Glimpses of Havana

Ariyawansa Ranaweera

It had taken 11 years to complete this Fortress with tremendous cost, but after completion this Fortress was considered and unassailable bastion and essential to Havana’s defense. It is an enormously big Fortress. My feeling is that it is easily more than 25 times bigger than Galle Fortress.

Each day sharp at 6.00pm there is a ceremony of changing guards at this Fortress where the soldiers perform this ceremony dressed in Spanish uniforms with much pomp and ceremony. The ceremony is a favourite tourist attraction. It should be mentioned that Old Havana with all these treasures has been declared as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.

Consumer itch

Havana is completely devoid of billboards. This ubiquitous stratagem of market economy has no place in Havana. In fact this is an indication of one of the foremost principles on which the Cubans are trying to build their social system. They discourage the provocation of “consumer itch”, which directs the demand towards unwanted needs.

Cubans believe in the maxim “from each according to his talents, to each according to his needs” obtaining the individual skills of the people to build the societal edifice, giving back to them what they ‘really’ need. Here the need base takes a different interpretation from that of capitalist mode of life. Each single family in Cuba is given a comprehensive package of basic goods at very much subsidized rates. This package includes basic food items like rice, wheat flour, meat, eggs, vegetables and fruits.

If a family member is sick, prescribed medicine is also included in the package. This package provides the basic food needs of each individual. These items are distributed through outlets established at convenient locations at walking distance from the homesteads of the people. I myself saw people taking away these items from outlets which looked like our own corporative outlets. Apart from these basic goods Cubans are free to purchase what ever other things they need from the shops specializing in providing household items, cloths, footwear, groceries and others. The wayside boutiques stored with grocery items is a common site in Havana too. The eateries are very well stocked with local food items, beverages and are very well patronized.

Big brother

Going by old socialist practices one would expect gigantic statues, cutouts of the rulers of the country gazing at you from every nook and corner of the city; obvious symptoms of the ‘big brother’ cult of Orwelian overtones. But this is not so in Havana.

I never saw a single statue of any life size cutout of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, not even of Che Guevara. What I only saw were the statues and other memorials for Jose Marti, their national hero who was the spirit behind the independent struggle against the Spanish.

The mobility of the citizens of a city is a true sign of it’s vivacity. Havana roads are full of old vintage vehicles. Restrictions on the importations of vehicles ought to be the reason for this. Whatever the reason is where-ever you look, old Ladas with their slim angular bodies and huge American cars like old fat dames ply alone the wide and clean streets. I was told practically every driver of these vehicles is a mechanic as well. Body parts to keep these venerable vehicles on the roads have to be turned out locally as the mother companies have closed down long ago.

I asked a Cuban doctor friend, who came to meet me on a jalopy of unknown vintage, about the make of his vehicle, because no one could trace it. He grimaced and said “it is a Muscovitch!”. I don’t think a Muscovitch is available even in Moscow!. This is not to say that new vehicles are totally absent on Havana roads.

But they are few and far between. Horse drawn carts, bicycle rickshaws, and tortoise shaped three-wheelers which ply on the roads of Old Havana, are mainly to attract the tourists.

Transportation

Public transport is provided by a fairly regular bus service supervised by the Provincial Transport Authority. Huge buses mostly of Chinese make, which can accommodate up to 200 passengers is a common sight along Havana roads. Gaily dressed crowds wait patiently until these Goliaths arrive to take them safely home.

Cuba is a multi ethnic country. Havana city is a Microcosm of this diversity. People of Spanish origin are the majority. But there is a sizable segment of Blacks among them. There is absolutely no trace of discrimination among these two communities. Couples of mixed origin are a common in Havana. I was told that the situation was quite different before the Revolution.

Those days the Blacks were relegated to do menial work, and higher education and upward mobility were denied to them. All those vestiges are now things of the past. Now mixed marriages are common, and the children born of such marriages are called ‘Mulattoes’.

There is a considerable number of Chinese also in Havana. Originally Chinese have arrived in Cuba, during the time of railway constructions of the country in the 18th century. They have separate China Town inside Havana and their population could count up to about 100, 000. They are free to observe their beliefs and follow their customs. In fact they have their own newspaper also. Apart from this there is a population of several thousand North African refugees.

Language

There is one common factor which binds all these diverse communities. That is Spanish language. Spanish is the national language and practically everyone speaks that language. Spanish is one of the five great international languages and the key which unlocks all the mysteries of this vast Latin American expanse, be it cultural, political or economical.

In fact I felt that there should be a concerted effort to master this language, if we Sri Lankans are to benefit from this emerging power house spearheaded by Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba. Spanish is a beautiful musical language spoken with a nazal twang. A member of the Romance language group related to Italian and French. During my short stint, I could learn only four words of Spanish. Si (yes), No (no), Amigo (friend), Gracias (thank you) which I found rather adequate to survive!

Talk talk talk

What is the general demeanour of the residents of Havana? On some evenings sitting on a bench under a spreading tree, I used to watch the people slowly treading along the pavement with gay chatter; for ‘Havananians’ like to talk loud. They talk, talk and when the conversation reaches it’s the crescendo, they embrace. In the mornings from the balcony of my hostel, I saw students and office workers passing by, decently dressed. Old women slowly walking past with their baskets. Saturdays and Sundays are holidays for Havananians.

Usually they come out in their hundreds gaily dressed to spend the holiday in the town, visiting interesting places, buying this trinket and that, and eating their favourite dishes and drinking their choicest drinks at eating houses. There are certain streets where vehicles are prohibited on Saturdays. I walked along one such street on a Saturday. The street is called “Obispo street”. People wearing multi coloured dresses, thronged passed me, chattering, smiling and sometimes singing, for Cubans are great music lovers and Cuban music is world famous.

Walking along this street I made a discovery. I stumbled upon a restaurant called Floridito, which I was told was a favourite haunt of the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway spent 20 long years in Havana and used to come practically every evening for his drinking sessions. I was told that there is a special secret door in this restaurant, through which the great man was bodily carried when he consumed the strong stuff a little bit too much.