June 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

A Photographer's Cuba Visit

Richard Wood is a Boston-area photographer (www.rwoodphotography.com); Christine Stewart-Wood, who leads international travel expeditions, is a member of Friends Meeting at Cambridge. An exhibit of Richard Wood's Cuba photographs, "The Faded Beauty of Cuba," was on display at the Boston Public Library earlier this spring. The images on these pages and on the cover are part of that exhibit. The following is Christine and Richard's statement that accompanied the exhibit.

Cuba. 2001 © Richard Woods

This past winter we traveled to Cuba with a cross-cultural exchange program. We were committed to seeing and trying to understand the country for ourselves without the filters of political propaganda--pro or con.

Our first and most lasting impression was of the warmth, intelligence, and ingenuousness of the people.

Our second and most distressing impression was of the unnecessary poverty and deprivation imposed upon these people by the US embargo and the mean-spirited stranglehold of the Helms Burton Act.

Cuba did not appear to us to be either the epitome of the Evil Empire or the paradigm of a Socialist Utopia. Instead we found lots of good intentions, shortsightedness, inconsistency, and overall complexity.

Cuba. 2001 © Richard Woods

There is an obvious political presence. At the same time, we did not feel an overriding sense of frustration or discontent. According to the World Bank, Cuba ranks first amongst Latin American countries in adult literacy, years of schooling, and life expectancy (from 55 - 75 years). Its infant mortality rate is lower than that of the US.

While criticism of Castro is not tolerated neither is there a personality cult around "Fidel"; complaints about limited computer access, restrictions on travel, etc. were openly discussed.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting damage to Cuba's already strained economy, Castro declared a "Special Period" during which Cubans could legally accept and spend dollars as well as pesos. The fact that Castro chose to refer to Cuba's desperate state of economic affairs as "special" is something of a national joke. What is not considered funny, however, is that it is rapidly creating a two-tiered (dollar/peso) economy of haves and have-nots, thereby eroding the most fundamental goal of the Revolution.

Cuba. 2001 © Richard Woods

Erosion of another sort is found in the continuing deterioration of Havana's once exquisite architecture. To allow her structural beauty to fade into oblivion would be no less a tragedy than to permit Venice to sink from sight. Havana is a world treasure, just 90 miles from our shores. The distance between Miami and Havana is similar to that between Boston and Nantucket; but government policies have chosen to make it unreachable. It is time for us to put our energies into bringing us together, not maintaining the distance apart.

Siri Colón, Peacework committee member and former intern who has worked in the education field with Latino high school students, will enroll as a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley fall 2002.

My friend,

One shouldn't always begin a letter speaking of the weather, but I can't help but comment that during the month of January, I am enjoying the hot Cuban sun and clear sky--its blue matching the blue of the Bay of Matanzas so perfectly that the horizon is nearly erased. I do not say this to make you jealous, but to give you a sense of the air. And so that you may exercise all your senses, I should add that it smells of grass and dirt when I'm outside of the city, and of dust, musty wood, and if I am unlucky sometimes I run into the potent cloud of mosquito fumigation when I walk through the streets of Matanzas. Cars run dirty. However there are not enough of them to add tremendously to the pollution. On the subject of cars, the pictures you've seen are true, there is indeed a plethora of old Fords, Chevys, and even Studebakers from the forties and fifties with patches on windows, sides, and in engines to give them a life longer than any back home. One night sixteen of us piled into one car to catch a ride back to town.

Cuba. 2001 © Richard Woods

This is my second time in Cuba and being here reinforces my re-evaluation of the word poverty. I've come to agree with the statement that being poor is a relative and moral term rather than a quantifiable term. The other day, I heard a Cuban speaking of the extreme poverty in Honduras. She said how lucky she feels to live without need in Cuba. Then suddenly embarrassed at how I might perceive her comment, she glanced at me--the representative of an overstuffed and bloated capitalist country--and said, "Well, we don't have much but we have a house, food, and a job."

I immediately concurred. I understood, I told her, that what she speaks of when she says poverty, has more to do with the soul than material wealth. Poverty is when people hopelessly witness exaggerated wealth they do not have access to. Poverty is when a people have little power to change their circumstances. Poverty, I thought, is also complacency.

Cuba. 2001 © Richard Woods

In contrast, the immeasurable wealth I saw in Cuba was of family, community, pride, and a joie de vivre evident in the way they carried themselves in their daily interactions.

I am also filled with the irony of my own country's words. A country that calls Castro a dictator who cares not for people's human rights, yet imprisons hundreds of people on the very island it wishes to discredit. A country that has called Cuba a nation sponsoring terrorism--an allegation I seriously doubt--yet continues to fund and operate the School of the Americas, the training camp for military terrorists throughout Central and South America. Please don't misunderstand me, I do not think Castro is a saint, and there is much of his philosophy I disagree with. But when we start holding Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich nations up to the same standards, I'll start to listen.

I hope you can come here and witness the island yourself, and not as a tourist but a visitor. I think the two have very different frames of mind: one implies the purchasing of goods and experience, the other implies beginning on a quest. Come hear the music, famous for its ubiquitous presence on every corner. People often comment on the music, I think because the sound of clave transmits the soul of the island. It is alive, eager, arrogant, passionate, and symbolizes in sound the essence of a people more than any words in this letter could.

Siri

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