“Cuba Libre”

Dear Reader, 

Recently I visited Havana, Cuba  with a few friends. I traveled there  five years ago and was interested in seeing how things had changed. From what I could see, things were not better for the people living there  for a number of reasons, starting with the peso’s devaluation against the dollar last year. 

A peso doesn’t buy what it used to, and the people are suffering from the decline.  The devaluation resulted in a huge drop in pay for ordinary people trying to get by on an average income of just $40 to $60 dollars a month. That’s not a typo; that’s what an average Cuban makes in a month. 

Because Cuba is a communist country, it doesn’t matter if you are a highly trained doctor working in a medical center or an unskilled laborer toiling in the tobacco fields. Most of the people – 90% of the  population – work for the government, because nearly all employment is regulated and controlled by the state. It’s even illegal to go fishing. You get the feeling that the dictatorship would regulate the use of air  if they could. 

We hired a car and driver who had his own business to help us navigate. He had been a doctor but was unable to prescribe  medicine because none was available. The $60/month he made helping tourists get  around was more than he could make as  a doctor. Similarly, a woman who had a degree in finance was making $3/day for cleaning rooms, which was more than she could get if she had worked in her  field. 

Cigars were offered by hotels, which were government businesses, at $60 to $80 per cigar. That also is  not a typo; one cigar costs $60 to $80. Obviously the Cuban people can’t afford to pay a month’s wages for a cigar from their own country, unless they buy it on the black market. But that is a risk that many do not want to take. 

I would recommend going there to see how this vibrant culture still  flourishes under the thumb of a few  selfish authoritarians. The people living  there make possessions last for a long  time; dishes of paella were creative and delicious; our driver ferried us around in a 1957 Chevy Belair; music groups sang  beautiful harmonies; and the jazz and salsa dancing were exceptional. Yes, the Cubans are not free. But they are masters of the workarounds needed to survive and even celebrate life. 

I learned two lessons from this trip. First, that a person can make a happy life with whatever one has on a beautiful country island. And second, that we must appreciate the abundance of riches we earn in this beautiful land of opportunity. We must not take our freedom for granted.  Not everyone has the opportunity to live with the individual self-determination and personal autonomy that we do. 

Patrick J. Wood - Publisher Author of “Dear Reader” and “Tapestry of Love and Loss”