Tourism 20
Will Havana Prosper?
Will Havana Prosper?
By Iroel Sánchez
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
March 21, 2017
Some time ago I published some questions about Havana:
“Is it a coincidence that places like Parque Lenin or Coppelia [ice-cream parlor in Vedado], symbols of the democratization of recreation and the access of the majority to refinement –opened by the collective project of the Revolution– languish between bad service and structural deterioration, while the idea that the good and the beautiful are the exclusive patrimony of the pre-revolutionary past? Why is the Latin American Stadium increasingly called the “Estadium del Cerro” in our media?
“Is it a Havana for tourists the one that will reach its 500th anniversary, reproducing the celebrations with the colonial flavor that –unlike what happened with the half millennium of Santiago de Cuba– took place in many of the towns founded by the Spaniards? Or as in Santiago, the neighborhoods built by the Revolution –and now more or less vandalized– (Camilo Cienfuegos, San Agustín, Alamar, Mulgoba, Reparto Electrico …) can renew their (lack of) urbanism and raise the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of Havana workers who have never been able to sit in a “paladar” [private restaurant]?
“Will the newly refurbished Capitolio of Havana be an old building for a new democracy, or a shell that –between marbles and bronzes, so dear to the dictatorships and plutocracies– forgets to consecrate the name of Jesus Menendez, the black working-class parliamentarian who imposed on the Yankees and the Cuban bourgeoisie a fair deal for the sugar workers. As a result, he was murdered despite his parliamentary immunity in “the most democratic period in contemporary Cuban history,” a phrase taken from an article in the Spanish newspaper El País signed by a Cuban “historian”?
And I return to these questions because, fortunately, for a few months now in the capital of the country we can see the growth of a transformative effort in favor of the majorities: renewing public spaces –like those mentioned in my questions– accessible to those who lack the resources to visit the new recreation centers which have prospered under the new economic measures. Large agricultural markets have been opened on the outskirts of the city. State-run gastronomic facilities with popular prices have been rescued. Fountains that had been without water for decades are running again. And other achievements are beginning to take shape with the decentralized funds collected by the municipalities. It can be said that, through these actions, the city thrives, because most of its inhabitants prosper.
But if that effort is not accompanied by the participation of the people in creating a culture of civic order and urbanity, all this effort will be like pedaling on a stationary bicycle. This participation must stem from a popular debate –we have the organizations and media to do so– that would serve for the dissemination and production of consensus around the rules that regulate and punish –if they were enforced– the frequent aggressions against common property.
To give just one example: the debris generated by construction work –for repairing opulent mansions acquired by landlords and the new rich in the most central municipalities of Havana– will continue to be dumped with impunity on street corners, so that the state sector –that is: the lowest paid workers– pay for its free collection without taking into account that, as explained by the British academic Emily Morris:
“As the non-state sector has developed, it has become increasingly clear that the relatively inefficient private firms have been able to thrive within the national economy since their costs in Cuban pesos, including labor, are undervalued at the CADECA / CUC rate they use for their transactions. In fact, the Cuban state is subsidizing the new non-state sector through the underrated rate of CADECA. Meanwhile, state-owned enterprises have to use the overvalued official exchange rate, a serious disadvantage in terms of their competitiveness. A form of “monetary illusion” which means that efficient state-owned enterprises report losses and therefore cannot raise capital for investment; while private entrepreneurs operating at very low productivity levels enjoy strong hidden state subsidies but complain of excessively high taxes.”
The non-state economy has much to contribute in Cuba; but illegality, tax evasion, hoarding, appropriation of the common good, and speculation with deficit products are not the best allies to convince of its virtues.
The first thing that should be clarified is what we mean when we use the verb “to prosper”.
In those economically “most prosperous” territories (such as: Trinidad –where business has developed along with the growth of garbage in the streets, and the notorious tax evasion reached such extremes that the ONAT [National Office for Tax Collection] of Sancti Spiritus had to be moved over there; Viñales –where teachers have to be taken from other municipalities and private pools try to steal the scarce water supply in times of drought; or Havana, where part of the efforts to supply popular restaurants and cafeterias, education and health centers, drains to private restaurants or bars that remain open until five in the morning –not until 3:00 am as it is regulated) businesses are favored by the indirect subsidies of the CADECA 25 to 1 exchange rate, the low rates of water, gas and electricity conceived for domestic use, but used for profit; the free disposal of increased amounts of solid waste –as if this waste came from the kitchen of a home.
In this way development and prosperity will be patrimony of a few to the detriment of the majority.(CubAhora)
Vincent Hallinan on Cuba (1963)
Vincent Hallinan on Cuba
Back in 1935, my wife and I went to Cuba for a vacation. We went via the Panama Canal one of the great flying boats which then operated between San Francisco and New York. It laid out for two or three days in Havana harbor. We spent one day in the capital city and then returned aboard the ship and went on up to New York. We couldn’t see ourselves vacationing in the welter of poverty, ignorance, corruption, prostitution, misery and despair, which were the Cuba of 1935. We went back to Havana and in December 1960. Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries had overthrown the American puppet Batista, and defeated his army – also maintained, trained, and paid by American taxpayers for the benefit of American big – business corporations. It was the Year of Education, and and islandwide campaign was being waged to stamp out illiteracy. The shacks and slums were disappearing, to be replaced by prefabricated concrete houses. These had sanitary plumbing, running water, gas and electricity. The barren landed estates had been converted into food–processing plantations for the benefit of all. Everywhere there was hope, pride and exaltation. The Cuban people had recaptured their coiuntry from the exploiters.
In the same way that the American people were educated to believe that the Russian Revolution was bad, a vigorous campaign has been, and is being, waged to convince them that the Cuban revolution is the same. Castro, an heroic and shining patriot, is depicted as a madman ruining his own country by the exclusion of the benign North American corporations.
From:
A LION IN COURT
by Vincent Hallinan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
p.317
A Brief History of Tourism
A Brief History of Tourism
Photo: Courtesy of Mintur/Granma/Archive.
By Graziella Pogolotti
May 3, 2017
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The image of the tourist was, at first, that of a traveler who, individually, undertook an adventure in search of new horizons to gain knowledge. Thus, exotic visitors began to show up in Cuba, who very often left testimony of their experience through letters, stories or books that proposed more ambitious insights.
The perspective of others gave us a vision of our singularity in the multiple planes that natural and human landscapes offer. For those persons who come from other lands, the richness of a prodigal natural universe –unaffected by the harsh rigors of winter– is striking.
The chromatic luxury of the environment made an impact at first sight. The true singularity was expressed in the human face of a cordial country, with open doors, where the refinement of customs was accompanied by the abandonment of the rigid formalism prevailing in other lands. The deepest bond was established in the human plane and there was also the first-hand approach to a culture forged under different circumstances. Thus, the characteristics of “being Cuban” were beginning to be defined.
Later on, in the twentieth century, workers’ demands gave the middle classes the right to vacation time. Inexpensive because of geographical proximity, access to a tourist trip was within reach of Americans encouraged by the stimulus of the warm climate and the exoticism of a certain folklore trivialized by the trinket trade.
In the winter months, the high season prevailed. It offered an enjoyable warm weather and coincided with the Havana carnival. In Parque Central, a maracas player stood at the door of a store that offered cheap musical instruments, along with belts, purses, and other articles made of genuine crocodile leather.
The flourishing business imposed its perverse features. When Prohibition was established in the United States, Havana was a space open to free consumption of alcohol. Bars multiplied and a malicious substrate became linked to the contraband privileged by the vicinity between the coasts of the two countries.
With its well-known ability to forge mentalities, neo-liberal globalization has appropriated large-scale tourism, associated with what is called with apparent innocence –eternal trap of words–: the leisure industry.
Its extreme expression is manifested in the cruises. In these, instead of observing the new, travelers contemplate each other in a coexistence that consumes most of the available time. In a tour of preset destinations, they pass through some paradigmatic sites and lunge into the search for small souvenirs, trophies to give to friends, once back home. The human landscape and the power of culture have disappeared from the picture. They will get to know, if at all, a masquerade willing to show –with roaring stridency– the expected exotic component.
Before becoming the grave of desperate emigrants, the Mediterranean’s natural environment suffered the predatory effects of tourism. There, too, on a short excursion, the testimonies of one of the original sources of so-called Western culture moved to the background
The Caribbean is the counterpart of that mare nostrum. We preserve virginal areas, but our being an island makes us extremely vulnerable. We have beautiful landscapes, but we lack abundant water resources to quench the thirst of a temporary overpopulation and maintain perfect lawns for golf courses.
In the cultural field, the dangers are even greater. While the Mediterranean tradition still evokes the glories of a dilapidated Parthenon and the infinite management of the Egyptian pyramids, –all victims of neo-colonial perspectives– our culture does not enjoy similar recognition.
Exoticism always maintains a component of underestimation, and our inhabitants have psychologically suffered from this conditioning. Expansive in the last half century, the leisure industry was already emerging, when “the Commander arrived and ordered it to stop.” [a refernence to the lyrics of a song, by Carlos Puebla, referering to Fidel putting an end to capitalist evils].
