Although Cuba was indeed the trip of a lifetime, this book and this blog post have been giving me a major headache these past few weeks since coming back. I’ll get into the detailed creation of our book later on, but for now I just want to stress the fact that I already wrote this post once, and lost all of my progress due to misplacing my iPad, so for the most part I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Cuba was honestly such an amazing experience that I will never forget. I learned so much about Cuban culture and history in just 16 short days that I’m almost embarrassed to admit the fact that I’ve been there twice before, and spent over a month in total sitting on the beach, splurging on endless food and drink, clueless to the fact that Cuba has such a unique and diverse history, culture, and population of people. Heck, before going to Cuba this year with PLP I had no idea that it was a socialist country, and on top of that I’ve been walking around with a Che wallet for the past five years without a single clue of who he is and what he did. So for me it was extremely eye opening to learn about the unique history of the Cuban people, and how they fought through 500 years of oppressive foreign rule to gain independence.
In order to prepare for our trip we watched a series of 12 history documentaries called “Cuba Libre.” The documentary covered a complete timeline of Cuban history, from Spanish colonial rule, through the early independence movements of Manuel Descespatis and Hose Marti, past the Spanish-Cuba-American war, detailing the triumph of the revolution, significant events such as The Bay of Pigs and The Cuban Missile Crisis, through the Special Period in the 90’s, to modern day. The documentary provided a solid background of Cuba’s history, however, most of the learning took place on the trip, where we ultimately decided the topic for our book chapters, and spent 16 days gathering prime resource evidence and useful information.
Although we spent the last three days of our trip lounging around in an all-inclusive resort in Varradero, for the better part of the first two weeks we travelled all around the country on a tour bus, learning about Cuban history, and stopping and staying at different places. We started our journey in Havana, then went to Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara, my personal favourite, Vinales, and then back to Havana a second time to attend the 59th Annual May Day parade.
Everyday we had a full itinerary. Some days we would do walking tours to learn about the different cities, and visit well known, historically significant landmarks. Other days were reserved for going to museums or on mini day trips, while a few days here and there were planned solely for fun, or to try something new that many of us had never done before. Below are my trip journals that provide a full, detailed explanation of the trip itinerary, including what we did each day, along with some photos, thoughts and opinions.
Insert trip journals
A few of my favourite moments of the trip were underground cave exploring, swimming in the Bay of Pigs, where the CIA backed invasion took place juts over 50 years ago, horseback riding then swimming in a secluded jungle waterfall, and of coarse marching in the 59th annual May Day Parade, as well as going to see one of the soviet nuclear bunkers that was photographed during the cold war. Like I’ve said so many times before, it’s one thing to learn about history out of a textbook, but it’s a whole other to stand where history actually took place and talk to people that experienced it.
Marching in May Day, along with millions of patriotic Cubans by my side, and celebrating the triumph of the revolution, the liberation of the people, was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever done. To quote my trip journal: “ The Parade started at 7:45am, and we marched 5km alongside millions of proud Cubans towards the capital. I took many photos and videos of myself posing with enthusiastic, proud Cubans that were happy to embrace me as a part of their national holiday. I’ll never forget that experience. Once we neared the tower in Revolutionary Square the music and the chants grew louder, there were TV cameras everywhere, and of coarse Raul Castro, along side the new president of Cuba, waved to the passing crowds. I was able to get a great picture of Raul, now 87 years old and one of the last remaining revolutionaries from the Granma.” Marching in May Day was an unforgettable experience, and although Fidel took over the Cuban government in 1959, over 50 years ago, the revolution is still in its 59th year as an active movement in Cuba, and I feel extremely proud to have been a part of that, to have been a part of celebrating Cuba’s unique history, and the liberation of the people.
On top of marching in May Day, going to see the Soviet nuclear facility, Photographed by US spy planes during the Cuban missile crisis, was one of the most cool and fascinating things that I’ve ever done. I never in a million years would have imagined that I would be able to go there and literally stand where the world almost came to an end. On my day 10 trip journal, under the heading of ‘What I Most Remember’ I wrote: “Going to the Cuban missile crisis bunker, and learning the significance behind it. When I was there it honestly didn’t feel real. It’s not a tourist attraction and the average Cuban has no idea it even exists. The only way our tour guide was even able to find it was by tracking the gps coordinates of the spy plane images that dated back to the Cold War, and the pinochle of the Cuban missile crisis. We had to silently trek almost three kilometres through private property and rough jungle terrain, with the risk of the cops being called on us at anytime, to make it there, but it was absolutely worth it and I would go back and do it again.” Looking back and thinking about it, this is what I will remember about high school 5, 10 or even 20 years from now. I will remember that experience for the rest of my life, and in many ways it has somewhat inspired me to want to travel, see what else it out there, meet new people, and experience other cultures from around the world.
In each place we went we would stay with a local Cuban family. At first I was nervous to interact with them, but by the end of the trip it was like second nature to walk in after a long day and tell them about everything we did in a mixed combo of extremely broken Spanish and English. Every place that we went, including the Casa in Trinidad where we broke a glass cup, the shower curtain and the toilet seat, the Cuban people were extremely hospitable, and welcomed us into their homes with open arms.
