Here we are. 5 days is back. Below me lie the Bahamas. Ahead of us Miami and then to the left it’s Havana. Whereas back in Uruguay, I had visited a country completely unknown to me, this time round it’s Cuba, a place I have already visited three times, and so there won’t be any “Wow, they all drive around in Ladas and American Chevrolets from 1958 or so” moments. I mean, there will be but told in a different way. And: this time round, I will also provide real-deal visual content on the Facebook page. Too bad this could not be done already back in La Paloma, when Jesus was hanging from the cross on the beach watching over Argentinian backpackers, but back to Cuba.
The first time I went to Cuba was in 1997. I was very young and perfectly not responsible for the fact that I missed my flight as I thought it was a day later than it actually was. I had to buy a new one and all the money I made at a Hamburg refugee centre was kind of gone before I actually landed in Cuba. However, after roaming around the country for a while alone I then joined the somehow socialist and somehow also antifascist delegation to the “International Festival of Youth and Students”. That was a festival that had a tradition during the Cold War in socialist countries and was certainly not about criticizing communist governments for cracking down on free speech back in the day. Like for example. It was definitely more about praising the Lord Carlos Marx and his achievements.
1997, that was a Cuba that had just brutally awoken to the fact that international socialism was a thing from the past though. Hard times, power cuts, ridiculously jam-packed public transport in improvised hangers put on trucks. No cell phones, no Internet, like in the rest of the world then, but also rather often pretty much nothing of anything, except for almost unbelievable improvisation talent and also a very infectious joy for life.
Plus, there was constant reference to certainly very relevant theories of social equality and empowerment that, however, mismatched the reality of the country. My friends and I, we’d just live through this in awe, it was like a real time machine, sitting by the Malecón (Havana’s beachfront promenade) drinking Cuba Libreevery night celebrating the hope for a better world while also hoping to get laid along the way. It was probably the last time that one could indulge in communist Cuba as it once was although even back then it was probably already really late.
As only a year later or two, a in my opinion heavily overrated German director called Wim Wenders did this movie Buena Vista Social Club. And all the vintage cars, the Ché Guevaramurals, the whole “vibe” connected to it became a global brand – from Alto Cerroto Mayarí(for those in the know) and actually much, much further beyond.
Almost 20 years later, I re-visited Cuba again on a press trip in 2016. It was the year when finally US citizens were allowed to travel to Cuba again, when the first cruise ship from the USA landed in Havana after a long time, and when one of the “Kardashians” (not that I know much about them) moved her probably plastic ass through the city bringing shitloads of US journalists with her.
A year later, “America” became great again. No connection to the Kardashians, but anyway, Cuba still hung in there, somehow. And I went to a second press trip, this time Facebook would already perfectly work, at least in hotels for tourists. But also our Cuban colleagues would already have Facebook accounts by then. Still, when for example visiting the lovely Eastern Cuban beach town of Gibara, there was a feeling how a reformed Cuba could look like in the future. While facades of this pretty colonial towns are renovated, while hotels with quite high standard open their doors for tourists, the city’s “Poor Man’s Film Festival” is still a local pride – bringing together “socially aware” low-budget films from mostly the Spanish-speaking world.
And yet another year later, it’s 2018, we are currently flying over the Bahamas, and there is another press trip to begin tomorrow, this time to the cultural heart of the country, the city of Santa Clara and to its mountains and fantastic Caribbean beaches. And 5 days is invited to take part so these are just the perfect conditions for voyage #2. Again, it is 5 days in another country that some refer to as the best country in the world, drawing among other things on the legacy of the revolution. And here we go. We will be going to where it all started with Ché Guevaraand his friends, it actually all started in Santa Clara in the late 50s. Let’s see where this trip takes us to, almost certainly to icons of world socialism, to beaches from of the Bacardi ad spot kind, to fancy rides in incredibly cool cars with funky Cubans telling stories, and finally also: to the very heart of an international press trip of some 150 journalists from around the world. In a mix of the spirit of the Olympics and the ERASMUS program every bus will hold members of different countries. This year, I am with the Germans. No clue with which nations they will be on the bus but I’ll find out very soon. The last two times, I was on the French bus as a Swiss delegate. Don’t ask why. It’s Cuba.
Vamos.