The hotels that multiplied in Havana were fronts for gambling halls, meeting points for high class prostitution, and business centers of an expanding mafia.
At that time, a master plan for the development of Havana was designed which articulated interests of a diverse nature. Speculation based on the price of the land oriented the growth of the city towards the east, where investments were made with a view to the creation of new neighborhoods.
The government would pay the expenses of infrastructure for investments with an absolute guarantee of profitability. New management centers were being directed there.
The historic city would be at the expense of the underworld. Since the space provided for that predatory universe was insufficient, a floating island would be built in front of the Malecon, for the free flow of large-scale gambling dens. The landscape value of the Malecón –complemented by the gentle hills that shape the profile of the city towards its geographical center, the present-day Plaza de la Revolución– did not matter. The capital of the country, the historical and cultural jewel in our crown, would be hopelessly dismembered.
For a country like ours, lacking in great mining wealth, tourism is a source of income of indisputable importance. The challenge is to devise strategies that enhance the possibilities of development in favor of the nation, culturally and humanly, because in the virtues of our people lies the soul of the nation.
The emergent demand for a large-scale project focused on the advantages of the availability of sun and beaches must be accompanied by the analysis of the risks involved, with the purpose of elaborating the indispensable counterparts. It is important to discard the notion of the leisure industry and to take into account that the fashion of beach enjoyment may be temporary.
Our true strength lies in our status as a large island, endowed with a multitude of possible options: many of them based on a cultural and historical tradition.
There is also the possibility of proposing designs aimed at valuing good living, latent in our large and small cities, in the varied landscape environment, and in the survival of little-explored corners made to the measure of the human being. To elaborate these projects, it would be advisable to complement the geographic and geological maps with a cultural map illuminated by a deep inward look.
Tourism and Religion in the Caribbean
Tourism and Religion Go Hand-in-Hand in the Caribbean
By Manuel E. Yepe
Exclusive for daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“Religious tourism is part of the Caribbean culture, and is also good business. The local religions of the beautiful islands of the Caribbean, from voodoo in Haiti to obeah in Jamaica and santería in Cuba, provide valuable cultural and historical information about the Caribbean. This type of tourism allows visitors to become acquainted with the main religious sites in the region that are also related to important historical events.” This is the recommendation of a paper published by the Italian magazine TTC Caribbean dedicated to the promotion of tourism to the region.
“The voodoo cult, born in Haiti, has for decades been a good theme for horror movies; but along with other Caribbean religious creeds, it has also become a real attraction for international tourism,” says the promotional article about tourism in the Caribbean Sea area.
In Bonaire –an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea– churches, mosques and synagogues provide a comprehensive service in Papiamento, Dutch, English and Spanish.
In Anguilla, a guide to “Places of Worship” was published with a list of churches of the predominant religious denominations, their addresses and schedules.
In the Dominican Republic there is the “Route of Faith” consisting of a journey or pilgrimage that stops at many monuments and sites of religious significance for Catholics. It includes a visit to Santo Domingo, the city that experienced the first evangelization in America. In addition, there is the “Holy Hill Sanctuary” where Christopher Columbus ordered the first Christian cross to be placed in America.sz
In eastern Cuba, there is the temple of Our Lady of Charity, also known as the Virgin of El Cobre or Our Lady Virgin of Charity in honor of the Virgin Mary, pontifically designated as the Patroness of Cuba.
The image of the virgin in Cuba is enshrined in the Basilica that is the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, built in 1926. The sanctuary is in the picturesque village of El Cobre, very near Santiago de Cuba.
On December 20, 1936, Pope Pius XI granted a canonical coronation of the image of the virgin which was found at sea in the 17th Century.
The Caribbean has also become a frequently visited site by tourists as a destination for weddings and other religious ceremonies.
The opinion of experts, says the TTC digital magazine, is that the Caribbean needs to constantly innovate the tourist offers. Religions have a crucial influence in the popular culture and are a major attraction, but they are not sufficiently exploited in the Caribbean.
The religious tourism sector is strongly rooted in Europe where it is estimated that more than fifteen million people enjoy some kind of tourism of this nature every yar. In Latin America, there are several specialized tourist agencies in this sector.
Generally, the main motivations for religious travel are visits to shrines and holy places, as well as pilgrimages, visits to the tombs of saints, attendance and participation in religious celebrations, visits to religious leaders, eucharistic congresses, holy years, etc.
Traditional African religions in the Caribbean and Brazil can greatly benefit tourism in the area, in the same way that religions have promoted the movement of people to remote sites since ancient times.
Religious tourism, says TTC, may be the main reason for travelling, but it can also be part of a holiday trip and provide additional attractions to a destination.
Such is the case, for example, of millions of non-Catholic persons who visit the Vatican each year.
All this makes religious tourism a thriving business. Two years ago, the annual value of religious travel around the world was estimated at 18 billion dollars, involving 300 million travelers.
Religious tourism, unlike all other segments of the tourist market, has faith as its fundamental motivation. At present, the holy cities that have historically been the destination of pilgrimages –Jerusalem, Mecca or Rome– continue to be important tourist landmarks. Perhaps the Caribbean region could also be one soon. Why not?
August 5, 2016.
Revolution is the mother of change
- English
- Español
Revolution is the Mother of Change
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Louis A. Pérez Jr., historian and professor from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the United States, is the author of a number of important books about Cuban national identity. He has published an interesting essay that delves into the meaning of the present links between Cuba and the United States. The title may confuse many about its content: Visit Cuba before it changes!
“There has been something of an implacable tenacity with which the United States has pursued change in Cuba, a single-minded resolve over the course of 55 years: one armed invasion, scores of assassination plots, years of covert operations, and decades of punitive economic sanctions. An embargo –“harsher than toward any other country in the world,” as Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson acknowledged in 2015– designed with malice aforethought: to inflict adversity upon the Cuban people, to deepen Cuban discontent through economic privation, in the hope that such hardship would act to bestir the Cuban people to rise up and, in one fell swoop, bring about the overthrow of the Cuban government.”
This is how Professor Perez summarizes the tragic history of aggression and humiliation endured by the Cuban people because of their firm decision to carry out their project of independence and socialist change.
When the Cuban revolution had barely begun (although it had already produced impressive and universally-applauded popular benefits such as land reform and literacy throughout its people), Washington declared that tourism to Cuba was contrary to the foreign policy and national interests of the United States. Travel to Cuba was thus forbidden by law for all US citizens as part of a cruel policy of hostility.
It is known –because surveys indicate is– that most US citizens wanted and still want friendly relations with Cuba despite the poison that the US mass media has been injecting for more than half a century.
Regrettably, not all Americans base their thinking on the fact that these policies violate basic principles of international law and basic norms of human coexistence. There are
many people who only see the issue from the point of view of what befits the corporations that, as a result of many years of media manipulation, are considered the reason and symbol of the US nation.
The merit of the Obama administration has been in recognizing the failure of the policy pursued by their country for more than half a century. The United States had insisted on political change in Cuba as a precondition for the establishment of normal diplomatic relations.
Near the end of his term, Obama turned this policy on its head, proposed normal diplomatic relations as an initial step; revitalized the system of selective authorization for “people-to-people” travel; modified regulations; softened controls and relaxed restrictions in order to expand the categories of authorized travel to Cuba. He declared himself powerless against the blockade, but urged Congress to lift it.
“Through engagement we have a better chance of bringing about change than we would have otherwise,” said President Obama to justify the modification of his policy towards Cuba. “US presence in Cuba would serve to spread among the Cuban people the values of the United States.”
Cuba accepted the challenge posed by Washington’s “people-to-people” policy because, despite its stated intention that the visitors would promote “democracy” (the term Washington uses to mean the capitalist system) among Cubans, the Cubans took that purpose as an opportunity to show visitors that the defamatory campaign, that US corporate media have been waging at global scale against Cuba for more than half a century, was false.
The distance between the manipulations of the campaign and the truth is so great that from the first minute of contact with Cuban reality, US visitors –as a rule– are open to understanding the reasons that led to the historic popular achievement that is the Cuban revolution. At the same time, they see the senselessness of U.S. government’s policy of hostility of the against the small island nation.
Lies crashing against evidence eventually awakened a strong current of attraction to the Cuban revolution’s process of independence and social justice.
It seems that the new US policy against Cuba is to increase contacts with the Cuban people, support what Washington means by civil society in Cuba, and so to disrupt the interaction between Cubans and their local authorities. All this is based on obvious neo-liberal goals of dividing the people from the state and encouraging the development of a capitalist class on the island.
Cuba, meanwhile, will continue in its revolutionary determination to change what needs to be changed, seizing opportunities, but avoiding traps. Revolution is the mother of change!
May 14, 2016.
