Millennial visits apartheid Cuba, has momentary lapse of reason

No one can actually expect a non-Cuban New Yorker of Brazilian-Italian descent to understand the situation in apartheid Cuba, let alone have much interest in it. Nonetheless, as a “travel journalist,” one would have expected Celinne Da Costa to have at least done some research before her visit to the island so she could at a minimum provide an account of her trip from a historically accurate perspective. Alas, that was not the case.

However, one has to give credit where credit is due. Despite the lack of historic perspective that easily explains the misery suffered by 11-million+ Cubans, Da Costa suffers a momentary lapse of reason and grapples with the shocking realization that Cuba’s despotic communist dictatorship just might be reason behind the suffering and poverty suffered by the Cuban people.

Via Forbes:

Cuba: More Than Just a Time Capsule

I visited Cuba during a tender moment of its life: in the past year, various U.S. travel and financial restrictions have been lifted, however, the status of its long-standing embargo is still up for debate. With the thawing of this previously hostile relationship also comes an influx of tourism, both American and from those who want to visit before the Americans flood in. Even so, tourism is still moderate enough that the country has not yet succumbed to its cancers (read: multinational corporation takeovers).

Visitors are quick to fawn over Cuba for being a time capsule. The colorful old-school automobiles, the ornate yet decaying Spanish colonial buildings, and the general lag that results from minimal exposure to the Internet and technology all contribute to the country’s undeniable charm. I felt this juxtaposition of modernity against history straight out of the airport when I was picked up in a 1954 baby blue Chrysler playing reggae from a bootleg sound system, by a driver who loudly talked in his phablet while manually tying my suitcase to the roof of the car.

I’m personally guilty of gawking at Cuba’s antiquated aesthetic and squealing with glee whenever a candy-colored 1950s car passed by. It didn’t take me long to realize, however, that the country’s suspended state of being is only cute to the outsider. There is far more going on beyond what meets the eye.

I was lucky to experience Cuba through the eyes of a local millennial. My Cuban escort, whom I was connected with through a friend of a friend’s friend, was instrumental in helping me see past my rose-colored lenses and into the country’s unfiltered political, economical, and social state. Getting the inside scoop from a local is made purposely difficult, as the country’s laws are set up to limit interaction between foreigners and locals beyond tourist services. But more on that later.

With the assistance of my newfound Cuban friend and others that I made along the way, I learned that Cuba is much more than a time capsule – it is a country still deeply entrenched in a complex political situation, a struggle for financial stability, and teetering on the brink of a collective craving amongst millennials for a better life.

The Current State of Cuban Life

My understanding of Cuba began to take shape once I inquired into the realities of people’s daily lives. I was shocked to learn that Cubans on average earn only $20 a month – that means people work for less than $1 a day. Though this figure is relatively adjusted to the country’s much lower cost of living, it’s still just enough to get by. The job situation is even less stable for millennials than for older generations: whereas it’s taken for granted in the U.S. that those who graduate from a decent college will likely be employed, even educated Cuban millennials often find themselves working several odd jobs to make ends meet.

The government heavily relies on its people’s productivity to run the economy, yet appears to give little in return. Cubans are given a piece of land to live on so long as they agree to sell most of whatever they produce on it to the government for a standardized price: at the tobacco farm that I visited, farmers are obligated to sell 90% of their product to the government (for Cuban cigars, which as we know are quite expensive), leaving only 10% of their hard-earned work for personal consumption or significantly more profitable sale. Cubans who do not produce have to pay heavy taxes or get their land taken and those who want to own private entities are made to pay such hefty fines that their profit is not much better than if they worked with the government.

When it comes to the economy, the state does what it will, and no one is given an explanation as to why. While this is a situation reluctantly accepted by older generations as the way of life, younger generations are increasingly questioning the fairness of this system. Even so, it is difficult for millennials to pinpoint a solution when they don’t know what they don’t know.

The government placates Cubans by keeping them ignorant to the fact that life could be any other way. While I first found it charming that some locals have never heard of the name McDonald’s or Starbucks, it later struck me as a blatant sign of how little they know about the world outside of their country. The history they study is their own, the story they’re told is biased to favor the government, and their contact with tourists is monitored and in some cases, punishable by law. My Cuban friends were stopped by the police and questioned about their involvement with me every time we drove somewhere, only to be warded off by bribes (apparently, the police is financially motivated to give inhabitants fines as it boosts their own salary at the end of the month). Despite questioning them for half an hour each time, the police never bothered me personally.

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1 thought on “Millennial visits apartheid Cuba, has momentary lapse of reason”

  1. I’d pity the fools, but I don’t have enough pity for so many, and it’s way past time for anybody with any kind of journalistic pretensions to be very clear about something so excruciatingly obvious, especially when there are millions of real Cuba experts readily and easily available for consultation and instruction. No doubt I could be more elegant, but just get these dilettantes out of my face.

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