Cuban/Aussie: 2011

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Homosexuality. / Homosexualidad.

Cuban Street.

In Latin American countries homosexuality is not well understood. They think it is a disease that you could get if you associate with people like that. They think that people make a decision to be gay or not at a certain point in their life.

This type of thinking causes conflicts between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Comments like “people think you are gay if you are a friend of one”. Parents advise their children not to associate with a gay, because the rumors can be very damaging in a small town.

These attitudes can occur when there is little knowledge or teachings and not being prepared to accept diversity of any kind, of race, sexual preferences, ideology, cultural, etc.

Those people critical of gays are less prepared mentally to live in this world. They have incapacity to live with people who do not fit their stereotype.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Cuban Mix feelings. / Sentimientos encontrados.

Melia Cohiba Hotel, Cuba.

Cuban man.

Sometimes I feel shame when I find myself speaking in English to Cubans, but later I look for reasons and there they are.

It seems that the years I spent living in hotels in Havana with my fiancé and being constantly asked by security for my identification (Cubans were not allowed to stay in the hotels) those experiences took a toll on me. In some way I was not in trouble if I looked like a foreigner in my country. My Cuban looks were not accepted in the Melia Cohiba hotel pool; I went on to bleach my hair and speak English so I could be free of harassment. This worked.

There are other reasons too; I grew to feel uncomfortable whenever a Cuban man approaches me. Their conversation very often was of a sexual nature with innuendos and it could vary from nice to very rude. I lost my taste for that type of communication which is very much part of Cuban culture.

La Playa. / The Beach.

Santa Maria beach, Cuba.

Remembering my trips to the beach in Cuba we would wake up early in the morning and meet at a particular place to take the tractor or bus that would transport us to the coast.

My friend’s mother would be offered as a bonus from her job, trips to the best beaches around, these were virgin beaches. Some employees and their guests were fortunate to have this opportunity to experience the best beaches our country had to offer until those white sand paradises where taken to build hotel villas for the sole use of foreign tourists.

My friend’s mother would take to the beach some food she had prepared the day before, the popular choice was tayuyos, a corn dish we enjoy in Cuba.

We never used anything like sunscreen. In one hour our skins would start to burn on the shoulders and face. This did not present a problem for us until 4 hours later when we would be returning home all burnt, salty, tired and exhausted from so much sun and sea.

I think we were a bit lucky we have olive skin which may be more resistant to the damaging radiation. We never had heard before anything about skin cancer in Cuba.

Cubans were not allowed to visit those white sand beaches until recently when the laws were changed. Such places, for many years were exclusively for foreign tourists. Cubans risked a visit to the police station if they dare to go near by.

Here in Australia the beaches are open to be used by all. It used to amaze me that we could go there without paying one cent and everybody is free to use it.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Volunteers. / Trabajo voluntario.

In Cuba the government for many years has made extra efforts in making Cubans attend to “volunteer jobs”. For a better understanding what happens is that we are assigned certain jobs and told that it is voluntary, but if you do not attend you can get in serious trouble in your job or school. This form of “volunteer” practice has made us feel apathy towards it.

I guess that we humans can show certain values only when they are coming from our inside convictions and not from an imposed model.

It is a thought that comes to the mind when I see the Brisbane people volunteering in masses for the clean up of their city after the flooding last week, helping each other like brothers and sisters with a common interest in their community.