LA REVOLUCION ES LA MADRE DE LOS CAMBIOS
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Louis A. Pérez Jr, sociólogo y profesor de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill, Estados Unidos, y autor de importantes libros acerca de la identidad nacional cubana, ha publicado un interesante ensayo en el que hurga en el significado de momento actual de los vínculos entre Cuba y Estados Unidos. El título puede confundir a muchos acerca del contenido: “¡Visite Cuba antes de que cambie! “
Con implacable tenacidad Estados Unidos se ha propuesto conseguir el cambio en Cuba. Ha sido una determinación con carácter de fijación en el transcurso de cincuenta y cinco años: una invasión armada, veintenas de complots de asesinato, años de operaciones encubiertas y decenios de sanciones económicas punitivas. Un embargo más duro que el impuesto a cualquier otro país del mundo, según lo admitiera la secretaria de Estado adjunta Roberta Jacobson en 2015. Todo diseñado para infligirle adversidad al pueblo cubano y profundizar el descontento mediante la privación económica, con la esperanza de que las penalidades obren en el sentido de incitar al pueblo cubano a rebelarse para que, en una arremetida, precipite el derrocamiento del gobierno cubano.”
Así resume el profesor Pérez la trágica historia de agresiones y vejaciones que ha soportado el pueblo cubano por su firme decisión de llevar a cabo su proyecto de cambio independentista y socialista. Cuando la revolución cubana apenas se iniciaba (aunque ya había producido impresionantes conquistas populares aplaudidas
universalmente, como la reforma agraria y la alfabetización de todo el pueblo), Washington declaró que el turismo a Cuba era contrario a la política exterior y los intereses nacionales de Estados Unidos. Los viajes a Cuba quedaron así vedados por ley para todos los
estadounidenses como parte de una cruel política de hostilidad. Se conoce, porque las encuestas así lo indican, que la mayoría de los ciudadanos estadounidenses deseaban y siguen queriendo relaciones de amistad con Cuba no obstante el veneno que durante mas de medio siglo les han estado inyectando los medios masivos.
Lo lamentable es que no todos los norteamericanos basan sus criterios en el hecho de que esas políticas violan principios básicos del derecho internacional y normas elementales de convivencia humana. Son muchos los que sólo ven el asunto desde el punto de vista de lo que conviene a las corporaciones que, por efecto de muchos años de manipulación mediática, son consideradas la razón y el símbolo de la nación estadounidense.
El mérito del gobierno de Barack Obama ha estado en haber reconocido el fracaso de la política seguida por su país durante más de medio siglo. Estados Unidos había insistido en el cambio político en Cuba como precondición al establecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas normales. Próximo el final de su mandato, Obama viró esa política de cabeza, propuso relaciones diplomáticas normales como paso inicial; reanimó el sistema de autorizaciones selectivas “pueblo a pueblo”; modificó regulaciones; suavizó controles y relajó restricciones para ampliar los viajes autorizados a Cuba. Se declaró impotente contra el bloqueo, pero exhortó al Congreso a levantarlo.
“Mediante el compromiso, tenemos una mayor oportunidad de inducir cambios que por otros medios” declaró el Presidente para justificar el reajuste de su política hacia Cuba. “La presencia estadounidense en Cuba serviría para difundir en el pueblo cubano los valores de Estados Unidos”.
Cuba había aceptado el reto que suponía la política “pueblo a pueblo” de Washington porque, no obstante su declarada intención de que los visitantes promovieran entre los cubanos la “democracia” (término con que Washington designa al sistema capitalista), los cubanos apreciaban tal propósito como oportunidad para demostrar a los visitantes las falsedades de la campaña difamatoria que desde hacía más de medio siglo libraban a escala global los medios corporativos de Estados Unidos contra Cuba.
La distancia que media entre las manipulaciones de esa campaña y la verdad es tan grande que desde el primer minuto de contacto con la realidad, los visitantes –como regla– se abren al entendimiento de las razones que dieron lugar a la histórica hazaña popular que es la revolución cubana y la sinrazón de la política de hostilidad de su gobierno contra el pequeño país insular.
Las mentiras, al chocar contra las evidencias, acabaron por despertar una fuerte corriente de atracción hacia el proceso independentista y de justicia social que es la revolución cubana.
Todo parece indicar que la nueva política estadounidense contra Cuba consiste en incrementar los contactos con el pueblo cubano, apoyar lo que ellos entienden por sociedad civil en Cuba y romper la interacción entre los cubanos y sus autoridades populares. Todo ello partiendo de claros fines neoliberales de separar al pueblo del Estado y fomentar el desarrollo de una clase capitalista en la isla.
Cuba, por su parte, seguirá en su empeño revolucionario de cambiar lo que tenga que cambiarse, aprovechando oportunidades, pero evitando trampas. ¡La revolución es la madre de los cambios!
Mayo 14 de 2016.
Unexpected Challenges for Cuba’s Tourist Industry
- English
- Español
Unexpected Challenges for Cuba’s Tourist Industry
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
2016 is an extremely tense year for Cuba’s tourism industry. The island has had to face many challenges arising from the need to respond to a surprisingly high number of visitors. This was caused by the coincidence of a series of factors that turned the country into the absolute star of the leisure industry in the Caribbean and a “fashionable” destination on a world scale, with the successive visits of celebrities, including the President of the United States with his family, which attracted immense publicity.
Paradoxically, the US government has maintained gigantic campaign against Cuba, for seven decades, with the support of all the resources of its espionage and subversion agencies. As well, Washington has had the open complicity of their capitalist satellites around the world.
This has been recognized as the most intense, prolonged and costly libelous campaign launched against any nation in the history of the planet. This policy contributed to the intensification of global curiosity about this small country and its people which was so persistent and determined to decide its own destiny despite a hostile global context.
A basic factor in the sudden success has been, obviously, the sustained development of the tourism industry designed by the Cuban government more than twenty years ago. Its goal was to cope with the effects of US policy. The economic blockade –still in place– imposed by the United States against the Island,was aggravated by the disappearance of the Soviet Union. The USSR was a bastion of solidarity in the economic field for the resistance of Cuban against the ravages of Washington’s imperialist policy.
At the end of December 2015, it was reported that, in the course of that year, the total number of visitors to Cuba had surpassed the three and a half million. This was by far the highest figure in the country’s history with a growth over the previous year that also amounted to a historical record.
This result was obtained despite the fact that Cuba remains the only country where citizens of the United States –the natural and traditional source of visitors to the island for historical and geographical reasons– are forbidden by US law to travel to Cuba as tourists. This prohibition has been in force for over half a century.
It is true that this prohibition began weakening when the United States proclaimed a policy called “people-to-people”. The aim of that policy was to allow certain categories of citizens to visit Cuba on the assumption that this would stimulate the exodus of Cubans from their country once they learned of the “benefits of capitalism.”
Cuba accepted the challenge –even knowing its hostile purposes– with the certainty that it would provide an opportunity to dismantle, through these exceptionally authorized travelers, the falsehoods of Washington’s great disinformation campaign against Cuba. Cuba aimed to turn the “people-to-people” policy around into a boomerang against its promoters in Washington as it has turned out to be.
The sudden growth of international arrivals has not only been due to the increase in visitors from the US who are exceptionally authorized by Washington and who require special authorization be granted for twelve categories of US citizens. Apart from a certain flexibility in the application of these requirements, after the official announcement of Obama’s visit to Cuba, there has also been a significant growth in the number of visitors from Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
However, the phenomenon of such a broad acceptance of the Cuban tourist product
has brought out much evidence of the shortcomings in the infrastructure of the island’s tourist sector. These are not only in hotel capacity, transportation and distribution of food, but also in quality of services and the lack of some essential supplies for the development of an industry that demands many unique services for very demanding consumers.
According to Zane Kerby, President of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), “at least two million US Americans could visit Cuba in 2017, if Congress finally votes to lift the current restrictions.
To manage this increase in a sector that is accurately identified as the engine of the economy and that now faces new challenges derived from the complex international scenario, Havana and Washington have decided to restore their diplomatic ties despite the persistence of significant differences in both their political views and principles.
April 7, 2016.
Retos Turísticos Inesperados Para Cuba
Por Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Para Cuba, 2016 está siendo un año extremadamente tenso en su industria del turismo. La isla se vio obligada que encarar un cúmulo de retos derivados de la necesidad de responder a una demanda sorpresivamente elevada de visitantes por efecto de la coincidencia de una serie de factores que convirtieron al país en vedette absoluta de la industria del ocio en el Caribe y destino “de moda” a escala mundial, con la visita sucesiva de un buen número de celebridades diversas, incluyendo la del Presidente de Estados Unidos con su familia, que concitó una inmensa publicidad.
Paradójicamente, la gigantesca campaña contra Cuba que ha mantenido el gobierno estadounidense con apoyo de todos los recursos de sus agencias de espionaje y subversión, con la abierta complicidad de sus satélites del capitalismo en todo el mundo durante siete décadas -reconocida como la más intensa, prolongada y costosa campaña difamatoria contra cualquier nación en la historia del planeta- contribuyó a la intensificación de la curiosidad mundial por conocer ese pequeño país y su pueblo tan persistente y decidido a darse su propio destino pese a un contexto mundial tan hostil.
