La Havana - Cuba: People
Wherever in Havana – you are never far from the music. Well that is in the Vieja, the old original part now with Unesco heritage status. Early in the morning the mood is lighter and faster and by four in the afternoon, post siesta it is warming up. People, music, the tastes in the air take off from 4pm. The guide books recommend sauntering through the streets when it is close to dusk. I concur.
The biggest mix of people that I could watch are those sitting alfresco in the Hotel Inglaterra sometimes known as Del Louvre. Never thought of Havana as having sex tourism but I guess the oldest profession in the world infiltrates any location. He sixty plus, tall, wearing money, she early twenties wearing little in relation to other passers by. A three piece string and bongos accompany us whilst we sit amongst the chaos around. The organised retired European couple with their rucksacks and high tech walking gear sitting thumbing through the Cuba guide, pages marked with colour coded “post-it” notes whilst young Cuban lovers arm in arm sit just staring into each others eyes spellbound. Other couples sitting sipping Mojitos, starts early here, and amongst all our legs the hotel sweeper mops up disgorged food that never made it the mouths but journeyed to the floor. Eager the musicians get out the begging basket whilst only on their third musical offering – embarrassed scrabbling for a peso and then the worried look of what to put in! Too much and you get your own private serenade. The band plays then moves on.
You realise now that some scenes that we were used to years ago are quite alien now especially when you see queues at telephones and at post offices as very people possess mobile phones apart from those ‘with’ and the tourists. In some cases it looks like they are running their own business from these public phones as they pump them with numbers time after time draining the pre-paid cards that they use. Business over and the next set shuffle forward in the queue, to take their place; amusingly there is even a pair of policemen in the queue, phoning the office no doubt. We take for granted too much in our lives.
The bar in the Inglaterra turns over a couple of tables every few minutes, the musicians change every half hour and those young lovers need to get a room now!
Interestingly the smoking ban that is almost covering Europe doesn’t exist here so this is where all the European smokers are, be it cigarettes, cheroots or cigars there is a permanent haze in most locations. Yet it’s amazing to see so many heavy cigar smokers in all forms of attire including the smart hombre, beige suit and tie standing outside the Romeo and Juliet cigar factory, give him a Panama hat and he could audition for an Orson Welles part. Haven’t spotted Fidel on the travels but have seen many iconic Che Guevara images on walls, buildings, t’shirts and even on ceilings.
As mentioned the afternoon and evening opens up and the place takes on a new feeling. The bars down the Floridita are alive and once you are in get a table, a drink and sit back watching the place fill up with tourists and when the band starts the locals appear. Avoid the Guantanemera bands although it takes a while to spot them; once they are eliminated there are some brilliant bands and great music from real talented people. They do say that everyone in Cuba is either a musician or dancer. Some are both. One of the bands had drums, bongos, guitars, electric cello and a great revolutionary looking singer. Most of the crowd know the songs and sing and dance along whilst the tourists watch applauding politely.
Everywhere people are polite and welcoming and not just because the peso counts; they want you to share and they are proud. Late into the evening the squares come alive and one near the cathedral has a stage set close to the only restaurant with the music made up of maracas and drums and is quite mesmerising; in fact the dancer seems hypnotised as she dances and wails almost pseudo African and black magic. I recollect that these dancers are from one of the James Bond movies where it was heavily reminiscent of sacrifice and voodoo. The throng around the square is enormous with some individuals in their own dance trance now.
Earlier we noticed an aged white European with an ebony coloured young black girl; you can see some locals frown but mention nothing. Reading today that they do this not for money spent on drugs, a pimp or another habit but money to better themselves on clothes etc and a slim chance of a marriage proposal and a flight out of Cuba.
No matter how tough it may have been here in the earlier years of the revolution there is a huge adulation of the regime. The romanticism of Che Guevara, early Fidel and now Raul, they all love them and will not hear a bad word said. Even the harbour control office where we were invited up to demonstrated his loathing of Americans. He did smile wryly when talking about how the British smashed the Spaniards into submission after they captured the fort where the harbour control is based. Jose Fernandez had the harbour under control as demonstrated by the shipping logs; vessels entering waters, ports and departure including origination and final destination. There is no surprise that there is a heavy dominance of vessels from China and none from the United states even though its only 90 miles to Florida. These logs were all written in hand and the logs went back 50 years. In each of the pigeon holes there is a country national flag and surprising there is a United States flag although its covered in deep dust.
The tobacco factory or rather Patagas, oldest cigar factory in Cuba is in downtown central Havana. Its floors divided into specific tasking areas. Wasn’t sure what to expect but working throughout are young and old many female and the tour took its time so that a real imprinted vision was left with us even after the guide books stated that this is rushed and done in less than fifteen minutes. The important rule that is key to a good cigar is the presentation and outer leaf, prepared by sorting and stripping from the central stem, the radio was loud and they sang along and gave the impression that they enjoyed what they were doing whilst also ignoring the tourists. The fastest tobacco rollers, and its all done by hand, are the younger or rather late twenties and bearing in mind that they have to produce 25,000 cigars per day to cope with the global demand; this means a rolling workforce of over 200 meeting their quotas on tough shifts. Taking one leaf they select three to four other leaves bunching them and then once an adequate quantity or size is achieved they roll. There are pressed for fifteen minutes, turned and pressed again for the same period and finally the outer leaf, presentation leaf, is rolled on by other skilled operators. Packing and labelling is completed on the floor below. All these desks and tables have a work force attending where previous generations completed the same process as nothing has changed apart from the density gauge that they use to sample test.
The reader makes appearances reading the newspaper and political articles in the morning and reads from a novel in the afternoon. This afternoon will be Harry Potter in Spanish.
Magically the numbers and size of the cigars fit into the boxes exactly with no space to move. The factory humidor has every brand and size of cigar available to purchase.