The Barrios Blog

Cuba Trip VII

February 9: Wrapping things up....

We are getting ready to go to the United States Interest Section to meet with the Chief of the Interest Section, Michael Parmelee. Since the United States and Cuba have no formal diplomatic relations there is no ambassador here, nor in DC for Cuba. But the countries have extensive informal relations--immigration, limited trade, and so forth, and the so-called interest section handles these matters as an embassy would in other countries.

Today was packed, but the event which was most affecting was the Solidaridad con Panama School, which we have helped over the years. This is one of Cuba's 'special' schools for physically disabled children. Severely handicapped children here receive daily physical therapy and an environment of emotional support. A majority live on the 'campus,' a small parcel of land with an old school painted white and red, from the age of 5 years old.

In some ways this is an excellent example of something Cuba does well: give life opportunity to children who would otherwise have severe limitations.

Job training and then direction with ACLIFIM, the national organization of disabled adults. In others, it isn't: though it appears poor by American standards, it is far better resourced than other schools I have visited here.

The sunny day continued with a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, and our annual meeting with the National Library director, Eliades Acosta.

What a pleasure to learn he has just published a book called Hotel Tampa Bay, a murder mystery that takes place in Tampa, circa 1897. My family arrived from Cuba at around that time. In general terms, one salient difference between Tampa Cubans and Miami Cubans is this difference in emigration...it reflects on many aspects of the two groups political differences.

Now, to the interest section and tomorrow, back to Boston!

Jarrett Barrios

Cuba Trip VI

BLOG POST for Feb 8

From Trinidad to Habana

Just back into Habana from a five-hour drive, right back into Habana Vieja, or "Old Habana," the colonial era neighborhood. This time we are staying at the O'Farril Hotel--those Irish seem to get around.

The morning in Trinidad was moving with visits to both the Catholic Charities program out of the central parish, and to the local library. The Catholic Charities program here works with prisoners' families, Downs' syndrome babies and adults, as well as elderly persons. Past support as well as contriubtions made through the Archdiocese of Boston for their Caritas Cubana program (which Consuelo Isaacson and Micho Spring run) support this important work.

The priest is a Dominican and we arrived unannounced (as always, it seems, things just come together) and he received us. This is one of two functioning parishes in the whole city of Trinidad, the others "are in ruins". The other parish is presided over by a Passionist brother, also from Spain. Not too many diocesan priests left in Cuba...

The library was similar to the Cienfuegos one: sparse, and greatly appreciative of the children's books in Spanish. The director had us meet in an old "art salon" where the art books were kept. The local ICAP director was understanding: we made the delivery, spoke for a bit but had to leave...with a long drive in front of us.

So the night winds down and I am starting to miss Boston a lot, though my sources tell me its been pretty cold--85 degrees here guys, you have my sympathies.

Jarrett Barrios

Cuba Trip V

February 7  Cienfuegos and Trinidad

This morning began sweaty and windy:  the town center is situated in a peninsula and when rough weather comes through, it feels it pretty seriously.  But as the day cleared, we boarded our bus for the Fonseca school.  650 students attend this typical primary school, from pre-school to 6th grade.  The physical plant of the building is atrocious, no windows, rainwater runoff collecting in the yard, but the children by all accounts are well educated in the basics of reading and arithmetic--such a dramatic contrast to children elsewhere in Latin America I have visited--Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. 

At the Fonseca, we have a special relationship built through the Sister City committee of Cambridge and Cienfuegos.  We recieved letters for children back in Cambridge (The Amigos School) and will help them continue their pen-pal exchanges.  No computer access at all, it would seem.  We left them just before noon, wishing to spend more time.  After meeting with UNEAC and the local government officials where I had to give them news of local politics in Cambridge (who the new mayor was, etc) I recieved a letter for Ken Reeves who I will present the letter to back in Cambridge.  Better learn Spanish, Ken!

The trip to Trinidad, one of the oldest cities in Cuba, was uneventful and we called it a day early--weather wasn't looking so good!  We're half done with our work.  Tomorrow its back to Caritas and libraries.