Factor básico del éxito repentino ha sido, obviamente, el desarrollo sostenido de la industria del turismo diseñado por el gobierno cubano desde hace algo más de una veintena de años a fin de hacer frente a los efectos del aun vigente bloqueo económico impuesto por Estados Unidos a Cuba, agravado éste por la desaparición de la Unión Soviética, bastión solidario en el terreno económico de la resistencia de los cubanos frente a los embates de la política imperialista de Washington.
A fines de diciembre de 2015 se conoció que, en el curso de ese año, el total de visitantes a Cuba había superado la cifra de tres millones y medio, por mucho la más alta en la historia del país, con un crecimiento respecto al año anterior que igualmente constituía record histórico.
Este resultado se obtuvo no obstante el hecho de que Cuba sigue siendo el único país del mundo a donde los ciudadanos de Estados Unidos, -que son la cantera natural y tradicional de los visitantes a la Isla por razones tanto geográficas como históricas-, han tenido prohibido por el gobierno estadounidense, desde hace medio siglo, viajar como turistas.
Es cierto que esta prohibición comenzó a presentar fracturas cuando Estados Unidos proclamó una política que llamó de “pueblo a pueblo” porque su objetivo era permitir a ciertas categorías de ciudadanos suyos visitar a Cuba en el supuesto que con ello estimularía el éxodo de cubanos de su país al conocer las “bondades del capitalismo”. Cuba aceptó el reto, aun conociendo sus torcidos propósitos, con la certeza de que ello daría oportunidad para desmontar –por conducto de esos viajeros excepcionalmente autorizados- las falsedades de la gran campaña de desinformación sobre Cuba y hacer de esa política “pueblo a pueblo” un boomerang contra sus promotores en Washington , como así resultó en efecto.
Este crecimiento repentino de las llegadas internacionales no se ha debido solo al incremento de los visitantes norteamericanos
–excepcionalmente autorizados por Washington a hacerlo mediante permisos especiales previstos para doce categorías de ciudadanos de Estados Unidos. Además de cierta flexibilización en la aplicación de estos requisitos a tenor del anuncio de la visita oficial de Obama a Cuba, también se han registrado importantes crecimientos de viajeros procedentes de Canadá, Europa, Asia y América Latina.
Pero el fenómeno de la aceptación del producto turístico cubano de manera tan amplia ha traído consigo muchas evidencias de carencias en la infraestructura del sector en la isla, tanto en capacidad hotelera como en transporte y distribución de alimentos, calidad de los servicios, carencia de algunos abastecimientos imprescindibles para el desenvolvimiento de una industria que demanda muchos servicios singulares para sujetos que son consumidores muy exigentes.
Según Zane Kerby, presidente de la Sociedad Americana de Agentes de Viajes (ASTA, por sus siglas en inglés) “al menos dos millones de estadounidenses más podrían visitar Cuba en 2017, si finalmente el Congreso vota por levantar las restricciones vigentes.
Para manejar este incremento en un sector que justamente se identifica como locomotora de la economía y ahora se enfrenta a nuevos retos derivados del complejo escenario internacional, La Habana y
Washington, han decidido restablecer sus nexos diplomáticos no obstante la persistencia de sus grandes diferencias políticas y de principios.
7 de abril 2016
Fidel Castro Speech to ASTA, October 19, 1959
Please note that this speech was given in English originally, as he explains. This translation was made back from the Spanish translation. I’ve found no transcript of the English original. Fidel has mentioned this speech elsewhere also as having been given in English. The Spanish was taken from the Cuban government website.
Please note: “ASTA” refers to the American Society of Travel Agents.
- English
- Español
SPEECH GIVEN BY COMMANDER FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 29th “ASTA” CONVENTION HELD IN THE BLANQUITA THEATER ON OCTOBER 19, 1959.
(SHORTHAND VERSION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER)
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann, January 2010.
Ladies and gentlemen:
In line with my age-old difficulty, when I took the floor I was not sure whether I was going to speak in English or Spanish, but in the end I decided to do it in English because I want to make myself properly understood.
Well, here I am giving a speech, and you will probably go through the same thing I went through during this meeting as we listened to the speakers. However, I hope you will be able to understand my English (APPLAUSE).
I don’t have much to tell you; actually, it’s not the Government who should speak in these cases: what you get to see is what matters, and not what you have read or heard about the people. Whatever I say here in that respect is hardly important. What the people might say is what counts. Whatever you can see by yourselves through the eyes of the Cuban people is the most important thing. I just want to say that we in Cuba are very happy and grateful to you for honoring us all with your presence in this Congress and your visit to Cuba, because that’s what it is: a great honor as well as a great help for us (APPLAUSE).
As has become customary, tourism has increased very much in the places where you have held your regular meetings. The figures speak for themselves, proving that it is so everywhere you go.
Now you, the leaders of this organization, will understand the benefits of your visit, because the most prestigious travel agencies in the world are represented in ASTA (APPLAUSE) and our traditionally noble and hospitable people thank you for your visit. That’s why all Cubans have long been looking forward to having you here; that’s why our workers finished the airport for you, working night and day in nine- and ten-hour-long shifts, and many other works were finished as well in a few days (APPLAUSE). That’s why you will be warmly welcomed and treated in every hotel, every street, every taxi, and everywhere you go in Cuba.
We are quite confident of the way our people behave because we know them very well and have absolute faith in them. Cuba’s impression on you won’t come from my speech or my words. I could say many things here, but I’m sure that you will be very impressed with our people.
We don’t care much for political propaganda; we want you to believe in facts, not words. I know the world is not perfect; I know that people throughout history have dealt with all sorts of difficulties, but history has made it plain that these difficulties are not important, because mankind has solved many problems along the way, and people all over the world will keep on making progress in the future to overcome their difficulties.
It’s impossible to speak about ourselves, so I honestly insist here that we have no interest whatsoever in any kind of propaganda and ask you to please put all your political ideas aside. You and your friends are professionals, not politicians, and your mission is to help your friends find the happiness our world may provide.
We don’t have many things; we are not an industrialized country and lack a number of things, but in the field of tourism we have many advantages, like our sea, bays, beaches, all kinds of medicinal waters, mountains, game and fishing preserves, and the best temperature in the world.
Maybe we don’t have the great beauty of the snow, but we have summertime and sunshine the whole year long (APPLAUSE).
You and your friends need to have sunshine in the winter, and of that we have as much as you want, and we have as much blue sky as you want, as well as beaches with sands of every color and a gentle cool breeze in the summer. I don’t mean to boast when I say that we may not have many things but we do have many good things for tourists, in addition to our people, which is more important than all that natural beauty (APPLAUSE).
We have no doubt as to what tourists will find here. We expect many things from our people, although not everyone has the same cultural level because Cuba never had enough schools to teach the whole people to read and write. Now we will have as many schools as we need. Still, the Cubans are a noble and hospitable people, and what’s more important, they don’t hate anyone. Our people love all visitors and make them feel at home (APPLAUSE).
What you see now and what you will see in two, three or five years is beyond comparison because our best things are still in the planning stage, but they will soon become a reality. From this premise we are determined to develop tourism as much as possible, with a good service and, especially, fair prices, because rather than having 100,000 people paying for expensive hotel rooms and items we would like many hundreds of thousands to come, not only the wealthy but also those who are not rich and those who have no other fortune than their job (APPLAUSE).
Pricing is important because we don’t want to exploit tourists at all (APPLAUSE). Unfortunately, the tourists in Cuba, like elsewhere, used to be exploited.
We don’t have everything tourism needs, but I can tell you that we’re discovering and developing everything we do have so that next time you come –since you’re busy these days but we hope you will come again on vacation, because you also need to take a vacation some time (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)– you will be surprised to see how much progress we will have made.
This is the most important message we wanted to send you, and not one of my words was intended to impress you. Instead, we want you to be impressed by what you see across Cuba.
You and your friends and whoever you ever recommend to come will be welcomed with open arms everywhere you go in Cuba (APPLAUSE), because our ambition, which is a well-intended ambition, is to turn our Island into the best vacation resort and the most important destination worldwide.
That ambition is what encourages our people to pursue such goals, and we’re sure and convinced that we will succeed despite any difficulty or adverse propaganda, because you cannot full all of the people all the time, like Lincoln said.
We’re aware of the fact that many U.S. citizens come here with wrong ideas and then they find exactly the opposite of what they believed. That’s why we think that regardless of all the propaganda against Cuba we will make headway and have more tourists every year. Who is telling the truth, those who lie or those who open the doors of the nation for everyone to come and see for themselves what is truly going on in Cuba and what the Cuban government is honestly doing and sacrificing for the happiness of the Cuban people? (APPLAUSE)
Working for the people is all we do, and we’re sure that we will count on the understanding of all kind-hearted women and men of the world. So let me finish by wishing you the best of stays in Cuba (APPLAUSE).
NOTE:This says he spoke in English, but what we have here is a translation from the Spanish. I assume it was translated to Spanish and kept in that form when it was posted to the Internet many years ago. Since Cuba’s tourism industry is a subject of some controversy abroad, I thought readers here would find this document of considerable interest, all the more so as it’s more than fifty years old.
