Inside Cuba

In 1998, during my first few months in Cuba, I went to Havana´s vast Revolution Square – along with hundreds of thousands of Cubans, foreign visitors and press – to witness the arrival of the frail, but very popular, then- Pope, John Paul 11.
14 years on, this morning los Habaneros again took to the streets to welcome the present Pope – Benedict XVI. Officially, the Holy See is here to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the patroness saint of Cuba – the Virgin of Charity (Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre). The minute gold statue of this Virgin was recently taken on a whistle-stop, province-to-province tour of the island and attracted thousands of devoted followers.
My lovely neighbours, Juan and Ana (of the famous food boxes), are clearly very happy that Pope Benedict is here, but Ana decided she would neither go to the Square, nor to the end of the road to see him – no importa that the Popemobile passed only three blocks away from her house!
But ´´Nonononono´´, she said, ´´I´m taping the whole thing and will sit down, after supper, after a shower, and watch it in peace and quiet. Do you want to come over?´´

Sue Herrod

When I first moved into this barrio – about 7 years ago now – it was slow going. I was the new extrañjera (foreigner) on the block and people needed time to check me out, understand what I was doing here; begin to trust me enough to invite me into their homes.
There were two people, however, who didn’t bother with formalities. I passed by their house every day on my way to, and from, work, shopping or a night out – and from the very beginning they were simply lovely – pan de amores, as they say here.
Juan and Ana are people that brighten up my day, and remind me that although there may be some truth in the notion that … ´´A good neighbor is a person who smiles at you over the back fence, but doesn’t climb over it´´… that it’s also good to reflect on George Bernard Shaw´s observation, that…
´´Independence… is a middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth´´.

Apart from being great neighbours, Juan and Ana also make the best cajitas (lunch boxes) in the Havana. For 30 pesos in local money (around one gb pound) you can eat the most delicious shredded pork (no fat, I promise), rice/peas and cooked banana. Extras include tamales (ground spiced corn cooked in their own leaves), fruit salad and juices. You´ll find them on Calle 4 e/13 y 15, Vedado; 11am – 3pm (or whenever they sell out). This is a do-not-miss street lunch, and a chance to meet two very sweet and genuine Habaneros.

Sue Herrod

What are your most dearly-held values and beliefs is not a topic that necessarily crops up a lot in normal, every-day conversations. In some cultures it might be seen as impertinent to ask; an inappropriate question, even a disrespectful invasion of privacy. But here in Cuba it’s a meaty matter, greatly valued, and so batted back and forth in conversation with great regularity. It was, then, the first question I asked my friend – 32 year old, film-editor – Joana, when we met last week.
A maths graduate, she moved into film and is now known as one of Havana´s very best, young, creative movers and shakers. It was, she says, the challenge that hooked her; the process of editing; choosing the right path in a maze of crossroads; like putting together a puzzle of an unknown size. She vividly remembers her mother taking her to the cinema when she was a child, and that although she wasn’t old enough to really grasp the meaning (or mysteries, she says) of the big screen, it was when and where her passion began.
´´Since then, it’s also been my main way to deal with hard, even desperate situations; as a key, too – a way in which to understand the world around me¨.
Her aim (media-romantica, she says!) is to be part of creating cinema that’s stimulating, meaningful, thoughtful and passionate – for tomorrow´s children; ´´…a solace of other-worlds and dreams´´, like the ones she discovered as a child.
But back to values and beliefs. Intelligence, integrity, loyalty, decency and honesty are her most cherished ones, she says. ´´Oh, and desinterés´´. This word (and its opposite, interés) is used a great deal here and both are very useful words to know. There´s said to be interés if someone is doing something just for personal gain; like people hanging around tourists just for money or other favours, for instance. Disinterés is the opposite, and it’s a big compliment to give to someone who is simply doing the right thing; such as voluntarily helping a stranger, visitor, or someone who has more options or possibilities than themselves.
Joana is one of those young Cubans, then: intelligent, loyal, decent and honest. Oh, and without interés.

The ancient art of paper folding – more commonly associated with Japan – was invented in China around 100AD. This intricate craft became a part of Japanese culture when paper was carried into the county, in the C6th,, and has developed into what has become a world movement – Origami. Samurai warriors exchanged good luck tokens made of folded paper strips, and lovers sent billet doux´s – shapes representing the message, and colours signifying the true emotions of the author. It’s all about detail and patience, and it’s a meticulous, quiet and solitary affair. So it’s not necessarily what you expect to find in the hot, hustle and bustle of the Caribbean; in a small back street in Cuba´s poorer, Centro Habana district.
But there he is – 14, long and lanky, among his swans and pandas, birds and boxes – making me a tiny, delicate red rose, and working out how to make its stem from a Cuban one peso bill (around 5 cents). He patiently attempts four – looking for a way to make the stem longer, and more delicate – before, laughingly, commenting that 4 Cuban pesos can buy me 4 bread rolls, so, ya, that’s enough!
Álvaro himself started young. At 4 he learned to make small boats at school and has never stopped. But it was when he was 13 – housebound, with a broken arm in plaster – that the real frenzy began. Someone downloaded Origami patterns for him and off he went. Since then almost every moment of his free time has been spent folding. Even on school days he devotes a minimum of one and a half hours just to practise. If not, he explains, you can very easily forget. So what does he want to do later on? Science, architecture, design? No, Origami! His life plan is to make more and more intricate designs; to just keep on doing it. It’s the passion thing.
(Esencia is planning to present each of their clients with a small bag of home-made craftwork at the end of their holiday in Cuba. If you´re lucky, yours will include one of Alvaro´s little gems).