Jarrett Barrios

Cuba Trip IV

BLOG February 6 2007

There is no flatter place in the world than the 4 hour drive from Havana to Cienfuegos.  We left mid-morning from the capital city with nothing to measure the distance by except the endless sugar cane.  I don´t wear a watch and have no service on my cell phone here, adding to the feeling of being out of time.  Some crazy news on CNN about an astronaut stalking another woman is all I´ve been able to learn of happenings back home, other than that sad woman, it´s more sugar cane and then more still.

Entering into Cienfuegos, a mid-sized Cuban city on the southern side of the island, I am always struck by the well-preserved main avenue down the peninsula to the town center.  At the very end of the peninsula sits an old sugar-baron Arabic-styled mansion.  Its always reminded me of the Alhambra, but right on the Caribbean sea.  An elderly chanteuse calling herself Carmencita plays the piano there all day and night.  We´ve helped her with asthma medication over the years (and some of the ladies have been moved to leave her eyeliner too!).  She truly is ageless--as proof I can only offer up that she was 70 when we met her six years ago and is still 70 when you ask her today!

The greatest joy today was the library visit.  The building was an old social club affiliated with the Rotary Club International, a grand two story structure with an impressive marble staircase up to the ballroom on the second floor--now the reading room for the place.  It was damaged in a serious hurricane 5 years ago and the second floor had been closed since--but reopened this year.  The ample gift of books were greatly appreciated, but it is always the reading assistive technology for the blind that are most appreciated there.  The Cienfuegos library is the regional center for services for the blind, and a kind man named Alexis gratefully welcomed us and accepted the materials for the library. 

Remarkable, too, was the clarinet quintet of middle school students who played three classical pieces with extraordinary talent on display.   I am sending this email from a most unusual place, too.  Internet access is extremely difficult to find, and virtually impossible to access outside of the tourist hotels.  I´ve managed to talk my way into the local offices of ICAP and they have graciously allowed me to send the email, though surprisingly I am unable to do it directly through my own webmail program. So it goes. 

Hasta mañana,

Jarrett

Cuba Trip III

February 5 2007: early learning and education in tobaccoland

This is my 10th trip to Cuba; like many things that repeat themselves, I fall easily into the trap often of thinking I know what I know. So this morning, my first visit to the tobacco-growing western end of the island, known as Pinar del Rìo, shook me out of these doldrums.

Many visits to many places across the western province, but the one that stays with me was the child care center (I can´t call what I saw early learning and education). In one of the larger towns, we stopped the idling 1956 Ford-painted a stylish flat black- in front of a non-descript house.

Four of us, including Donna Perry and Oz Mondejar, unloaded threee bags of educational materials and school supplies and carried them around back. WEe were in the middle of some of the richest tobacco fields in the world, horses and cows, and bicycles all around us.

When we reached the rear of the house, I was amazed to see no fewer than 40 children eating a mid-day meal at tiny tables, laughing and chatting (I am always amazed when speaking Spanish with a Cuban child how expansive their vocabulary is; a literacy rate higher than many parts of the United STates and a society that values conversation over television encourage help develop this). But they all fit in the back porch and side yard of the house...and were all about to go in for their post-lunch nap.

The nuns were solicitous, though nuns in Cuba still have the same effect on me as in the US--respect infused with a little bit of fright. One took me to the kitchen after I explained my interest in childhood nutrition. I used to teach nutrition to women in MExicali Mexico and was curious how they prepared the meal. It was balanced to be sure, with the rice and black beans forming the basis of a protein'rich meal. The children also received s small portion of fish stew-something like a bacalao for those familiar with the Cuban dish made with codfish.

The children were in this town because of a local prison that housed prisoners from around the island. These families needed real help and in particualr the aid they received from this program--run by Catholic Charities- seemed to be making a tremendous difference.

I ended the day in HAvana pushing a car up a hill in the neighborhood of Vedado. A fellow member of the delegation had to make a medicine delivery and the car we were in (Papito´s Russian vehicle) ran out of gas. We got it over the hill and then rolled all the way to the gas station...leaving me wondering about my own second adolescence. It was quite a day....and now I´m going up to get ready for the trip tomorrow to Cienfuegos in the South.