Walter Lippmann
January 2010
DISCURSO PRONUNCIADO POR EL COMANDANTE FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRIMER MINISTRO DEL GOBIERNO REVOLUCIONARIO, EN EL ACTO DE APERTURA DE LA VIGESIMONOVENA CONVENCION DEL “ASTA”, CELEBRADO EN EL TEATRO BLANQUITA, EL 19 DE OCTUBRE DE 1959.
(VERSION TAQUIGRAFICA DE LAS OFICINAS DEL PRIMER MINISTRO)
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1959/esp/f191059e.html
Señoras y señores:
Es mi eterna dificultad, que no estaba seguro cuando iba a hablar, si lo debía hacer en inglés o en español, y al fin decidí hacerlo en inglés, porque deseo que me entiendan bien.
Bueno, yo estoy aquí haciendo un discurso y seguramente a ustedes les sucederá lo mismo que me sucedió a mí durante esta reunión, oyendo a los oradores; no obstante, espero que puedan entender mi inglés (APLAUSOS).
No tengo muchas cosas que decirles; realmente no es el Gobierno en estos casos quien tiene que hablar, sino lo que ustedes puedan ver. No importa lo que hayan leído u oído acerca del pueblo, y es poco importante lo que yo pueda decir aquí acerca de eso; lo más importante es lo que el pueblo pueda decir, lo más importante sobre Cuba es lo que ustedes mismos puedan ver a través del pueblo. Yo solamente quiero decir que nosotros en Cuba estamos muy felices y agradecidos a ustedes por el honor de este Congreso, de esta visita a Cuba, porque es un gran honor y una gran ayuda también para nosotros (APLAUSOS).
Es tradicional que los lugares que ustedes han visitado en sus periódicas reuniones han incrementado mucho su turismo; las estadísticas hablan por sí mismas de que en todos los lugares que ustedes han visitado se ha incrementado el turismo.
Ahora ustedes, los líderes de esta organización, comprenderán los beneficios de vuestra visita, porque ustedes, el ASTA, representan las más conocidas organizaciones de agencias de pasajes del mundo (APLAUSOS), y nuestro pueblo, que es tradicionalmente noble y hospitalario, les agradece su visita. Por eso es que todo el mundo en Cuba ha estado esperando por ustedes desde hace muchas semanas; que nuestros obreros, trabajando nueve y diez horas diarias, día y noche, terminaron nuestro aeropuerto para ustedes, y que muchas obras han sido terminadas en pocos días (APLAUSOS). Es por ello que en cada hotel, en cada calle, en cada vehículo y en cada lugar de Cuba que ustedes visiten, encontrarán la más absoluta identificación y la mejor atención.
Nosotros estamos seguros de la conducta de nuestro pueblo, porque conocemos muy bien a nuestro pueblo, porque tenemos una gran fe en nuestro pueblo. La impresión de ustedes sobre Cuba no será una consecuencia de mi discurso o de mis palabras. Yo podría decir muchas cosas aquí, pero estoy seguro de que ustedes tendrán una buena impresión de Cuba por nuestro pueblo.
La propaganda política no nos interesa; lo que queremos es que crean en los hechos, no en las palabras. Yo sé que el mundo no es perfecto; sé que el hombre, a través de la historia, ha encontrado pequeñas y grandes dificultades, pero la historia ha demostrado
que estas dificultades no son importantes, porque la humanidad, que ha tenido muchas dificultades desde sus comienzos, las ha resuelto y, en el futuro, el hombre en todo el mundo continuará progresando, encontrando dificultades y resolviéndolas.
Resulta imposible hablar sobre nosotros mismos, por eso sinceramente les digo que no tenemos interés en ninguna clase de propaganda y les pido que olviden todas las ideas sobre política. Ustedes y sus amigos son profesionales, no son políticos; la misión de ustedes es ayudar a vuestros amigos a tener esos momentos de felicidad que es posible encontrar en este mundo.
No tenemos muchas cosas, no somos una nación industrializada; tenemos algunas desventajas en algunas cosas, pero en este aspecto, en turismo, tenemos una gran cantidad de ventajas: tenemos mar, tenemos bahías, tenemos playas, tenemos aguas medicinales de todas clases, tenemos montañas, tenemos caza, tenemos pesca en el mar y en el río, y tenemos la mejor temperatura del mundo.
Nosotros tenemos verano todo el año, tenemos sol; no tendremos la hermosura y la belleza maravillosa de la nieve, pero tenemos sol (APLAUSOS).
Ustedes y sus amigos en invierno necesitan sol, nosotros tenemos todo el sol que ustedes quieran; cielo azul, todo el cielo azul que ustedes quieran; playas y arenas de todos los colores; en verano tenemos aire fresco. No es vanidad, no tenemos muchas, pero sí muy buenas cosas para los turistas, y más importantes que todas esas bellezas naturales es nuestro pueblo (APLAUSOS).
No tenemos ninguna duda sobre lo que el turista encontrará aquí. Nosotros esperamos mucho del pueblo, no porque tenga una gran cultura todo el pueblo, ya que realmente no ha habido en Cuba suficientes escuelas para que todo el mundo supiera leer y escribir, ahora sí tendremos las escuelas necesarias; pero nuestro pueblo es un pueblo noble y hospitalario, y la más importante condición es que nuestro pueblo no odia a nadie, nuestro pueblo ama a los visitantes y hace que nuestros visitantes se sientan aquí como en su propia casa (APLAUSOS).
No hay comparación posible entre lo que ustedes ven y lo que verán dentro de dos, tres o cinco años, porque nuestras mejores cosas están en proyecto y se convertirán en realidades muy pronto. Tenemos el propósito de desarrollar el turismo tanto como sea posible sobre esta base: buen servicio y precio justo, sobre todo precio justo, porque lo que nosotros queremos no es que vengan 100 000 a pagar precios altos por una habitación y por nuestros artículos, lo que queremos es que vengan muchos cientos de miles de personas, de modo que los que vengan a Cuba, a nuestras playas, no sean solo los que tienen grandes fortunas, sino también los que tienen pequeñas fortunas y los que no tienen otra fortuna que su trabajo (APLAUSOS).
Los precios son muy importantes porque nosotros queremos abolir toda clase de explotación a los turistas (APLAUSOS). Y en Cuba, como en otros lugares, infortunadamente, los turistas eran explotados.
Nosotros no tenemos todas las cosas que el turismo necesita, pero sí les puedo decir que estamos descubriendo y desarrollando todas las que nosotros tenemos, para que el próximo año que ustedes visiten algunos lugares de Cuba, o cuando vengan aquí la próxima vez —porque ahora ustedes están trabajando y esperamos que cuando estén de vacaciones vengan también, porque ustedes también necesitan vacaciones (RISAS Y APLAUSOS)—, se sorprendan de cómo hemos avanzado en nuestro trabajo.
Esto es lo más importante que nosotros queríamos decirles, ni una sola palabra para impresionarlos, queremos que se impresionen con lo que ustedes vean en toda Cuba.
En toda Cuba serán bienvenidos y recibidos con los brazos abiertos (APLAUSOS), ustedes y sus amigos; ustedes y todos a los que ustedes les digan que vengan a Cuba, porque nuestra ambición, que es una noble ambición, es la de convertir a nuestra isla en el mejor lugar para vacaciones, y en el mejor y más importante centro turístico del mundo.
Esta es la noble ambición que estimula a nuestro pueblo a desarrollar esos propósitos, y estamos seguros y convencidos de que nosotros lo lograremos a pesar de toda clase de dificultades, a pesar de toda clase de propaganda, porque el pueblo no puede estar todo el tiempo confundido por las mentiras, como dijo Lincoln.
Vemos lo que sucede a muchos ciudadanos de Estados Unidos, que vienen aquí con una idea errónea y al llegar ven absolutamente todo lo contrario de lo que pensaban. Es por eso que nosotros creemos que, a pesar de toda la propaganda contra Cuba, progresaremos y tendremos cada año más turistas. ¿Y quién dice la verdad, esos que hablan las mentiras, o estos que abren las puertas de la nación, de modo que todo el mundo pueda venir a ver la verdad de lo que pasa en Cuba, y de lo que estamos haciendo en Cuba, con el esfuerzo y el sacrificio del gobierno que trabaja honestamente por la felicidad del pueblo? (APLAUSOS.)
Esta es la única cosa que estamos haciendo, trabajando para el pueblo, y estamos seguros de que encontraremos en todos los buenos corazones de las mujeres y de los hombres la mayor comprensión. Así que termino deseándoles los mejores días y las mejores horas en Cuba (APLAUSOS).
Turning Tricks
- English
- Español
Vanguardia [Villa Clara, Cuba]
Turning Tricks
Luis Orlando León Carpio and Leslie Díaz Monserrat
January 19, 2016
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Make love not war is an axiom that defines Alex, a young man who decided to lead his life freely and who confesses that he managed to combine money, sex and a university degree which he just completed successfully. Still not 25, he knows the nightlife of Santa Clara and Havana with the precision of a cartographer on a map.
