Chronicles of On The Road Travel: Cuba’s Tourism Apartheid and Huevo Cartoons

Cuba’s Tourism Apartheid and Huevo Cartoons

This article ‘Tourism apartheid in Cuba’ in Salon.com’s February ’02 publication talks of one of the biggest ironies in the Castro regime and resonates during a time when the world’s eyes are on Cuba and the imminent end of this leader’s rule due to his poor health.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba found itself in financial trouble with subsidies no longer flowing from its ally. Castro then had to find other sources of revenue, which he discovered in tourism. Hotels and resort development became prominent and tourists flooded the island in search of its beautiful beaches and for a taste of Cuba.

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What they got was a watered down version – they had access to the beaches but no regular Cubans were there to make them feel they were in a different culture. Tourists were among each other and a few servants who were ‘allowed’ in the resorts to serve tourists. Interactions with tourists had been prohibited and were closely guarded by police, and civilians are still not permitted inside these hotels that have been built on their own soil. Is this really 2006 we’re talking about?!

This retrograde thinking, which Castro explains as an ‘economic necessity’ is being referred to as ‘tourism apartheid’ with due reason, recalling the type of injustice that befell the black population of South Africa for many years. The idea here is to segregate tourists from Cuban society, capitalism from communism; the irony being that Castro had to concede to the benefits of the first in order to carry on with the charade of the second. It is no surprise that the world, Cubans especially, are waiting with hopes of change for what’s to come, many hopeful that no one but Fidel himself can carry on his legacy.

To end on a lighter note I wanted to share this Huevo Cartoon, a series of video cartoons that have become immensely popular in Latin America. They are generally a social commentary about the culture, starting from a group of Mexican friends who get wasted on tequila and brandy while trying to film a number of TV shows and this one is a set of 3 videos about Cubans. One of my favourites is this one about two Cuban friends (represented by two eggs) who are sitting at the beach in Cuba contemplating if they could swim across to Miami. It refers to the countless people that have fled their country, some successfully, some not, in hopes of escaping the oppressive regime they live in. The cartoon also refers to the creativity, spontaneity and liveliness of Cubans. The dialogue goes like this, for the non-Spanish speakers: ‘Hey chico, think we can swim across to Miami?’ ‘It depends’, says #2. ‘Depends on what?’ ‘On how far it is.’ The two friends then get sidetracked into singing a song about ‘It depends on how far it is.’ which they sing with so much joy and feeling, their original intentions completely forgotten either due to laziness or a realization of its futility. The beauty of the cartoon is in how much Cuban flavour is in the way they spontaneously break into song, their intonations, the words they throw in (‘azúcar!’) that are so typical of the Cuban ‘son’.

Maybe if the two huevos keep on singing they will see a day where they don’t have to wonder how far it is to escape and they will be allowed to vacation in their own resorts.

This article was posted by Veronica Montero.

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Comments

Your article sums up well what makes renting a vacation rental so great. The need to be "the traveler and the vacation host" apart, the experience of going to the local bakery or café is unique, especially is shared with family and friends.

Posted by: Istanbul Flights | December 20, 2010 at 05:38 PM