Although Cuba was technically a History 12 trip, we spent a great deal of time talking and learning about Cuban culture, religion, everyday life, and the functions of a socialist society. In Cuba, government workers only make around $30 – $60 a month, enough to buy around 8 eggs a day. To many that doesn’t seem like much, but a major advantage to living in a socialist society is that the Cuban people are provided with a generous food ration every two weeks from the government, so they avoid the regular, costly price of buying groceries. Cuban people also enjoy the luxury of universal education, universal health care, and guaranteed housing.
However, in Cuba it’s extremely hard to buy anything that’s imported and isn’t necessarily considered a necessity of life. For example, it costs a Cuban over $200,000 to buy at least a 5 year old used car when they make less than $2 a day, that’s why Cuba has so many old American cars from the 50’s, and cars from the soviet union. In one instance, I remember getting into an old soviet car that had been converted to a cab. The driver, along with two of his buddies, had to push start the car, then once going I looked at the odometer and it read over 600,000 kilometers.
Also, in Cuba there’s no competition as everything is government run. The only private business one may own and operate is either a casa or a restaurant out of their own house. Everything else is owned and run by the government. For example, if you walk into a super market every single type of soda or soft drink is produced by one brand, as there’s zero brand diversity when it comes to consumer selection.
Furthermore, in Cuba, support for the revolution is still extremely prevalent, as murals of Che, Fidel and the July 19th movement, along with patriotic slogans litter the street of any small town or Cuban city. Today, the revolution is in its 57th year as an active movement in Cuba, and millions continue to litter the streets each year on the first of may to showcase their support for the triumph of the revolution, and the liberation of the people. You can hardly walk half a block without stumbling into a souvenir shop, over flowing with Che products, Cuban flags, and revolutionary slogans printed onto 
clothing. However, Although Cubans themselves support and promote the ideals of the revolution, instilled by Che, Fidel, and the government system of socialism, tourists now come to Cuba specifically looking to buy these products without any prior knowledge of the history and significance behind the triumph of the revolution, or the symbolism of Che’s face. I myself am a prime example of this in how I bought a wallet in Cuba five years ago, with the face of Che on it, and only just now figured out who Che was, and what he represents to the Cuban people. Inspired by this, for our chapter Zak and I decided to write about the change and continuity of revolutionary propaganda overtime, and how it’s no longer necessarily used to evoke patriotic feelings in support of the revolution, but more so manipulated to make a profit.
Insert completed product of book
While in Cuba, I had a lot of fun collecting information, photos, videos, and conducting interviews for our topic. In that aspect Zak and I worked great together as a team. We got a few really great interview clips with both of our tour guides, Alistair and Raico, and we conducted a lot of on the spot talking clips that work really well in our chapter. However, where we more so fell apart was when it came time to put our chapter together.
Once we got to Varradero, we had changed our topic several times up to that point before finally sort of nailing down what we wanted to do for our chapter. Once we decided on a topic, with the information fresh in mind, I decided to start typing, and completed the first draft of our chapter in less than three hours. Our first draft was just over 5 pages long, and after receiving critique we were told to narrow it down to be more specific. Since Zak was asleep when I went to get critique for the chapter, him and I both decided that it would work better if I did all the writing and he formatted and organized all the media. By doing it that way we avoided conflicting styles and messages in our writing, and better utilized our individual strengths, because, lets face it, Zak is a lot more creative and talented than I am when It comes to putting together videos and edits. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we got back…
After getting back we met up to discuss the finer details of our book. We decided on the format, the style and size of the font, whether we want titles or not, how the media should look, and whether or not the pages should have back grounds. The whole point of the meeting was to ensure that all the chapters would have continuity and flow smoothly together. However, since I had already put together the writing part for our chapter, I had been spending my class time playing with the book editing features, and putting together a rough draft of the book, so by the time we met up to discuss the details of the book I already had a near completed draft.
The original rough draft that I put together myself is below.
Insert book rough draft
I was proud of our chapter because I thought it looked really good, and I guess part of it was also because I had done all the work. However, everyone had already made an executive decision, without my knowledge, that we weren’t having backgrounds, all the fonts would be different, we’d be adding titles, and that I would have to completely change my chapter. I had no say in the matter, even though I genuinely believed my version of the chapter was far more aesthetically pleasing. However, due to the fact that Zak hadn’t done much up to that point and he was so ready to conform to the group and completely change our chapter, I left him to do the remainder of the work. I was fed up, and I still feel as though I was justified to do so. All Zak had to do was put together a video, crop some interview clips, and add in a few photos, and still, the Friday before the end of school, I’m waiting on him to complete the work (sigh).
Further problems that we encountered throughout the creation process were not being able to get three quarters of the media of my camera, and not having current ios updates to be able to book share. Also, following the original meeting in class, we never met up to discuss a particular finishing date, and who will be putting together all the chapters to complete the final draft of the book. At this point I’m not confident how it will turn out, but I’m hoping and praying for the best.
If you’re still here after all of that I just want to say lol I tricked you by saying it would be short and sweet, and secondly, thank you for reading!