Day 8 – Cienfuegos April 5, 2018
Yesterday April 4, was the fifty years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. I was not a fan of his growing up in the 60’s but he did have some good quotes. One fits perfectly with our trip to Cuba.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The Cuban people need a little of, “no” a lot of our love.
Yesterday we visited Cienfuegos, Cuba. It was founded in 1819 by the French. It was built after the pirates had calmed somewhat so the streets are laid out in squares and are paved. It is the prettiest city we have visited. The city was one of Cuba’s chief seaports used for trade. Next year is their 200th year celebration and they are trying the best they can to restore their buildings which with restoration would be beautiful. Most are three stories. The business, horses, carriages, etc. were always on the first floor and the people lived on the second story. This city is certainly a lot wealthier than Santiago and Trinidad. That said, the evidence of the American trade embargo and the collapse of the Soviet Union is extremely evident here. Today we saw people standing in lines at the peso stores. They are handed a food ration of rice and beans, stand in another line for eggs or whatever. They pay in one currency saved for the local people. It is a protection for them. Otherwise tourists could come into one of the stores, see soap for 5 cents, buy all of the soap and then there would be none left for the people. The supplies and choices of products are extremely limited. It is very sad to see.
While in Cienfuegos, we visited the Thomas Terry Theater, a national monument built in 1863 with ornate Italian architecture. They have left it exactly as it was in 1863. It was beautiful and the way the floor and stage slanted there was not a bad seat in the house. The acoustics were amazing and no mikes were needed. The wooden seats however would not be comfortable, plus our guide told us the building has a metal roof so at night when they have performances steam from the hot ceiling mists down on the people and you feel like you are in a sauna, of course no air-conditioning.
We then went to a chamber orchestra concert. Again a hot steamy building! It was wonderful and they did an awesome job. Very difficult to keep those instruments tuned in that humidity. They had arranged their own music. They did a version of the song, “Oh, Shenandoah.” It was so moving. We bought their CD. As yet they have not been lucky enough to leave Cuba. What a shame they do not have the freedom to travel and share their talent with the world.
At night the ship had a choir group come on board. There were about eighteen singers and their leader. They sang everything acapella. The leader used a small tuning fork, hit her hand and then held the tuning fork to her ear, sang a few notes and they started. It was quite amazing. They too sang “Oh, Shenandoah,” so I decided to look up the connection of the Cuban people to the song. It was sung by the slaves as they loaded and unload cargo from the ships. Instead of singing the words, “wide Missouri” they sang “world of misery,” Now the really interesting part of last nights performance, is the fact that they were allowed on the ship at all. We must carry our passports and visas whenever we are off the ship. So when they stepped on our ship, they were stepping off of Cuba which is strictly prohibited. Not sure how it happened but the ship gave them a good turn out and again most purchased CD’s. Everyone on the ship by now realizes these people are just trying to survive and they need help. We have probably bought more souvenirs than normal but I feel good that maybe we helped a little. When we purchase something that costs us the equivalence of $3; to them that is $75 pesos. Today the ships tour was a Botanical Gardens, we have seen enough trees so we took a cab downtown and helped the local economy.
“Seek and you will find. Don’t be willing to accept an ordinary life.” – Salle Merrill Redfield
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Tom and Holly