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The trade and economic embargo held against Cuba by the USA has lasted for some decades now. America has prohibited American companies and their subsidiaries trading with Cuban entities and prohibited its citizens from spending money in Cuba. (That’s right - I’ve always thought that US citizens were prohibited from visiting Cuba - however the various pieces of legislation that piece together the embargo actually only make it a crime to SPEND money in Cuba. SO for all those Americans aching for some April sun in Cuba I guess you just need to find a philanthropic friend to pay your WHOLE way.) As a result I naively thought that this may mean that American culture may be less prevalent in this tropical island nation. Disappointingly, as I jumped into the cab at the airport bound for La Habana the first song on the radio was not some great piece by the Buena Vista Social Club (I guess they are still touring Guatemala) but the great American ditty “Hotel California” by the Eagles. It was followed by Toni Braxton’s “Un-break My Heart” - a stirring melody that provided a great soundtrack as I viewed for the first time the crumbling streets of Havana.

Che is the New Coke

Patrick Gatland
2006-08-21 14:41:45

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soon as you enter off the street. Each queue is for a different section of the building. However in a stroke of socialist-marketing genius each section only has certain flavours of ice creams available on each day. Which means that one level may have chocolate, choc-mint, banana and coffee while another (as was the case when we visited) may only
In Revolution Square. Che's face adorns the foreign ministry building. Lucky them.have pineapple. So after choosing lines carefully you spend the next 30 - 45 minutes being ushered through the grounds of the store by numerous security guards who try to pick tourist from the line and direct them towards the overpriced ice cream store for foreigners. You see, the thing about Cuba is that there are two currencies: National Pesos - 25 National Pesos equal around one Euro, and Convertible Pesos - 1 Convertible Peso equals 1 euro. Most things are in Convertibles but if something is in Nationals it means it’s really cheap. And the ice cream at Coppelia is 7.5 National Pesos (around 25 cents) for 5 scoops! That being said I promptly joined all the other Cubans and ate 10 scoops of great ice cream and thanked Fidel for the Revolution.

That night we headed out to actually SEE a Reggaeton concert. At the club Pia broke it down and beat all the Cuban girls in a dancing competition. I’d swear she won because she was the only girl in the dance floor that wasn’t dressed like a total tramp but others claim it’s just ‘cause she’s blonde. Either way her victory wasn’t the most mysterious we had a standup comedian for an hour as well as a guy who provided commentary on everyone’s dancing. As people were getting their groove on this fat and seedy looking Cuban would blurt into a microphone what he thought of the way you were dancing, what you were wearing or what you or anyone else on the dance floor looked like. Coupled with this was the fact that whenever he spoke about a girl on the floor (all of whom looked to be 15 years old) he would start to stroke his crotch. NICE!

“So what of Fidel, Che and the Revolution” I hear you ask. I must admit that it is hard to say. Clearly some things are a lot better in Cuba than in nearby Central America (i.e. you don’t see the abject poverty that you do in Guatemala or Honduras) but there is something chilling about the all pervasive bureaucracy, the 4 page national newspapers with only fluff for articles and the constant reminders from Fidel that “we’re going well” or that the revolution is still continuing. Honestly,
how long can you revolve until you are back where you started from?

And as for Che - he is everywhere. Everywhere you turn you see him staring off into the distance. But his image appears so often and in so many forms that it’s just like all the ads for useless products on the side of the road which we usually block out of our minds as soon as we have passed them. He’s on belts, shirts, posters, beer mugs and more. Any souvenir you wish for has the bearded revolutionary sullenly glaring back at you. If its true as they say - that the memory of Che lives on - then it’s really only in the chime of the cash registers of the tourist shops that line the beautiful but decrepit streets of Old Havana.