Alex, of course, is not his real name; but while telling this story, which reveals the most personal aspects of his intimacy, he chose to remain anonymous. He tells us that actually he somehow achieved an old childhood dream of becoming an engineer, and now he travels to the capital to “turn tricks”, the act of looking for a foreigner willing to pay for pleasure. “But I do it to have fun, you know? And I charge to make a profit though I do not do it professionally.”
Tonito- whose name is also not Tonito, nor is he a professional – defines himself as more home-oriented. At an early age he discovered that he was attracted to men, but that did not cause any drastic changes in his personality. He knows a lot about Santa Clara’s nights, human relationships and sex for money. “I have a number of friends who practice it; I can speak without problems.”
From their testimonies we know that male prostitution exists in Villa Clara. It seems that it subtly slips in around corners, especially in the provincial capital. We also learn that some resort to it out of necessity and others just for fun. Following this lead “Juveniles” went after a phenomenon that is rejected by many, while others already see it as natural.
An old trade
In an exclusive interview, Dr. Julio César González Pagés, a scholar who researches topics related to masculinity, defined male prostitution as the act of a male person having carnal relations with someone else in exchange for money or other material benefits. It is mostly young men under 30 who perform these acts and the market includes mainly men who have sex with men (MSM).
Although many tend to think that this is a modern business, it is actually an ancient practice, which is now visible and generates discussion. So says González Pagés, who points out that, since the late nineteenth century, anthropologist Luis Montane had published studies on homosexuality and transvestism linked to the male body as merchandise.
“There was talk of prostitution in the barracks of black and Chinese immigrants. Also, in early 20th century Havana there were the so-called tolerance zones, such as Chinatown or the Nogueira Theater that staged pornographic performances with paid male actors”, he added.
The 1990s marked a turning point within Cuban families and their system of values. Following the economic crisis, life imposed new ways of thinking. It was the time of the legalization of the dollar and the arrival of tourism to the country as an emergency measure to revive a stifled economy.
In this scenario, and as described by Denise Hernandez Villar, a specialist in Sociology and Sociology of Gender in the Marta Abreu Central University in Las Villas, the situation led certain households to take on prostitution as a livelihood.
“In Cuba, the social pyramid was inverted. Labor and wages became devaluated. Many professionals were left destitute and some of them chose to take up this practice as an escape route to bring money to their pockets.”
“From that point on, something unusual happens. A practice frowned upon, questioned, criticized, condemned and rejected by social controls (i.e. laws, regulations and political will), changed its perception by social standards. One example: a woman who was previously classified as a prostitute is now called “jinetera”, a fighter … and in the case of men, “pingueros”, pimps …” said the sociologist.
Children of the night
Tonito comments that the world of male prostitution is made up of three classes: low, medium and high. The first includes those who practice outdoors (turning tricks on the street) and charge 80 pesos in national currency. It usually takes place between Cubans. The middle class includes those who ask for 5 or 10 CUC –perhaps a set of clothes or a pair of shoes– and are more demanding.
“Stories are told about the restroom in Las Arcadas or other places near Vidal Park. In the so-called Fuente, in the Pastorita housing projects, there is a place to wait for customers. These are called points. There are also some around the hospital area,” reports Tonito.
Those in the upper classes –he adds– find their foreigners on the Internet and make online appointments. The rate depends on the country of origin: a Mexican will be charged 20 CUC and an American between 50 and 60. You just have to type a few keywords on Google: sex + guys + Cuban + rates … and you get pages devoted exclusively to this purpose.
“They are more refined; they don’t let themselves be seen much. Most end up in Havana, where there are higher rates and a better market for this job,” he adds.
Perhaps, in search of higher profit, Alex preferred to travel to the capital regularly. And he confesses: “At first I asked for 50 or 60 CUC because I felt sorry; but later on I charged no less than 80. The older the client, the more I charged. It depended on what he asked for; and if he was active or passive, although I always did the full job. But there are some who ask for such weird things… “
Tonito coincides and sadly remembers the day when a friend of his was left half-naked in the middle of the national highway, because he was asked to perform a service which he simply refused to perform.
Do some clients get violent? We ask Alex.
“Many times I had to get tough, because if I acted first, then they didn’t want to pay. So you start a big fuss: I’ll call the police, I’ll scream, I’ll cry rape … to scare them into paying. It happened to me with a Brazilian.”
Normally this work is done alone. Perhaps some fraternities are established; but men tend to think of themselves as their own bosses, unlike the days when women were under the clutch of a pimp.
“Sometimes a friend of mine and I watched over each other to protect ourselves from the guys who were into the business full-time. By the way, many even had a girlfriend. My friend is a hairdresser and makes a lot of money; he did not need to do this, but went out with me anyway. “
You just graduated from the Marta Abreu Central University in Las Villas, why choose this path?
I know of university graduates who practice there in Havana. I am not an exception. We did it mostly to go to parties, restaurants, and hotels … to places you usually cannot afford. We were like tourist guides. That’s how we presented ourselves. We took the foreigners to tour the city; they paid for everything and at the end… what was to happen simply happened.
From prostitution to transactional sex
For Pedro Chaviano Rodriguez, prostitution is an outdated term. “Now, as a behavioral category from the epidemiological point of view, it is called transactional sex (the name itself indicates a transaction, a sexual service in exchange for a material or non-material profit),” he said.
Chaviano works as a specialist at the Provincial Center for Prevention of STD-HIV-AIDS and coordinates the social networks of the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex) in the territory.
From his experience, he says that there is an increase of young people engaged in this activity in Villa Clara. Usually they are from other provinces and come here. The ages range between 19 and 21 years.
“Ideally, the practice of transactional sex should not exist. We are trying to integrate these people into society; but if someone wants to do it, we cannot interfere with the practice, because it is not penalized. We just ask them to do so responsibly, with the use of condoms.”
Is prostitution penalized in Cuba, or not?
Here, unlike in other countries, prostitution is not treated as a crime but as anti-social behavior, which is codified in Article 73, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code,” explains José Ramón González Guadarrama, a specialist in training and professional development from the Peoples’ Provincial Court of Villa Clara.
“The law describes the crime of pimping and human trafficking, and punishes those who live off the sex trade. The punishment will depend on the age of the person the pimp engages in the practice of prostitution, and ranges from 4 to 30 years of imprisonment,” he added.
And what about those who practice prostitution?
They are considered exploited victims, and therefore prostitution is not seen as a crime but as an anti-social behavior. Security measures can be applied: between one and four years of internment in a Ministry of the Interior special work or study center. We know that in recent times the practice exists among men; but these cases have not often been brought to court. It is more difficult to prove that a man engages in this activity.
Just like Alex and Tonito’s friends, other young guys venture into the streets and offer their bodies to the highest bidder. Some define it as having fun for profit; others practice it as a profitable trade. The truth is that this is a latent phenomenon in Cuba, one which we toward which we cannot turn a blilnd eye
“It is no more and no worse than in other countries. It just has its peculiarities. Male prostitution is a phenomenon that we must analyze and determine what steps to take regarding these people who see transactional sex –or prostitution if you wish– as a life choice.”
“In this case, it would require education to regard sexuality as the full enjoyment of our individuality, not as a commercial act,” says Dr. Julio César González Pagés.
PRINT EDITION:
fhttp://www.vanguardia.cu/images/vanguardia_digital/documentos/edicion-impresa/2016/vanguardia/01-16/pag3.pdf
Vanguardia [Villa Clara, Cuba]
Hacer la calle
Luis Orlando León Carpio y Leslie Díaz Monserrat
19 Enero 2016
Hagamos el amor y no la guerra, axioma que define a Alex, un chico que decidió llevar una vida sin tapujos, donde —confiesa— supo imbricar dinero, sexo y una carrera universitaria, de la cual acaba de salir airoso. No rebasa los 25 años, pero conoce la vida nocturna de Santa Clara y La Habana con la precisión de un cartógrafo en un mapa.
(Foto: Ramón Barreras Valdés)
Alex, por supuesto, no se llama Alex; pero al calor de esta historia, en la que revela los aspectos más personales de su intimidad, quiso mantenerse en el anonimato. Y nos cuenta que sí, que de alguna manera cumplió un viejo sueño infantil de ser ingeniero, y ahora viaja a la capital a «hacer las calles», ese acto de salir a buscar un extranjero decidido a pagarle por placer. «Pero lo hago pa’ pasarla bien, ¿tú sabes? Y cobro pa’ sacarle provecho, aunque no me dedico a eso».
Tonito —que tampoco se llama Tonito ni se dedica a eso— se define más casero. Desde temprana edad descubrió su atracción por los hombres, sin que ello supusiera ningún cambio drástico en su personalidad. De las noches santaclareñas, las relaciones humanas y el sexo a cambio de dinero sabe un montón: «Tengo unos cuantos amigos que lo practican, puedo hablar sin problemas».
Por ellos sabemos que la prostitución masculina está presente en Villa Clara; que parece colarse con sutileza en los rincones, sobre todo, de la capital provincial; que algunos la asumen por necesidad y otros por diversión. Tras esta pista se escurrió «Juveniles» para visualizar un fenómeno que muchos reprochan y otros, sin embargo, ya ven natural.
