The World and I : Cuba Post #1, The Bibliographic Tour, February 2013: Havana and Matanzas

In February of 2013, I took advantage of easing travel restrictions for travel to Cuba, a nation long off-limits to U.S. citizens.

The trip, though brief (eight days counting our arrival and departure days), was abundantly rewarding for our 16-member entourage. United States citizens all, we hailed from such dispersed states as Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Hawaii. The tour, arranged by Toronto-based Authentic Cuba Tours, was targeted at bibliophiles. Over half of us were librarians, and the balance was educators and academics.

What follows is a largely photographic essay of those days, with emphasis given to its bibliographic aspects. Over the coming days I will add a large number of photos documenting my Cuba experience under the following headlines: 1) First Day, 2) Old Havana and the Havana International Book Fair, 3) Metanzas and Ediciones Vigia, 4) Casa de las Americas, National Literacy Museum, and the Cuban National Library, 5) Cienfuegos and the Cienfuegos Provincial Library, 6) Trinidad and Evening Theatre, 7) Last full day in Cuba, and 8) Departure.

If you have arrived here via the hyperlink found at the end of my International Leads article, please note that this blog has no direct ties to ALA's International Relations Roundtable (IRRT). The views expressed here are simply my own.

Remember that any of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on the photo. The one exception is the Che billboard.

FIRST DAY

From I Love Lucy’s Ricky Ricardo to Fidel Castro, from the love-struck rhythms of Cuban Bolero music to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba has long fascinated me. Perhaps that’s why the sign at Miami International Airport made me feel like a six-year old on a Christmas morning.

My first clear view of the Cuban landscape. Cuba's north coast, seen barely 40 minutes after leaving Miami International Airport.

After clearing customs we stepped out into the city of Havana, and a billboard in tribute to Che Guevara was one of the first things we saw. The sign says, "We see you each day, pure like a child, or pure like a pure man. Che, Commander Friend." We would see many signs honoring Che, but few if any honoring Castro. Not that Castro isn't honored, but Che is dead. In a Cuban cultural context, we were told, bestowing great honor and affection upon the dead is accepted and encouraged. Less so for the living. Castro will have to wait.

The 50-plus year U.S. trade embargo against Cuba has helped to create an exceptionally adaptable and versatile --though at times stoic -- people. No U.S. cars have been imported into Cuba since 1960, so any U.S. car seen there is an antigue. Cubans do their best to keep them up, though it is a challenge. Though they may look good, they break down constantly, we were told. This does not mean that new cars aren't seen in Cuba. Contemporary Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, and European vehicles are a common sight.

That's me below sitting in a Chevy Bel Air. Not sure about the year. 1953? The taxi driver was kind enough to take this photo. On this day, I had gotten accidentally separated from my tour group in Old Havana, ended up taking a cab back to the Hotel Nacional, where I was able to get in touch with the tour guide via phone, at which point I took a taxi to the restaurant where we were lunching. I actually enjoy little (mis)adventures like that. I got to practice my Spanish with two different taxi drivers, and got to know Havana a little better. I loved Havana.

That's me in Havana's Revolution Plaza behind an image of Che. At night Che "goes electric". I remember seeing photos and film images of Revolution Plaza as a child, and had gotten the impression it was bigger than it really is. It is surprisingly small when actually seen, kind of like a Wal-Mart parking lot without the cars. It was a windy and cold day -- again, by Caribbean standards -- but most of the year Cuba is known for being very hot and humid. Further below is an image of Camilo Cienfuegos, another compadre of Fidel. He was killed in a plane crash off the north coast of Cuba, while Che was killed formenting revolution in Bolivia. Camilo also "goes electric" at night.

This billboard on the margins of Revolution Plaza says, "54 Years of struggle and victory." The right image is of Castro, the other of Cienfuegos. I don't recall seeing a single billboard during my 8 days in Cuba urging me to buy something. I found that rather refreshing.

