I recently joined a small group of United States citizens, who flew into Havana, Cuba, to donate medical supplies and toys to churches and the island’s largest synagogue. This distribution method let us donate directly to the needy and circumvent Cuba’s legendary bureaucracy. I was able to legally travel to Cuba under a humanitarian license issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the government entity that oversees the United States’ now 40-year-old embargo of Cuba.
We were dropping off medical supplies at one of the oldest churches in Trinidad, Cuba, the Iglesia Parroquial de la Santisima, when a mother with a small child in her arms came up to us to ask for help. She needed medicine to stop the bleeding from a tumor that was growing from her child’s forehead. This was the first of many dichotomies; we were traveling through a country with a medical system that’s free and extensive, but that’s hampered (due in part to the United States trade embargo) with a serious shortage of medical supplies.
Cuba is a country of unusual beauty, with music on every street corner, but the untold story of Cuba is the rapid change to its economy after the Soviet Union’s departure and the Cuban people’s daily struggle to cope with those changes.
Five years ago, Americans could travel to Cuba with relative ease. In 2002, OFAC issued permits to 40,000 United States citizens to visit the island. But in October 2003, this drastically changed. Due to pressure from the Cuban American community, the number of Cuban travel permits was reduced to less than 10,000 a year—many of which went to U.S. citizens of Cuban ancestry. Further spurred by large budget increases from the Homeland Security Act, OFAC also began to track and prosecute Americans who tried to sneak into Cuba from the traditional non-United States entry points within Mexico, Jamaica and Canada.
Cuba is an island of approximately 11 million people. It welcomes approximately 2 million foreign tourists a year. Most of these are Canadian, Spanish and Italian, who are booking packages to Cuba’s all-inclusive beach resorts and most likely don’t see or notice the contrasts that make up modern-day life, such as:
• Revolutionary posters extolling the virtues of work placed in front of beach resorts priced out of the reach of the average Cuban;
• A large and fertile tropical country that once had extensive agriculture, but, due to over-reliance on the now-departed Soviets, today struggles to feed itself;
• Strikingly beautiful cities with little traffic and no litter, because Cubans have few material goods and cannot afford cars or to throw anything away;
• Fabulous colonial architecture and vintage cars that appear exotic and beautiful, yet are falling apart due to lack of maintenance (although the old city of Havana is being completely restored);
• A joie de vivre expressed through music, art and dance, coupled with despair from the lack of economic opportunity;
• An ongoing political message of “Cuba Libre” (Free Cuba) to citizens who aren’t free to travel outside their own borders.
My trip to Cuba was one of the most interesting—and certainly the most emotional—travel experiences of my life. From what I was able to see and understand, the Cuban people need and deserve our support. I also believe our country’s 40-year trade embargo is seriously out of touch with reality and doing more harm than good.
Cuba is in the midst of change. Fidel’s brother Raul, who’s now in charge, is allowing limited private enterprise, cell phones and access to the Internet. The people of Cuba are still not “free” in a manner consistent with most Americans’ definition, but managers in the tourism and government sectors realize that United States tourism will ultimately be the country’s economic salvation. These officials project that more than 5 million Americans a year will visit Cuba once our trade-embargo is lifted.
This news is both good and bad, as I fear that American mass-tourism will ruin what’s unique and beautiful about Cuba. However, bringing more U.S. travelers will allow more of the people-to-people opportunities we experienced during our trip—and it’s these types of experiences that make traveling worthwhile. It’s also what helped the mother at the church who asked for help, as we were able to put her in touch with a doctor in Havana to help her child—and to let her know we cared.
Larry Martin owns the HMS Travel Group in Santa Rosa and will be taking another humanitarian group to Cuba next year. Call for information at (800) 367-5348.