Sue Herrod

I have known this lovely, gentle woman and her family for more than 10 years now. During that time she has made, mended, repaired and patched up most of my clothes – even when she sometimes thought I should throw some of them away. Not a very demonstrative woman (by Cuban standards) I was, therefore, extremely touched when, on telling her how special I thought she was, she answered, smiling: ´Love is the thread that binds us´.
So this blog is dedicated to my dear friend, Nelvis. Born in 1923 , in the poor, eastern province of Guantanamo, she studied in the mornings and, in the afternoons, helped out in the house and in the family finca. In 1960 she married and moved to Havana with her military husband. They have four children and four grandchildren, and seven of them still live together – three generations – in the same family house.
Buttons and patches and the cold wind blowing,
The days pass quickly when I am sewing.

Or, as I think she would prefer to say:

I’d rather be stitchin’
than in the kitchen!

Sue Herrod

Every year, Cuban architect Julio César Pérez organises a brainstorming session on Havana’s architecture and the city’s urban plan. This year’s session, the Havana Charette (held 19th-25th of February) focussed on the residential district of Centro and its seafront border.
In recent years, Centro has been given a drubbing by tourist guidebooks. Many of them warn tourists from venturing into Centro as if it was a lawless commune. No, there aren’t many street lights and no, there aren’t any major sites, but just because people live on their doorsteps and dance, chat and play football in the streets, doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.
I love Centro Havana — it’s dirty, raw, crowded and full of characters and bizarre attractions. Last summer, when I lived in a private house there for six weeks, there was a garbage collection holdup, and the streets stank of rotting meat and mangos. As Pérez has said, Centro is so densely populated that it exists in a microclimate that is 1.5 degrees centigrade hotter than the rest of the city. I definitely felt and oozed that amid the putrefying waste.
Pérez leads the week-long charette every year with architects and other interested parties who focus on the idea of a ‘Master Plan for 21st-century Havana.” While it’s not an official document, it’s supported by official Cuban bodies including the Architects Union, University of Havana and the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana. Their laudable ideas have included introducing a light railway to the city’s streets and putting more green space into dense city blocks.
Pérez is also the author of Inside Havana, published by Taschen. The book’s strength is its photographic portraits and architecture anecdotes of the homes of ordinary Cubans. Images of the main museums in Havana, like the Palace of the Captains General, are widely circulated but the decay and decrepitude of Cubans’ kitchens and homes are writ large in the images. There’s a moving study of wall clocks, like a Dutch still life, in the Centro home of Leonardo Cano Morena, and the artistic mess of paint and brush in his studio captures the lived-in look rather than the lifeless museum shot. Most compelling is the interior of the Casa Mendoza, a handsome pile that dominates a street corner on Paseo in Vedado. It’s currently the home of the British Ambassador and the photographs provide the perfect Through-the-Key-hole snapshot of how the other half lived and lives. Pérez writes: “In 1918, Cuban architect Leonardo Morales and US architect John H. Duncan added a pavilion for a Roman-style pool: a statue of Aphrodite is surrounded by classical columns and wooden screens and the highly refined wooden trusses and skylight above her make this space reminiscent of a Pompeian impluvium.” Indeed, it does.
Pérez’ book is an unwitting guide to the best diplomats’ homes in Havana and a hymn to Havana’s destroyed furniture and walls.

Inside Havana, published by Taschen (www.taschen.com). Text by Julio César Pérez. Photos by Gianni Basso/Vega MG
The charette: http://www.intbau.org/urbanism-a-architecture/224-cubacharrette2012.html
A report of last year’s charette: www.johnpilling.net/2011-havana-urban-design-charette/summary_files/2011-havana-urban-design-charrette.pdf

Exuberant, warm, witty and lyrical, Polito Ibanez is one of the most respected and loved singer-songwriters in Cuba. He came out of the movement known as Nueva Trova and although now in his early 40’s – and so not of the latest generation of Trova singers – he is still greatly admired, much respected, and with a devoted following of both older and younger fans. He is known here more as a ‘thinking persons’ musician – for the sensibility and profundity of his lyrics, and for the often surprising musical progressions and styles he uses and fuses. With influences ranging from Bolero, Jazz, Pop, Rock and more traditional Cuban forms, Polito’s repertoire is full of gems and his voice (particularly lovely) and manner (playful, accessible, affectionate) will have you very quickly hooked. A feel good experience, catch him if he’s crooning whilst you’re here.

