Scratching beneath the surface

by Viola Zuliani (Netherlands)

I didn't expect to find Cuba

Finally, the moment had arrived. I have been dreaming about it for so long. I went through the pictures my parents took during their trip to Cuba back in the 80s, a hundred times; I couldn't wait to see everything with my own eyes: a Country which has been stuck in the 50s, where you can actually see things as they are because globalization didn't reach it. I was so excited to have the chance to meet these people and ask them about their thoughts concerning Cuba's history and the changes the Island went through lately. All the countries I had visited until that moment lost some of their authenticity, due to mass tourism: this time would have been different. Our first stop was La Habana. As soon as we landed we hopped on a cab headed to La Habana Vieja and to Miguel’s casa particular. The morning after, we had a chat with Miguel: he told us that a few years ago he started to rent out his place to tourists, he made the guests room all by himself: he told us that Cubans are the most versatile people in the world. Do you need anything? They’ll make it happen. I actually noticed this attitude throughout the whole trip, I’ve seen people making a business out of nothing, seeing opportunity where no one else could see them. This happened a lot in La Habana, people were often reaching out to us, but they weren’t either asking for money nor trying to sell us anything: they would approach us with their beautiful smile, talking as if they wanted to make friends and then they would give you a series of advice leading you to a certain place, where a scam was set up. I have to admit we almost fell for one of these. I guess that my huge expectations and the idea I had about the Country misled me quite a bit. We were quite discouraged about having a real Cuban experience: every conversation we have had was fake and its purpose was to make us buy something, without saying it. Tourism increased and Cubans have started to look at the travelers and to wonder why certain differences between us existed. Some of them realized they wanted more and, as Miguel said, they found a way to make it happen. After La Habana, we had become smarter, we started to understand all the little tricks behind every interaction, but this made us feel bad because it kind of distorted the purpose of our trip. We continued traveling from la Havana to Vinales, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad by "Colectivos", passing through the natural parc "Nicho". At some point, everything started to change: a man approached us at the park and started to tell us about that area: how it changed through the years like it was some indicator of Cuba’s historical changes, and the life of this man seemed to have followed the same path: from the years of the revolution, to the explosion of tourism and to the first sparkles of capitalism affecting the Country and the life of its people. Eventually, we reached Santa Clara: the less touristic city we’ve visited. We stayed with a lovely elderly couple: he has been one of the "rebeldes" during the Cuban revolution and he entered Santa Clara with the troops guided by Guevara. They told us about their lives, the changing they have been through, the contradictions they have experienced. After dinner, we would sit with them: listening to their stories, sharing ours, discussing politics and talking about the world. Thanks to the people we’ve met, we understood the complexity of Cuba and its changes. We realized the dichotomy of the system: you cannot stop time and expect nothing to change. On the other hand, sometimes it is needed to preserve one place’s unicity to avoid the world to become the same everywhere. This is the paradox of traveling: we always want to see reality, but this cannot exist in tourism, by definition. Therefore, we need to open our minds, leave behind our expectations, walk on our tippy toes, and try to grasp everything we can, observing people living the context.