Imagine flying over the clear, blue ocean and a luscious green, flat terrain for the first time.
Our Delta flight taxis to the furthest part of the airport, where foreigners are instructed to go through a separate building.
From there, we walk through customs— no one stamps our passports—go through security, and then have items we brought for people in need are taken away because these supplies are like gold here.
When we exit the building, cigar smoke and the sweltering heat—like you can’t even imagine—hit us.
As we head to the church, where we will stay for one week, we pass billboard after billboard of propaganda. A horribly powerful dictator is plastered on most of them.
Yes, we are in Cuba: a country where the United States says “don’t go there” and where ignorant Americans claim “the people don’t like us.”
What we all need to understand is that most Cubans like Americans. They like our music the most, but also our people.
However, the problem lies with the bitter hate between the Cuban and the American government.
We Americans will never fully grasp the idea of not having freedom. While some of our generations can understand the concept of food rations, most of us cannot.
A Cuban friend of mine said that an undercover government lives on every block; their job is to monitor what people in the area are saying about the government. If someone says something negative and the officer hears, they could be in trouble.
There is a constant sense of fear that a communist government instills in their people. My Cuban friends did not talk about the government once while we were there, except to tell us—briefly—about the government officials.
If the lack of freedom of speech is hard to take in, get this:
The communist government even controls where its citizens go to college.
Specifically, for Cuban youth to move on to higher education, they must pass an exam. If they are successful, they have two choices: go to La Universidad de La Habana (the University of Havana) or don’t go to college at all. For us Trevians, who apply to multiple colleges and have favorite college teams growing up, this lack of choice is unthinkable.
Recently, the Cuban government started to allow Cubans to move and sell their homes. Before this ban on moving was lifted, homes were passed down from generation to generation. The only way someone could move was if their home was destroyed.
Unfortunately, many buildings in Cuba are falling apart. No, not chipped paint, leaky faucets or spotty light fixtures. Huge chunks of these homes are entirely missing, caved in or in total disrepair. But people are forced to continue living in these buildings because of insufficient financial support from the government.
Some Cubans live in apartment buildings where to get to their home they have to scale the wall because part of the floor, step, or railing is missing. This is when most of us would say it’s time to go on vacation to escape life’s hardships, but not everyone has that luxury.
Most Cubans cannot travel outside the country, especially younger Cubans. They first have to fill out an application and get that approved by the government. Since the government is afraid travelers will leave the country for good, getting these applications signed is extremely difficult.
On the first night my group went to a rooftop restaurant in the touristy area of Havana. We all sat in a circle asking “get to know you” questions. A question we asked the Cuban youth was “Have any of you traveled to another country before?” They looked around at each other and then all together said a big, long “NO.”
After their response, reality really sunk in. I live in an area where many kids my age go to Mexico or some place in Europe for vacations. I couldn’t imagine being told by my government that I had to stay in the country.
Now while money is also an important factor to traveling and something that most Cubans don’t have much off, the choice that Americans get is something we take for granted every day.
When we go to the grocery store we can pick what we want to eat. We choose from different brands and from which stores we want to buy it from.
However, in a country like Cuba, they don’t have those choices. Instead, they have food rations. They are allowed meat a few times a month, while Americans eat meat many times a week. Fruit, milk, bread, you name it, all of it is rationed.
The Cuban government also controls all social media and Internet usage. They do allow some people to use them, but not many. Only a small handful of my Cuban friends have email; only five, has a Facebook page.
My Cuban friend, Tony, is only allowed to have an email account because of work. The ones who have Facebook are allowed to have one because they work in a church or because they are in college.
These friends have taught me to never take advantage of choices I am given. Pop artist Pitbull once said about freedom of speech in Cuba, “The people in Cuba, they know what I stand for, and there’s a lot of people in Cuba that stand for the same. But they can’t say it.”