblestoned streets, almost touching the houses outside the open windows.
My 2005 visit was a stark contrast. I've been trying desperately to grapple with my emotional/intellectual reactions to the decay and neglect in both Camaguey and Havana.
The legs of the iron beds in the maternity clinic in Camaguey propped up on bricks. The women there preparing a meal; picking through rice IMPORTED FROM CHINA and peeling garlic. The ancient refrigerator and woeful stove/hotplate. Electrical wiring dangling EVERYWHERE.
Cubanos cannot purchase toilet paper? Some hotel bathrooms didn't have toilet seats? No hot water for a shower in Camaguey and constant blackouts. Long lines for bread and rationed food. Empty shelves in "tourist" stores, but overpriced bottles of water.
The once glorious, vibrant and cosmopolitan city of Havana is now a gray, crumbling, neglected orphan. The architectural gems along the Prado are encased in scaffold or being held up with timbers. The Malecon is falling apart in many places. I walked in the middle of the streets in Central Havana because balconies could come crashing down at any moment.
The man you all refer to as "the beast" has wreaked havoc and it is heartbreaking. The doorman at The Telegrafo whispered to me, "Do you have any aspirin?" Shaking as I rummaged through my bag, I gave 5 CUCs to an extremely thin elderly woman. Later I spied her purchasing a meal at a hole in the wall in one of the buildings along the Prado.
With our permit from the Department of the Treasury, my group was able to carry 40 lbs. of prescription drugs and medical supplies per person (prerequisite.) Visitors to Cuba from other countries generally pack clothing and school supplies for children. US citizens are NOT permitted to take any of these items. This is regretable; the need is so obvious.
We divided our donations into four separate packs. The Patronato in Havana has a fully-stocked pharmacy and a doctor who distributes medicine to anyone in need in the neighborhood, not just the Jewish members of the congregation. Other donations went to the maternity clinic and synagogue in Camaguey and to another synagogue in Havana. Please visit the JEWS IN CUBA website to see how the community is thriving despite the privations of life in Cuba. There is also a terrific collection of photos on this site.
On our return to Philadelphia, we were shocked to learn that the Treasury Department had refused to renew the special license of an organization in NYC that has made annual trips to Havana to deliver medicines. This is very disturbing. If Nebraska can TRADE in Cuba, why can't we supply rudimentary things like Band-Aids and toothpaste?
I knew in advance that I would be going to a third-world Communist country. I was warned that "ears are everywhere." One woman in my group was mugged and thrown to the ground when a group of teenagers attempted to grab her camera. They didn't succeed and she was only slightly bruised. We taught her to smoke a cigar that evening!!
I won't hesitate to travel to Cuba again. The generosity of physicians, local pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies enabled me to supplement the items I purchased for the communities we visited. Wal-Greens gave me 200 First Aid kits and 75 pocket calculators (will take cell batteries next time.) All I did was ASK, provide documentation and the donations were assembled quickly.
If this post manages to get through, I would like to write again and list the books I've been reading and ask for your comments and suggestions. This is the first time I've "blogged."
Dear Grammy in Phila,
This U.S. citizen, a Cuban by birth, thanks you from the bottom of his heart.
May God bless you and help you in all future endeavors.
Julio