Un viejo oficio
La prostitución masculina es —según especificó en entrevista exclusiva para este trabajo el doctor Julio César González Pagés, investigador de temas relacionados con las masculinidades— el acto de que una persona del sexo masculino mantenga relaciones carnales con alguien más a cambio de dinero u otro obsequio material. Mayormente se dedican a estos menesteres jóvenes menores de 30 años, y el mercado incluye, fundamentalmente, a hombres que tienen sexo con otros hombres (HSH).
Aunque a muchos les parezca un asunto moderno, se trata de una práctica ancestral, que ahora se visualiza y genera debate. Así lo asegura González Pagés, quien precisa que desde finales del siglo xix ya existían estudios del antropólogo Luis Montané sobre la homosexualidad y el travestismo ligados al mercado del cuerpo masculino.
«Se hablaba de prostitución dentro de los barracones de los negros y los emigrados chinos. También, en La Habana de inicios del xx estaban las llamadas zonas de tolerancia, como el Barrio Chino o el teatro Nogueira, donde se hacían espectáculos de pornografía cuyos protagonistas eran hombres a los que se les pagaba», añadió.
Los años 90 constituyeron un punto de giro al interior de la familia cubana y su sistema de valores. A raíz de la crisis económica, la vida impuso nuevas formas de pensar. Fue la época de la despenalización del dólar y la llegada del turismo al país como medida emergente para oxigenar una economía asfixiada.
En este escenario, y según describe Denise Hernández Villar, licenciada en Sociología y especialista en Sociología de Género en la Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas, la coyuntura propició que ciertos núcleos familiares asumieran la prostitución como un medio de sustento.
«En Cuba se invirtió la pirámide social. Se desvalorizó el trabajo y el salario. Muchos profesionales quedaron desamparados, y algunos de ellos optaron por asumir esta práctica como vía de escape para el bolsillo.
«A partir de ahí, ocurre algo inusual. Una práctica mal vista, cuestionada, criticada, condenada y rechazada desde los controles sociales (léase leyes, regulaciones y voluntad política), desde el punto de vista social ahora cambia su percepción. Un ejemplo: antes una mujer era clasificada como prostituta, hoy se le llama jinetera, luchadora… y en el caso de los hombres, pingueros, chulos…», apuntó la socióloga.
Hijos de la noche
Cuenta Tonito que en este mundo de la prostitución masculina hay tres clases sociales: baja, media y alta. En la primera están los que practican en exteriores (hacer la calle) y cobran 80 pesos en moneda nacional. Casi siempre se da entre cubanos. La clase media incluye a quienes piden 5 o 10 CUC —quizás una muda de ropa, un par de zapatos…—, y son más exigentes.
«Ahí están las historias que se cuentan del baño de Las Arcadas u otros sitios cercanos al parque Vidal. En la llamada Fuente, en los bloques de Pastorita, hay un lugar para esperar a clientes, los llamados puntos. También por la zona hospitalaria», informa Tonito.
Los de las clases altas —añade— consiguen a los extranjeros mediante internet y hacen citas online. El cobro depende del país de origen: a un mexicano le piden unos 20 CUC y a un norteamericano entre 50 y 60. Basta teclear algunas palabras claves en Google: sexo + chicos + cubanos + tarifas… y afloran en el buscador páginas destinadas única y exclusivamente a estos fines.
«Ellos son más finos, no se dejan ver mucho. La mayoría termina en La Habana, donde existen las tarifas más altas y un mercado mejor concebido para este oficio», continúa.
Quizás, en esa búsqueda de mayores ganancias, Alex haya preferido viajar asiduamente a la capital. Y confiesa: «Primero pedía 50 o 60 CUC, porque me daba pena; pero después no bajaba de los 80. Mientras más viejo era el cliente, más cobraba. Dependía de lo que pidiera, y si era activo o pasivo, aunque yo siempre hacía el trabajo completo. Pero algunos piden cada cosa…»
De esto último da fe Tonito, quien recuerda con pesar el día en que a uno de sus amigos lo dejaron semidesnudo en medio de la Autopista nacional, cuando le exigieron un servicio que no quiso realizar.
—¿Existe violencia por parte de algunos clientes?, inquirimos a Alex.
—Muchas veces tenía que ponerme fuerte, porque si actuaba primero, después no querían pagar. Uno ahí se pone a formar tremendo espectáculo: que voy a llamar a la policía, a gritar, a decir que me violaron…pa’ que se asustaran y pagaran. A mí me pasó con un brasileño.
Normalmente este trabajo se hace solo. Quizás se establecen algunas cofradías, pero el hombre tiende a concebirse como su propio jefe, a diferencia de los tiempos en que las mujeres quedaban bajo el yugo de la figura del proxeneta.
«A veces nos poníamos de acuerdo un amigo mío y yo para cuidarnos de los que sí se dedicaban a eso por completo. Que por cierto, muchos hasta tenían novia. Mi amigo es peluquero y gana cantidad, a él no le hacía falta, pero igual salía conmigo».
—Acabas de graduarte en la Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas, ¿por qué escoger este camino?
—Sé de universitarios que lo practican allá, en La Habana. No soy un caso atípico. Lo hacíamos mayormente para ir a fiestas, a restaurantes, a hoteles… a lugares que uno por lo general no se puede permitir. Éramos como guías de turismo. Nos declarábamos así. Llevábamos a los extranjeros a un tour por la ciudad, ellos nos pagaban todo y al final sucedía lo que tenía que suceder.
De la prostitución al sexo transaccional
Para Pedro Chaviano Rodríguez, la prostitución es una palabra obsoleta. «Ahora, por ser una categoría comportamental desde el punto de vista epidemiológico, lo nombramos sexo transaccional (el propio nombre indica que existe una transacción, una entrega sexual a cambio de una ganancia material o no)», precisó.
Chaviano labora como especialista del Centro Provincial de Prevención de las ITS-VIH Sida y coordina las redes sociales del Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (Cenesex) en el territorio.
Desde su experiencia asegura que se reporta un incremento de jóvenes que ejercen esta actividad en Villa Clara. Por lo general, pertenecen a otras provincias y vienen aquí. Las edades oscilan entre los 19 y 21 años.
«Lo ideal sería que no se practicara el sexo transaccional. Tratar de que esas personas se integren a la sociedad; pero si alguien desea hacerlo, no podemos meternos en su práctica, porque esta no se penaliza, solo pedimos que lo hagan responsablemente, con el uso del condón».
—¿Se penaliza o no la prostitución en Cuba?
—Aquí, a diferencia de otros países, no se le da un tratamiento de delito, sino de conducta antisocial, lo que aparece recogido en el artículo 73, apartado 2, del Código Penal», precisa el máster José Ramón González Guadarrama, especialista en formación y desarrollo profesional del Tribunal Provincial Popular de Villa Clara.
«La Ley establece el delito de proxenetismo y trata de personas, y sanciona a quien vive del comercio carnal. Las sanciones dependen de las personas que utilice el proxeneta en el ejercicio de la prostitución, y van de 4 a 30 años de privación de libertad», añadió.
—¿Y en el caso de quien ejerce?
—Representa la víctima explotada(o), y por lo tanto, no se asume como un delito, sino como una conducta antisocial y puede conllevar medidas de seguridad, entre uno y cuatro años de internamiento en un centro de trabajo especializado o de estudio del Ministerio del Interior. Conocemos que en los últimos tiempos ha surgido esta práctica entre los hombres, pero no han llegado con frecuencia a los tribunales. En ellos resulta más difícil comprobar que se dedican a esta actividad.
Así, como Alex y los amigos de Tonito, otros jóvenes se aventuran a la calle y proponen su cuerpo al mejor postor. Algunos lo definen como una diversión con ganancias, otros lo asumen como un oficio rentable. Lo cierto es que se trata de un fenómeno latente en Cuba, y ante el cual no podemos taparnos los ojos.
«No es más ni peor que en otros países. Simplemente tiene sus peculiaridades. La prostitución masculina es un fenómeno que debemos analizar y saber qué medidas tomar respecto a estas personas que ven en el trabajo sexual, o prostitución, según quiera decirse, una opción de vida.
«En este caso, se trataría de educar para ver la sexualidad como un disfrute pleno de nuestra individualidad, no como un acto para el comercio», asegura el doctor Julio César González Pagés.
Tourism and Revolution Must Go Hand in Hand
TOURISM AND REVOLUTION MUST GO HAND IN HAND
ByManuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the US government is working to reach a deal with Cuba by year’s end that would allow tourists to fly on scheduled commercial flights between the two countries.
The agreement would allow airlines to establish regular service between the U.S. and Cuba as early as December, marking the most significant expansion of bilateral tourism ties between the U.S. and Cuba since the 1950s, when Americans regularly traveled back and forth to Havana without the limitations imposed by Washington from the 1960s.
The Obama administration –says the Journal– is also exploring further steps to loosen travel restrictions for US citizens to the island nation despite the still in place unconstitutional decades-old ban imposed by Washington.
