Cuba 50 Years After the

A mult
imediRevolution
ap r e se n t
ation b
y Stev
en Shu
ltz, M.

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 1

Presentation
Overview
• Why I went to Cuba
• Trip overview
• Havana
• Cuban Countryside
• Pandemic Patriotism
• Amigos Cubanos
• Cuba Calling Blog
• Assaulted Assumptions
• Questions

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 2

 U.S. State Department
Country Description
•for
Cuba is aCuba
totalitarian police state, which relies on
repressive methods to maintain control. These
methods, including intense physical and electronic
surveillance of Cubans, are also extended to foreign
travelers.
• Americans visiting Cuba should be aware that any
encounter with a Cuban could be subject to
surreptitious scrutiny by the Castro regime's secret
police, the General Directorate for State Security.
• Also, any interactions with average Cubans,
regardless how well intentioned the American is,
can subject that Cuban to harassment and/or
detention, amongst other forms of repressive
actions, by state security elements.
Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 3
Why I Went to
Cuba
10. To prove the State Department
wrong
9. I’ve never been there before
8. Enduring interest in Cuban history

7. Desire
& culture to practice Spanish
where
6. To be part of a Transportation & Urban Planning Delegation
•
it’s spoken fastest in the world
Organized by Global Exchange
10-day hosted trip in April 2007
•
Under general license for professional research
•

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 4

Why I Went to
Cuba
5. Moral opposition to U.S.
embargo against Cuba
4. I agree with the Pope (on some
things)
3. “…unjust & ethically
unacceptable…” – Pope John Paul II
on the
2. No embargo, 1998
better way to spend my 2006

federal tax return

1. Cuba is our neighbor!
Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 5
 Let’s Atone for Our
•Nation’s
". . . the majority ofSins
Cubans support Castro . . . the
only foreseeable means of alienating [this] internal
support is through disenchantment and disaffection
based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship . . .
Every possible means should be undertaken
promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba . . . a
line of action which makes the greatest inroads in
denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease
monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger,
desperation and overthrow of government."

-- Declassified U.S. State Department Memo

from April 6, 1960

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 6

Trip
Overview
1. Havana
2. Cienfuegos
3. Trinidad de
Cuba
4. Cardenas
5. Varadero
Varadero
6. Mantanzas
7. Las Terrazas
Las
Terrazas

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 7

Old Havana

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 8

Havana
Malecon

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 9

Modern
Havana

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 10

Havana’s Got
Plans • U.S. visitors to Cuba
annually
– Currently: tens of
thousands
– When relations
‘normalize’: 1-2 million
• Cargo docks being
turned into cruise
ship terminal
• Rumors of Starbucks,
etc. already scouting
for locations in
Havana

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 11

Havana
Infrastructure

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 12

Cuban
Countryside

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 13

Trinidad de
Cuba

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 14

Pandemic
Patriotism

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 15

Amigos Cubanos

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 16

Cuban Quotes “We want more
freedom, but
social
democracy like
Scandinavia…
not U.S
capitalism.”
“Here my
children can play
“My (father/brother/ in the streets,
uncle) lives in the U.S. and I know they
and has lots of money will come home
– I want to move there safe at the end of
too.” the day.”

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 17

Assaulted
Assumptions
• ‘Me’ versus
‘We’
• Measurements
of prosperity
• Measurements
of freedom

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 18

Cuba Calling
• http://cubacalling.blogspot.com

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 19

Cuba Calling
Feedback
• "I hope that your trip, and other trips like yours to Cuba, will
encourage the new congress to try to lift the ban on travel
\
to Cuba. I'd love to go there.“

• “No one understands what we have gone through. The day

all Cubans are free and have the opportunity to speak up
without fear of being thrown in jail for telling the world what
\
they think...then they will know.

• “The Cuba travel ban is a policy based on hate, and it has no

support among the American people.”

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 20

As Promised, Live
Cuban Music

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 21

Conclusion
• Questions?

Cuba - 50 Years After the Revolution 22