The image below is of the legendary Hotel Nacional de Cuba, playground of Mafiosos and Hollywood celebrities in pre-Castro days. We stayed here a total of five nights. Like Cuba in general, Hotel Nacional had an appealing time capsule quality.

Looking northeast at the Havana malecón. Malecón is a Spanish word that refers to a paved public walkway by a lake or ocean. A favorite pastime in many waterfront Latin American cities is walking along the local malecón.

SECOND DAY

HAVANA INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR

A banner at the Havana International Book Fair. "Leer es crecer" means, "To read is to grow."

Each year the Havana International Book Fair honors a nation. In 2013 it was the African country of Angola. That's the Angolan flag to the left, the Cuban flag to the right. In 2014 the honored nation will be Ecuador.

In the 1970s and 1980s Angola fought a war for independence from Portugal, followed by a civil war, with one faction backed by then-apartheid South Africa and the other backed by the U.S.S.R. Cuban forces and material assisted the U.S.S.R.-backed faction.

From top to bottom the sign says, "Tent, Children's Literature....stories, adventures, comics."

A comic book that tells the story of the Cuban Revolution. The image to the right of Castro's head is Jose Marti, generally considered the father of the Cuban independence movement.

The National Library of Argentina's booth.

Below: The booth of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Further below: Two children wear recycleable materials as they dance.

In the children's area.

Shadows grew longer as the afternoon progressed.

The Havana skyline as seen from the grounds of the Spanish fortress.

In the first video clip below I'm holding the camera as I walk into a meeting room. The second is of the Canal de Entrada and Havana skyline as seen from the old Spanish fort.

SECOND DAY

OLD HAVANA

Old Havana -- the original Colonial Period Havana -- had fallen into a state of advanced deterioration. Nowadays, however, one rehab zone after another seems to be the rule. Well, not quite. I made a point of wandering away from my tour group and walking deeper into Old Havana, and as I did it got more decrepit and run down looking, until I decided it was time to turn back. When I returned to the restaurant/tavern (which by the way had been one of Hemingway's favorite haunts back in the 1930s), my group was gone. So I had a drink.

Cuba uses a color-coded system on its licenses, a system borrowed from the former Soviet Union.

Our guide Eric, in the red cap, explaining...something (I forget what exactly now). Three of my favorite people on the tour are here. To the left, Delores, from New Orleans; Mary, in the center with the red hair and white top, from Idaho, and Darnella, to the right, with the blue, red, and white shirt, from Arizona. Delores, a retired college professor from New Orleans, was such an interesting person to talk to. I could have asked her to marry me, or adopt me.

This street has just about been rehabiliated/reconstructed.

The tall, elegant building above is known as Camera Obscura. For two CUCs (Cuban Convertible Currency), you can go to the top and take in a spectacular view of Havana.

This is the Plaza de la Catedral, home of Havana's baroque-style Cathedral, constructed by Jesuits in the mid-1770s.

A closer view of the Cathedral.

C.D.R. stands for Committee in Defense of the Revolution, and this is one of its neighborhood stations near the Plaza de la Catedral.

Inside the Cathedral.

The first two video clips below are of the plaza in front of the cathedral, while the third is of the Bodeguita del Medio, once a favorite hangout of Ernest Hemingway.

The two video clips below I took while I was being delivered back to my tour group in the Chevy Bel Air I was pictured in earlier. We are driving along the waterfront, though you don't see any water, and the malecon is to my left.

THIRD DAY

EDICIONES VIAGIA

CITY OF MATANZAS

Enroute to the northern coastal city of Matanzas, we stretched our legs at the rest stop to the upper left. With a little imagination I could almost convince myself I was at a U.S. rest stop. Above right is a photo of the Cuban landscape taken from the rest stop. The photos below are of workers producing one of Ediciones Vigia's limited-edition (200 copy) book runs, with a photo of a finished work further below.