Only Congress can lift the U.S. travel and trade blockades imposed against Cuba following the popular triumph in the island. Nevertheless, says the Journal, Mr. Obama has executive authority to grant exceptions to them. He announced several last December –such as allowing Americans to use credit and debit cards in Cuba and expanding commercial sales and exports between the two countries.
The WSJ recalls that U.S. laws authorize citizens to travel to Cuba with special licenses only for specific purposes, including business trips, family visits or people-to-people cultural exchanges.
The negotiations are partly centering on how many flights a day would be permitted between the two countries and whether Cuba’s state-owned airline, Cubana de Aviación, can serve the U.S. The WSJ sources were not certain about this last issue.
Many U.S. airlines, including American Airlines and Jet Blue, are eager to serve Cuba and have been pushing regulators to authorize scheduled service.
Four shipping companies in Florida (90 miles from Cuba): United Americas Shipping Services, Havana Ferry Partners, United Caribbean Lines and Airline Brokers, announced receipt of US Treasury permission to operate ferries between the two countries, while noting that they still need additional permits including that from Havana.
The reestablishment of diplomatic relations, which culminated on August 14 with the official reopening of the US Embassy in Havana, has been one of the catalysts for the accelerated growth of visitor arrivals to the Caribbean country.
Between January and July of this year (2015), 88,996 people from the United states traveled to the island, despite the fact that the blockade does not allow them to do so as true tourists because Washington does not authorize them to visit beaches or other fun and recreation centers so they do “not bring their money to Castro “.
The rapprochement between the two countries has increased world interest in Cuba. The island in turn is developing different strategies to strengthen the tourism industry, improve the quality of hotel services and expand its capacity.
To attract foreign capital, the island has adopted a new Foreign Investment Act. Meanwhile, increasing ties between the private and state sectors in the Cuban economy, bring an important complement to meet the growing demand for rooms, restaurants and other services.
The Italian publication specializing in tourism issues in the Caribbean Travel Trade Caribbean (TTC) wonders in its latest issue if the “wave” of potential US tourists expected in Cuba would be good or bad for other Caribbean islands more dependent on the leisure industry.
Cuba, which continues its socialist project with the same drive as before, argues that the eventual normalization of its relations with the US will not damage the economies of tourism-dependent Caribbean countries.
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association welcomed Cuba as an integral part of the Caribbean and called for the development of cooperation with Cuba in all aspects of tourism. It also called on governments of the region to adopt a new program for tourism development involving high-level discussions with the US and Cuban authorities with a view to developing a Tourism Initiative in the Caribbean Basin to promote in an “economically viable, secure and stable way” this industry in the region.
But Cuba’s tourism infrastructure will have to be strengthened before the full impact of “the wave” occurs in the industries of other Caribbean destinations. Cooperation between countries in the region will be the best antidote against the problem; and the Cuban revolution has demonstrated many times its ability to face great challenges.
September 12, 2015.
Two Months in Cuba
BRIEF UPDATE, September 2015 Next week I’ll be returning to Cuba. This has been my longest time away since 1999 when I began regular visits. It’s been a year and a half. So much has changed since then! The Five are free and home. Diplomatic relations, broken by Washington in 1961, have been restored, and the process Cubans call “updating their economic model” has been continuing, as Raul Castro described it, “sin prisa, pero sin pausa”, which means “without rushing, but without stopping”. There’s so much to be learned and said about the process, which even the most attentive observer from abroad can barely begin to grasp. So now I’m looking forward with great anticipation to being able to catch up with friends and colleagues there, and to share with readers what I can see, hear and begin to try to understand. Below a link to my first extended commentary on Cuba, written after my second visit, fifteen years ago. Some remains valid, some has long since been resolved. Well, enough for now.
Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
September 8, 2015.
TWO MONTHS IN CUBA
Notes of a visiting Cuba solidarity activist
by Walter Lippmann
These are some notes on my visit to Cuba from November, 2000 to January, 2001. Some things in Cuba are very similar to the US, but many others are very, very different.
This essay doesn’t pretend to be a full-scale analysis of Cuba. That would be beyond its scope. These are my own observations, reflections and comments on things I myself personally saw, heard and did. Before and after visiting Cuba, I spent some time visiting Mexico, to get some perspective and to make a few comparisons. I hope you’ll find it useful.
On the final page of this essay, you’ll see links to some other pictures I took, and a page of references for useful English-language sources on Cuba so you can research Cuba further on your own.
WHY CUBA? WHY ME?
My interest in Cuba has deep family roots. My father and his parents lived there from 1939 to 1942. As Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, they were unable to enter either Great Britain or the United States, despite having close relatives in each. The Roosevelt administration strictly enforced a restrictive quota on Jewish immigration. My father and his parents had to wait in Cuba until 1943 before obtaining permission to enter the US. I was born in New York City in 1944. (A good history of the Jewish experience in Cuba is Robert M. Levine’s 1993 Tropical Diaspora (ISBN:0-8130-1218-X). There’s also a novel which eloquently evokes the time when my father lived in Cuba, Passing Through Havana, by Felicia Rosshandler (ISBN: 0-312-59779-7).
My father took me to Cuba in August, 1956. We visited his old residence and met some of his old friends. I don’t remember much about it except that Cuba was a very hot and sticky place. (I was only 12 at the time.) We stayed briefly at the Hotel Nacional, and after that we moved to a smaller hotel. We traveled to Pinar del Rio with one old friend, John Gundrum, also a German immigrant, but one who’d never left Cuba.
In November, 2000 I made my second visit to Cuba as an adult. I’d spent three weeks there in late 1999, on a delegation of yoga teachers and students meeting and practicing with our Cuban counterparts. I knew more than most in the US about this Caribbean nation. I’ve read a lot of Cuban history, and followed Cuban affairs closely. Now I wanted to take a much closer look.
How do Cubans actually live, day-to-day? I wanted to get a sense of how they work, their likes, dislikes and so on. It’s one thing to hear and read about a place, in the media (Cuba is terrible place! People are dying to leave!) or, on the other hand, uncritically favorable accounts among the few left media sympathetic to Cuba.
My Spanish is limited, so I often had to depend on bilingual friends and acquaintances for answers and directions. During my 31-year career as a social worker for Los Angeles County, I learned some simple “street Spanish,” but not enough to carry on a complex conversation. I met many who speak, and wanted to practice, English, so I was able to get answers to my many questions.
In Havana I stayed with a Cuban family I’d met in 1999. One family member had recently quit the public sector job he’d had for 13 years, and entered self-employment. He translates Cuban TV scripts from Spanish into English as an independent contractor. Cuba hopes to sell these to providers like the Discovery Channel. He also translates for visiting journalists and filmmakers. Weeks before my arrival he’d worked with Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple, filming the Washington, D.C. ballet’s visit to the country. His mother is an engineer working for a government ministry. She belongs to the Cuban Communist Party. I didn’t pay rent, but bought the food and other items for the family. I often shopped and sometimes cooked for the family. I don’t think they’ve eaten so much garlic in their lives! (Fortunately, they like garlic…)
CUBA’S HISTORIC GOALS:
INDEPENDENCE AND A JUST SOCIETY
Essential to understanding today’s Cuba is the bitter history of US-Cuban relations. The two nations have had a long, close and tense connection. Nineteenth century US politicians discussed annexing the island. They tried to derail its independence, or thwart its efforts to forge a just society where the interests of Cubans was put first. Even now, most US politicians still act and speak as if they have the right to tell Cubans how to run Cuba. The revolution led by Fidel Castro and his compañeros is the most successful of Cuba’s efforts.
Backers of the overthrown Batista dictatorship were welcomed to the US. Washington opposed Cuban efforts to take control over national resources from foreign (mostly US) companies. It has opposed, and tried to turn back, the revolution at every turn. Washington and its supporters call this policy “the embargo.” Cuba calls it “the blockade.” This is because Washington relentlessly tries to bulldoze all other countries into supporting its anti-Cuban activities.
SINCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
During Cuba’s alliance with the USSR and the states of Eastern Europe, the island received long-term contracts for its commodities at stable, and sometimes well-above world market prices. This provided the economic and military foundation for Cuba to survive Washington’s decades-long effort to starve it out. Washington had to think twice about military intervention. The island’s politics and economics were heavily influenced by the Soviet model.
Every home I visited has a system of elevated water storage. These are large tanks (think: oil barrels). Water is pumped once or twice a day, from 6 to 8 PM where I stayed, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Each home or apartment only has a finite supply of water. Of course, this is in Havana., and from what people told me, the situation is different in rural areas and in other cities. Plumbing problems became much worse during the special period because of lack of parts to deal with age-related deterioration of the infrastructure in this cosmopolitan large city. Imagine New York City or Los Angles after a similar ten-year cutoff of maintenance. Duhhh…. post-nuclear war movies give a sense of what it would be like.
While I never experienced a cutoff of water, it did happen to some homes around the city. Large tanker trucks quickly came out and residents collected water in pails and hauled them home. Many people boil or chemically treat the water before drinking. Purification drops were considered sufficient where I stayed. Some travelers I spoke with used iodine, but many staying at hotels didn’t think this was necessary. The most cautious Habaneros continue to boil their water.