See all Posts in the Wanderlust – A Travel Blog Series

Christopher Columbus once described Cuba as “the fairest island human eyes have yet beheld.” Yet, fair as she is, and only 90 miles from Miami, hardly anyone goes there.  

United States law restricts travel to Cuba but no longer prohibits it. You can travel there if you are willing to jump through some hoops.

In addition to traditional requirements like having a valid passport, obtaining a visa, and securing health insurance, you must also declare that the purpose of your trip falls into one of a dozen or so authorized categories. This includes traveling for educational purposes, to support the Cuban people, for athletic competitions, or other easily achievable activities. You just can’t be a tourist (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

The modern history of Cuba is a tragic tale of disastrous governance and lost potential that is evident even to casual visitors. After centuries of colonial exploitation, Cuba came to be ruled by the brutal and autocratic regime of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s.

The relentless corruption, repression and murder of dissidents by the Batista regime eventually gave rise to the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Castro started as a revolutionary nationalist but quickly adopted the core principles of communism, including state ownership and control of almost everything. Guevara was a Marxist-Leninist idealist who eventually left Cuba to foment revolutions in Africa and South America.

Driven by their experience living in a corrupt, violent, crony capitalist state, Cuba’s new leaders set out to create a more just society. And by many measures, they succeeded. They rooted out corruption and dissent in the government. They closed brothels and casinos. They developed social programs designed to improve Cuba’s standard of living, with a heavy emphasis on education. They built roads and housing. They improved infrastructure and established free medical care.

They developed a society that can reasonably be described as “post-racial.” This is an extraordinary improvement in governance over anything Cuba had experienced in hundreds of years.

However, this egalitarian society did not come without cost. To accomplish the revolution’s ideals, they squashed dissent and adopted the communist notion of state ownership, including complete control of private property and the means of production.

This need for control has undermined the success of their revolution in some very damaging ways. The lack of political freedom led to a brain drain of thousands of professionals, doctors and engineers who emigrated to the United States. Counter-revolutionaries were arrested, jailed and sometimes murdered. Land reforms and the fundamental problems associated with state ownership of the means of production led to staggering drops in productivity.

Cuba doubled down on their socialist ideals and developed deep economic and political ties with the Soviet Union. In the 1960s and 1970s, Cuba sold most of its sugar to Russia and other communist countries in highly favorable terms (relative to the world market). Cuba became the largest sugar exporter in the world.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused turmoil in the Cuban sugar industry. One of the direct consequences of state ownership of the sugar industry was low levels of investment and innovation. Production levels were poor because farmers lacked incentive to produce.

Ultimately, the sugar industry collapsed. Formerly vast sugar plantations are now being overtaken by jungle, and giant, rotting hulks of empty sugar mills dot the landscape. Cuba once produced 8 million tons of sugar per year. Today, it produces less than half a million tons.

Shortly after the revolution, Cuba nationalized U.S.-owned oil refineries without compensation. In response, the United States expanded what had been just an arms embargo to include almost all exports.

One of the most noticeable effects of the embargo is that no American cars have been brought into Cuba since the embargo began.  Havana is awash in mid-century American automobiles. Most Cuban men consider themselves pretty good auto mechanics, having grown up trying to keep these beasts running. These vehicles are referred to as “Frankencars,” having had their engines and other critical components replaced with newer parts from other vehicles.

The mix of vehicles in Havana is roughly 25 percent Frankencar, 50 percent Russian, European and Japanese imports, and 25 percent horses or donkeys with carts.

In rural Cuba, the proportion of donkeys with carts jumps to roughly half of all vehicles on the road. Nothing says failed revolution quite like donkey cart transportation in an otherwise modern economy.

Another notable feature of this equal (and equally poor) society is the government market stores and ration cards. Each Cuban family receives a ration card they can use at the government market store for basic foodstuffs like rice, flour, oil, etc.

The positive side of this is that no one goes hungry. The negative side is that it is barely enough to live on. Even today, if you have children under the age of 7, you qualify to receive a liter of milk per day. If not, no milk for you.

Many visitors to Havana stay with Cuban families in their homes. This provides hard currency income for Cuban families, and it affords visitors a sobering glimpse into the lives of ordinary Cubans.

The electrical grid in Cuba is failing, so visitors who stay in regular hotels complain that even when they have power, they may not have hot water. The iconic Hotel National is comfortable and is pretty good about keeping the power on and the hot water running. They also offer a fascinating look into the past. Plumbing fixtures in the guest rooms date back to the 1950s and 1960s, and ashtrays are scattered throughout the hotel lobby.

Cuba, like most countries in the Caribbean, grows sugar and produces rum. This has become quite a cottage industry for other countries, with expensive barrel-aged rums exported worldwide.

In Cuba, the government controls rum production, resulting in one national brand called Havana Club. Havana Club rum can be described as a “lowest common denominator” product. It’s nothing special, but just good enough for most people. If you order a Cuban rum-based cocktail like a Mojito or a Daiquiri at the Hotel National beachfront bar, take all of your enjoyment from the historic hotel’s ambiance. The cocktails are mediocre at best.

The same lack of innovation is apparent in the beer industry. Domestic Cuban beer is cheap, but the small handful of available brands taste about the same. IPAs, Porters, Stouts, NA Beers, Sours, Ambers, Kolsch, and so on aren’t produced locally, so if you want craft beer in Cuba, you have to pay premium prices for an import.

If you enjoy cigars, a tobacco plantation tour is a must-see. One grower I visited with explained how much better life was since Raul Castro introduced reforms to allow farmers to keep and then consume or sell up to 10 percent of their production. He described how he dutifully gave the government 90 percent and used the remaining 40 percent to produce and sell cigars and create a better life for his family. However, be careful when buying cigars on the street. You are more likely to get a counterfeit Cuban cigar in Havana than anywhere else on Earth.

Health care is free in Cuba. They have a thriving pharmaceutical industry. They export doctors and other health care professionals to other third-world countries.

However, one of the striking distortions of this equal but poor economic system is that the best and the brightest don’t aspire to be physicians; they aspire to be tour guides. As a physician, you get the same pay and rations as a store clerk or a tobacco farmer. As a tour guide, you can earn tips in hard currency and provide a better life for your family.

It is interesting to note that images of Che Guevara are everywhere in Cuba. He is revered as a revolutionary idealist who died for his cause. His image is on shop windows, t-shirts and souvenirs all over the island.

But Guevara died young, and Castro lived to rule. His image is notable for its absence. Castro dethroned the abusive dictator Batista. He created an egalitarian society that provides health care and enough food so no one starves. But this has come at the cost of individual freedom, economic stagnation and donkey carts.

The Cuban people I met were joyful and kind. One sign of how difficult life can be for them is that if they see a pen in your pocket, they swallow their pride and ask if they can have it. If you visit, bring an extra suitcase full of school supplies, toys and toiletries as gifts for people you meet. And you can bring home the gift of a new perspective on the “fairest island.”

(Dan Keyport is a CCLN board member and former Chaska business owner, now retired. His home base for international travel has been Chaska for over 30 years.)