Jarrett

PS: For all the cooks out there, I finally found a copy of Nitza Villapol´s Cuban cooking primer in English!

Cuba Trip II

FEB 4 9pm

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Our arrival in the town square was uneventful but late. We were ushered over to the Uniòn Nacional de Escritores y Artistas Cubanas (UNEAC) center.

A local group of writers and artists were given an old dilapidated building to renovate and they created a social club and artist space of some reputation in the region--a real jewel. After a lecture on the pedestrian way complete with sculptures of Charlie Chaplin (a scene from Modern Times) and a national war hero, we drank espresso and moved on to the town library where we presented the books.

Book deliveries are always trick and I confess in the past we were never sure they got to where we hoped they were going. So this year, we brought them on the plane at some expense. This wasn´t an accident, because the United States government denied us a shipping license so we really had no other opportunity. The books made it, as did the machine for the blind (the library in Bejucal is the regional center for matierals for the blind). The librarian, my cousin Diana Nadal, was gracious as always.

After this series of formalities, a local folkloric dance troupe of girls between 5 and 13 years old performed, and we had lunch at Dianá`s home.

Guanabana, a fabulous but odd tasting Cuban fruit, was found among the papaya and pineapple slices, and we had a great mix of rice, eggplant and pineapple ratatouille, tamales and plantains, followed by a dessert of dulce de coco. We played some dominoes and headed home.

That night I was able to give a package to the boyfriend of a young woman in my district who studied in Habana last year. Roberto was a true gentleman and quite the English student, having just read Catch-22 and currently reading a novel by Kurt Vonnegut. So I gave him a copy of Ravelstein by Saul Bellow and he joined me for a light dinner with Donnas Perry, Gary Fontana, Denise Silver, Julie Smith and Karla at a Middle Eastern restaurant in the old section of the city. Early to bed, because we´re going to Viñales tomorrow to visit and make a delivery to an important Catholic Charities program!

Cuba Trip

Departing tomorrow morning for points south, I also find myself departing from Mrs. Butler’s writing regimen, though not easily. Today I am beginning a series of blog posts that concern a topic near to my heart, the annual ACCESO humanitarian mission to

Cuba

I have been leading since January 2001. I have already used the first-person singular three times in this blog post: my 11^th grade English teacher must be groaning somewhere down in Tampa, having counted me as a victory—too soon, it would seem—in her war against the use of  “I” in composition writing.

Mrs. Butler, if you’re reading this, please understand that a web log virtually requires the first person, and certainly, a travel log on a web log requires it!

Our ACCESO delegation this year includes public health professionals, educators and one erstwhile politician (er, me) and arrives in

Havana

on a direct charter flight from

Miami

mid-afternoon tomorrow, Saturday. ACCESO stands for Americans and Cubans building Community through Exchanges Support and Outreach; it remains one of the few humanitarian organizations still licensed by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control to do work in

Cuba

. This year we’re taking an 8-member delegation to the island and will continue our work providing material support for children with disabilities, rural libraries and Catholic Charities programs.

Oz, one of my co-leaders of the delegation, is very committed to this cause. Why? Oz doesn’t mince words:

"Our goal is to build bridges between people in both the

United States

and

Cuba

through humanitarian assistance. After over forty years of estrangement from our families, this is overdue.”

You see, Oz and I are both Cuban-Americans with family in

Cuba

. I have cousins on both sides of my family—which used to allow me to travel to

Cuba

for family reasons. Now I travel with Oz and the ACCESO delegation. My family is from San Miguel del Padron in the city of

Havana

, and from the town of

Bejucal

in the

province

of

Havana

(about 45 minutes from downtown

Havana

). My cousin is the town’s librarian. The thousands of children’s books and medical textbooks we have shipped to Cuban libraries have made a material difference in the lives of Cuban people. If you’d like more information on ACCESO or would like to make a charitable contribution to this 501©3 non-profit corporation, go to the website www.acceso.us – and check out the series of posts from

Cuba

. I’m going to do my best to get pictures up, too!