Weekend Reflections

Spent the weekend celebrating Alan’s 56th birthday. On Sabado, we hooked up with his good amigo, Hector Delgado, an outstanding photographer. Hector drove us into downtown Havana where we spent the afternoon walking through the streets, seeing all the sites, including the Revolucion Museum, the old Catholic churches built by the Spanish colonizers in the 1500’s – incredible structures rich in history, stone paved streets, mucho plazas, many with signs or banners announcing the 50th anniversary of la revolucion or simple “revolucion siempre”. There were large posters of Fidel all over, carrying the insignia of one of the companies helping to sponsor the celebration – which is one clear sign of change in 50 years. Street vendors are hawking revolucion stuff all around. We go by the revolucion museo, which has tanks, missiles and the Granma boat on which Fidel and others sailed into Cuba from Mexico back in 1959. In a plaza near the Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi, there are booksellers with a vast array of old and new works covering a plethora of topics – architecture, history, food, arts, culture, geography, cartoons, travel – you name it, they have it. All purchases can be bargained and Alan buys a book on the revolucion that he has been seeking for years.

We have lunch at a restaurant that features musicians playing everything from pop to flamenco dancing. Stilt walkers go by outside, dressed in colorful outfits with drummers leading the way.
Food is good and very reasonable. The local currency is CUC, good only in Cuba. At this time, $100 Canadian money, which I brought with me, gets $71.75 in CUC. Us dollar gets even less.

After plenty of walking and looking and seeing, we return to Hector’s car which is right across from the Capitol building, which is larger than the one in DC. Then off the Hector’s apartment which is just 4 blocks from where we are staying. I meet his wife, Merta, son Gabbi and Merta’s papa, who is 94. We spend the evening there, having arroz con pollo and flan. We engage in conversation, with Alan bridging as my espanol is still out to lunch and Hector speaks minimal English. It is a good evening and good end to a long day. By the time we get to our living space, Alan is cincuenta y seis anos y uno dia.

On Domingo, Febrero 1, we go to see Victor Fowler, the authority on Cuban film who is teaching as course for the NU program at Casa. He and Alan are good friends and I meet his esposa, hija y hijo. We spend time there looking at clips of old Cuban films pre la revolucion. Interesting images, particularly of who was and was not included. We then head to Alan’s Tia Gloria and her family. They are very happy to see him and we stay in to the evening, with dinner of parvo, salad, moros y christianos (black beans and rice), and finished with a delicious cake. Around Nuevo, they drop is back at the President Hotel, 4 blocks from our residence, where Alan meets with Ariana Hall of CUBA/NOLA, an organization she started that specializes in activities and endeavors linking Cuba and New Orleans.

As we head back to our residence, Alan tells me that tomorrow, lunes, we will go to Casa in the morning for the opening of Premio Literario Casa de Las Americas, where those selected as jurors will be presented. It will be a big time thing with many of the greatest scholars, journalists, artists, writers, and poets of Latin American present. I tell him that is exciting and that I also will begin carving out 3-4 hours per day to work on my espanol and to get my sax chops back up. What an exciting and interesting premiero quatro dias en Havana.