November 20th, 2017, I flew to Havana from Miami. I've spent some time in the Caribbean but never Cuba. The decedents of the native Cuban are of the same blood as the Ciboney and Taino Indians in Puerto Rico who were forced into subjugation by the Spanish Settlers. My family is a mix of the Spanish and the natives of Puerto Rico. This is where the Spanish set a precedent that would shape the foundation of slavery in the Americas, importing Africans from the Iberian peninsula. These people have been through many lives. And it is evident.
My first time in an official Communist Country. I didn't really realize until I got off the plane...Customs in comparison to flying into a European country was a joke.... I could have smuggled a brick-they basically put your bag through a cardboard box. The operators of "TSA" were schoolgirls no older than 16. I spoke to a hand outside when I was in line to exchange $. I still don't understand the exchange rate. At times it was 87% other times it was 90%. But he told me he works 60 hour week and has a set salary for 150CUC...the equivalent of $150
Cuba revealed itself to me through my own perspective and tugged my understood paradigms into submission and destruction. There is a lot of history in Cuba. Recent traumatic history, easily seen through the state of the buildings. Mansions were built in the 50s by the rich Americans to inhabit-until 1961 when the US withdrew diplomatic recognition of the Cuban government. There is no money in Cuba to tend to these mansions-and so they are premature ruins.
FOLLOW & STAY TUNED TO HEAR MORE ABOUT MY ADVENTURES IN CUBA :)
-G