A GREAT PLACE THEN AND NOW

Cuba was inhabited long before the Spanish arrived.  Archeological evidence indicates that indigenous people arrived at least 4000 BCE from the Caribbean, Florida and Mississippi.  In fact the name for the island is a Taïno word.  It means "place of abundant fertile land" or "great place."  When the Spanish arrived, the dominant inhabitants were the Tainos who had spread throughout the Caribbean.  Also present were Ciboney and Guanajatabay.  It is estimated that about 350,000 indigenous people lived on the island when the Spanish arrived.  They raised sweet potatoes, yucca, corn, cotton and tobacco.  Harsh treatment as slaves, disease and murder completely eliminated the population.  Today, there are no native peoples in Cuba.

At some time in the distant past, native people entered shallow caves and adorned the walls with pictographs resembling serpents crossed with frogs or caricatures of ET.  The caves themselves are interesting because they rarely descend to great depths and the ceilings are perforated by openings to the sky.  Vines, roots and plants spill from these openings like phantasmagoric waterfalls.

            While  broad flat plains stretch over large areas of Cuba and merge with rolling hills, the island is home to three mountain ranges.  We took a bone-rattling ride in an ancient Russian troop carrier up into the rain forest that cloaks the sides of Sierra del Escambray, Cuba’s second largest range, near Trinidad.

High in the mountains is a region called “Topes de Collante.”  “Topes” means “limit” or “brim” or “top” and Collante is a man’s name so the area is figuratively known as the “Heights of Collante.”

            It is a beautiful area full of trees, flowers and mountain streams that cascade over rocky outcrops into cold mountain pools.

Many of the plants growing there have medicinal uses and are being studied by pharmacologists.  One in particular is a mossy, vine like plant that hangs in streams from tree branches.  A tea made from it lowers blood sugar and is useful in controlling diabetes.

            There are coffee and banana plantations throughout the rainforest.  They are not the manicured groves that you might expect.  Tiny coffee bushes share space with the bananas and naturally occurring plants.

The overall effect is a certain kind of wildness.  Even though the plantations seem untended, keeping the jungle back is a constant job and like so much else in Cuba it’s done by hand and the machete is a farmer’s constant companion.

It is a hard life.  Isolated farmhouses and well tended gardens dot the hillsides.  The coffee beans do not all ripen at the same time.  There are three harvests during the season and the berries are picked one by one by hand.

            Coffee is a major export crop for Cuba.  Like tobacco and certain other crops, 80% of a farmer’s crop belongs to the government.  The remaining 20% belongs to the farmer.  The land upon which it is grown belongs to the farmer as long as he works it and he can pass it on to his heirs.  If he ceases to work the land, ownership reverts to the government which will give it to someone else.

            In many respects, life for the people who wrest a living from the land, like the land itself, has changed little over the years.  Before the revolution, they worked hard, often and mostly manually.  The same can be said today.  They do have health care and they do have education.  But like the mountains themselves, their way of life has endured.

 

           

CUBA FROM ONE SIDE

             

            Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean—780 miles long.  To the North lie the Straits of Florida and to the South the Caribbean.  Eleven million people live there, most of them in large cities.

            Just a few miles from Varadero is the city of Matanzas, often called the Venice of Cuba due to the 17 bridges that cross the three rivers that transect the city.  It has also been called the Athens of Cuba because it has long been a center for the arts, literature and culture.

It derives its name from the Spanish word “mata”—killing.  When the Spanish were fighting Indians, they enlisted the help of some fishermen to cross a river.  When they got to the middle of the river, the fishermen capsized the boats and the Spaniards, weighed down by their armor, drowned.  Thus, “Matanzas” or massacre.

            On the south coast of Cuba is Cienfuegos which means 100 fires. From that, you might conclude that there are hot springs and volcanoes nearby.  Actually, the city is named for José Cienfuegos who was Captain General of Cuba from 1816 to 1819.  The city was originally settled by the French and many streets still bear French names.  The central plaza is flanked by a beautiful cathedral and a lovely opera house.

            Also on the south coast is the third oldest city in Cuba, Trinidad, named for the Holy Trinity.  Even though the city is on the coast, it has the well earned reputation of being the hottest city in Cuba.  Trinidad is the 3^rd oldest city in Cuba and many of its buildings date from the 17^th century.  A traditional Cuban drink was invented there, the canchànchara.  It is made with ½ oz of honey, ¼ oz of lime juice, 11/2 oz WHITE rum and a splash of water and served on the rocks in a special terra cotta cup.  It is the Cuban version of the ‘Ti Punch served in the French Islands.

            Rum!  The product of sugar cane.  Cuba is home to several different distilleries.  Many of them produce fine rum but the best rum is made by Santiago de Cuba in the city of the same name.  It is produced in the distillery that was occupied by Bacardi before the Revolution.  Fortunately Santiago de Cuba tastes nothing at all like Bacardi.  The most popular rum is Havana Club which is used in mixed drinks like the Mojito and the Cuba Libre.  It is aged in used bourbon barrels and like Bacardi is not in the same class as Santiago.

            Regardless of which city you visit, you will find crowded streets lined with colorful houses.  Balconies are lined with potted plants and doorways sport bird cages. 

Cubans love their dogs and you find them peacefully sleeping everywhere. There are many foreign students in the universities of Cuba, most of them from fellow socialist countries.  Apparently the Cambodian students are not well received because they eat dogs.  It was said that a student left his dog in the care of friends while he went home for holiday break.  When he returned he found that his dog had been eaten!  Yikes!

            Santa Clara is an important Cuban city.  It was founded in 1639 but its impact on Cuban history took place in 1958.  The final battle of the Revolution took place there and finalized the overthrow of US supported dictator Fulgencio Batista.  Two groups of guerilla fighters , one led by Camillo Cienfuegos and the other by Ernesto “Che” Guevara routed the government defenders. 

 Che Guevara is revered by modern Cubans.  He was an Argentinean doctor and was radicalized during a motorcycle trip through South America when he saw the poverty, hunger and disease that resulted from American exploitation of Latin America.  He died in a CIA supported raid on his encampment in Bolivia in 1967.