1. To find interesting books to read at Plaza de Armas or the Annual Book Fair at La Cabana.

2. To listen to Latin Jazz. The Jazz Cafe, by Paseo and Malecon, is a favourite.

3. To walk around Old Havana first thing in the morning, the quality of light makes everything look amazing.

4. To visit the art galleries and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Old Havana.

5. To walk along the malecon. It’s always lively, no matter what time of the day or night.

6. To go to the beach. The absolute best one is in Cayo Ensenachos, a cay North of Santa Clara.

7. To visit “El Mejunje” in Santa Clara, one of the best cultural centres in Cuba. Thursday nights are a must!

8. Good food: Los Nardos, La Guarida, fresh sea food in Jaimanitas.

9. To explore the island. Santiago de Cuba has some amazing ceramists and sculptors workshops.

10. To watch the boats go by, while having a drink at one of the bars that jet out into the sea, at the harbour in Old Havana.

Cuba has many eye-watering, moving moments. Most, happily, are the result of normal, everyday positive goings-on – others a little less so. But this one was a cracker. Locals hung out of windows and children stared uninhibitedly at the group of people who had closed their Central Havana street for the morning. Strangely dressed, and with instruments even more extraordinary, the group gathered and began. A young man blew into what looked like a recorder or oboe. A velvet bag – somehow attached – filled up with air and out came the sound; a long, high, expressive, wailing note. A few tourists were passing and they, too, stared, open-eyed, at this spectacle. Celtic pipes in Cuba, played by Cubans? What was going on?
Before anyone could answer Riverdance-like dancers appeared – arms raised, bodies twirling, feet and toes pointing here and there. The mainly Cuban crowd were unable to contain themselves; clapping and dancing – laughing at the intricate, unfamiliar movements. This wonderful morning ended with an open invitation to try out the pipes, drums and dances. The results were side-splittingly funny; an older Cuban pretending to pass out with the effort of blowing so hard, and a young boy falling flat on his bottom having tried to twirl when he should have been pointy toe-ing.
ESPRITÚ CELTA (Celtic Spirit) is a project that is dedicated to keeping the tradition of Celtic music in Cuba alive and kicking. It may look like something completely foreign and outside of the culture but read up a little and you´ll find that many Cuban people of Spanish descent (Fidel included) have their origins in Galicia, and that this region has a long and rich pipe tradition. The great Galician piper and teacher, Eduardo Lorenzo Durán (´´El última gaitero´´), lived and died here, in Cuba, and was a grand part of transmitting the tradition. Espiritú Celta came out of what is now an annual event here – the International Festival of Celtic Music and Culture – and these young people are passionate. There are various pipe bands here (bandas de gaitas) and they also offer classes for children, teaching them the beautiful songs, dances and instruments of the Celtic diaspora. Forget salsa, these kids prefer to whirl and twirl!
Join us in April for the next Celtic Festival in Havana.
Contact Espiritu Celta: espiritú.celta@hotmail.com Tel. 00537 47 424387 (Byron).
SH

The typical resting heart rate in adults is between 60 and 90 beats per minute. So it might be nice, once in Havana and on your holiday, and having decided to spend the evening listening to some music, if you and your body were in sync; that´s to say that you, your resting heart and the melody were in tune? Best then, to choose something adagio. For those of you who missed out on childhood music lessons, adagio is an Italian term which means you have to play slowly and calmly; at ease. There you are, then. A gentle adagio – coming in at a very relaxed 60-80 bpm – harmoniously matches your resting heart beats a treat.
If you haven´t got your blood pressure equipment with you, though, there’s another way. You can get pretty much the same effect by visiting the new, rather swish and peaceful bar of the same name.
ADAGIO is opposite Parque Central and belongs to the Grand Teatro – home to the very fine Cuban National Ballet Company. It’s a complete surprise, but a very pleasant one, and it’s no exaggeration to say we´ve been waiting for something like this for years. After a night at the ballet, or on the way back from Old Havana, you pass through Parque Central – which divides Central and Old Havana – often dying for a coffee, a cuppa or a stiff drink. But before, all you found were loads of expensive hotels or a few rather seedy cafés. But – hooray – not now.
I recommend this little haven. The lounge seats are soft and comfy and the décor tasteful and restful; blown up photos of dancers legs in their pink, silky ballet shoes are, attractively and humorously, everywhere. Furthermore, the staff are friendly and efficient, toilets are clean and the menu is extremely reasonable. Two teas and two tapas (five delicious chicken chunks in a soy, raisin and honey sauce; palma ham with a garlicky tomato sauce on small toasts) cost only 6 cucs (about 4 pounds). Right in the centre of town, you can´t beat it. Catch it now – whilst it’s new and still a prima donna.

ADAGIO: Gran Teatro (next to Hotel Inglaterra), Parque Central, Havana