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Louis M. Dinwiddie (1966)
Well thanks to Janet Long Levers I'm not only not dead but still able to travel as well. My wife Anna and I took our long planed trip to Cuba and returned a couple of weeks ago. It was a great experience and I'm glad we got in before it switches from CASTRO to COSTCO. I've attached a photo of myself with Jose Rodriguez Fuster at his studio in Jaimanitas, northwest of Havana.That would be me on the left. I've also inclded a short piece I wrote for our museum newsletter. I am so fortunate to live in the U.S. of A.
Cuba! Cuba? A trip to Cuba with the California Automobile Museum, do you want to go? I checked with my wife and we immediately decided yes and sent in our check. That was in August of 2014 and it was with some dismay that the U.S. government announced months later diplomatic changes with Cuba as it took some of the adventure out of our trip. Or so one would think.
Our group of 38 met in Miami on Friday, March 27 to rest up for our Saturday morning flight to Havana. The flight was thankfully uneventful but for a startling custom of the Cubans on board. It seems that as soon as the tires hit the runway they launch into cheers and applause for a safe landing. I was not ready for that though it’s not a bad custom. Cuban customs went easily and we joined our bus driver Junior and guide/interpreter George for a week of getting to know them and their country.
Cuba is different. We had an itinerary but it required daily, if not constant, changes. I was quite happy to live with making sure I knew when the bus left and to make sure I was on it. Cuba is also a country of the Caribbean where time and urgency are not as important as we make them in the U.S.. I got used to the idea that waiters, vendors, drivers, and even bar tenders work at a slower pace than I’m used to. I equated the experience to always expecting these services to proceed as though I was at the DMV here in the states.
There were a great many highlights and historical places on our visit. Our room was on the sixth level of the Hotel National de Cuba in Havana and it afforded us a wonderful view of the ocean with the U.S. just 90 miles away. It was built in 1930 and was the place to stay for such dignitaries as Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Weismuller and others. We toured the ancient forts at the entrance to Havana harbor that were built during the Spanish period and viewed the many government buildings, memorials and statues celebrating Cuba’s’ interesting and convoluted history. The most prevalent and obvious element of our tours of the city was the overall decay of the old buildings. The Cuban’s refer to the end of the Soviet Russian empire in 1991, and its’ billions in foreign aid, as the Special Period. The result of that end of funding and the embargo declared by the U.S. in 1960 has been a general collapse of many of the buildings in the city. An interesting development in pushing their own recovery is the advent of a burgeoning private restaurant business. These are called Paladars after the Spanish word for palate. It was a word that in the beginning allowed the restaurants to operate off the government radar. Now they are licensed, and taxed, and are a great way to experience the local foods of the island. The cooks in the paladars that we ate at are not professionally trained. They bring family recipes and personal inventiveness to your table and we had seven wonderful days of eating experience. A wonderful part of a Cuban paladar meal is that they start with the Coktel Beinvenido or Welcome Cocktail! It is a mojito with Havana Club rum and I’m afraid we’ve brought that habit home to Sacramento with us, not to mention Cuba Libre and Pina Colada.
We visited a cigar rolling factory. The workers are paid piecework and watching them reveals that it is truly an art to roll Fidel’s favorite, the Cohiba. They are the cult favorite and were only offered for sale, with Fidel’s permission, in 1982. To help the workers pass the time more easily they would use readers. These women would read literary works and often the name of the book would be given to the name of the cigar. Hence the Romeo & Julieta brand.
And then there are the cars. Isn’t that why we went in the first place?? When the embargo was placed in 1960 it locked in time and place the cars that existed then. Today there are some 60,000 cars from the U.S. and they are considered a national icon and cannot leave the country. They also provide an important means of transportation for the people as few own cars and the government public transportation system is limited and overtaxed. Most all of the cars are four door and they’re used to transport people, not sit in museums or car shows. A great number have had the engine and drive train converted to European or Russian diesels and it is also common to see the American car body sitting on a chassis from those same countries. There is no apparent SMOG regulation in Cuba. These cars are smokey, noisy, and while wonderful to look at from a distance, closer inspection reveals cars heavily modified and held together with homemade ingenuity and wishful thinking.
One evening our tour organizers found us a car show and about 15 old American cars were proudly on display. There was a Lincoln Continental convertible that was rumored to have been owned by the wife of the leader that was overthrown by Fidel. I especially loved a 1957 Chevy that was clearly lovingly restored by its owner, Manny. Our conversation was between two guys that loved to play with cars and it was no different than any show I’d been to in the U.S., except that we didn’t speak the same language.
The people of Cuba are friendly, receptive and engaging. We saw much poverty and harsh living conditions but at no time would they not initiate a smile and wave or respond to ours when they would realize we were Americanos. They were very interested in talking to us and were hopeful that positive change and better times were coming. Our tour guide told me that if they didn’t have hope they would have nothing. As to those wonderful cars, I was asked by a reporter from the BBC if I thought the embargo should be lifted so that these cars could be bought by collectors from America. I told her absolutely not, the cars belong in Cuba and the color and culture they represent should stay there. I also stated that the embargo should be lifted so we could send parts and supplies to Cuba to help bring their cars to a higher level of restoration and completeness. There is rumor of a 1955 Chrysler New Yorker that belonged to Ernest Hemingway and that it is being secretly restored as funds and parts availability permits. As the political layers thin it would be great to be able to ship parts from America to that small shop we saw near Havana. For now it’s a secret we can’t discuss and you didn’t hear it from me.
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