Summer in Cuba: Over Halfway There
By week three, it settles into everyone that not only are we here to learn experientially, but we must also read and write a whole lot. Many of us were doing so, but we also took advantage of the flexibility that comes with a study abroad program in a nation with less consistent connectivity. So, about half of us had taken up a new addition to our daily schedules, which is visiting Hotel Presidente, the building where Fidel Castro lived and is now a major spot for both tourists and other Cubans to dine and rest while they visit Havana. It has a classic luxurious interior with gold trims and statues in its lobby, and is right by the Malecón, the sea wall. At this hotel, we can order small meals and hang out, but most importantly, we find ourselves there to purchase access to some of the best internet in town. This way we can connect with family and friends and do research for our classwork. The workers there have gotten very used to us and enjoy talking to us, in particular one classmate, Alex, who is enthusiastically welcomed each time he visits.
As for what else we did that week, that sort of varies depending on the person. That third Sunday, most of us went to Almacenes San José, an art market, to watch the play put on that evening. The play is called No Importa, which I would poetically translate to “no one cares,” literally translates to “it doesn’t matter.” It was a very intimate play with only four actors, and it mixed the theatrical with the reality of contemporary Cubans’ lives. The main themes are immigration and family separation, ending with both the actors and multiple members of the audience in tears. I felt my own eyes a little heavy. I couldn’t understand the nuances of every joke and every pivotal moment, but I still was overwhelmed with the emotion and passion and love on display, even though I’m an outsider.
That week, after our class days, about half of the class volunteered with Cuba Libro, a part coffee shop part bookstore and also a place for community building among the most impoverished in the neighborhood. Its name is a play on the words “Cuba Libre,” or free Cuba, except the word libro means book. It was originally founded in 2013 and gathers donations from across the world, while also supporting the community with much of its profits from food and book sales. Our volunteer work involved categorizing and sorting the many generous donations, everything from medicine and nonperishable food items to notebooks.
Meanwhile, things got a little more chaotic at our casa particular, as another group of American university students, pre-medical ones, moved in with us for the week. Our two groups mingled and we got to teach some of our newly learned lessons, like to be careful about getting ice in your drinks. Further, our classes ramped up slightly, as we read and watched some of the best plays and movies so far, including a short one-act play called Antígona, a modern adaptation of the classic Antigone that contemplates contemporary issues and shifts in ideology between the generations of Cuba. We then had an in-depth discussion with the playwright Yelandy Fleites, discussing his inspirations and desires to adapt other hallmarks in theater like Shakespeare. There were also many plays hosted around town that some went to on their own time outside of class.
On my free days, I went to Old Havana to shop in art markets for souvenirs for my family, and also visited a treasure trove of an antique shop with hundreds of old books and music records. After a brief lunch one of those days, we then visited a famous bakery called Pan de la Habana with the cheapest yet most delicious pastries and bread I've had in my twenty years on this green earth. I've returned multiple times already. That bakery, and a restaurant called Infinitio (named for its 24/7 schedule), have come to know our faces well.
To close out that week, on Saturday, we once again visited Fábrica de Arte. The majority wanted to go to a Rumba class, which I did pop in on at the very end to get some fun videos. What I didn't know was that night, as if exclusively tailored to me, it was a convention of nerds and dorks. That night, Fábrica hosted a cosplay fashion show.
A misconception some of my American friends have of Cuba is that it is very stuck in time, perhaps to a fault. However, just like the millennials and Gen Z of the United States, the young people of Cuba have grown up alongside a rapidly globalized pop (and nerd) culture. Despite the blockade and how factory-made costumes could be inaccessible, dozens and dozens of young Cubans came together that night to show off their home-made fantasy costumes and props. Every corner of nerd culture was represented that night: from the thoroughly American Star Wars skits met with roaring applause, to horror games every twenty year old knows across the world, to the costumes of characters from Chinese video games and Japanese anime that left the audience in awe of the creativity and resourcefulness each cosplayer put on display.
Of course, I had already realized by this point that Cubans loved global culture, just like anyone else, including my close to heart and very nerdy interest in anime. What I did realize that night as I rode home is that most of my regrets so far on this trip have been my timidity, my fear of simply going up to a random Cuban my age and saying “me gusta su camiseta. Me encanta esa muestra” (“I like your t-shirt. I love that show”). My lifelong awkwardness is not aided by my still intermediate Spanish, but maybe the fact this trip is a once in a lifetime chance should have given me further confidence. So, for this upcoming week, our last week, I intend to correct that timidity whenever I get the chance.
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Summer in Cuba is a 4-week summer program sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute at Tulane University. It caters to undergraduate Spanish students seeking a unique, immersive linguistic and cultural experience in Cuba. You can learn more about the Summer in Latin America programs here.
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