Havana in Cuba and Miami in America – 140-kilometer gap between the two worlds of one nation

– How come you spend so much time there? do you have a wife there? – Yes, I told them. 

He let me go, however my personal reason to be in Cuba is none of their business.

In Miami, it is easier to get around in Spanish rather than in English. Except for Cuban immigrants here live a lot of Mexican, Guatemalans, Columbians, and other Latino people, who have turned Miami into the Latin capital of Central America. Everybody speaks Spanish even the Americans living in Miami. This is a good start, I thought to myself… At the airport, I underwent a detailed inspection of my luggage. In two hours I checked in a hotel “only” for 120 USD per night, which included also “a cold breakfast”, croquettes, and tea for breakfast. I have traveled around the USA – it is a wonderful country, but Miami has always been of greater interest to me. Almost every Cuban person dreams of going to Miami and living in Florida… Let’s see Miami from the inside.

I love Cuba and therefore I want to know what Miami means for the Cuban person 

CUBA IN MIAMI. THE BIGGEST CUBAN DIASPORA IN THE WORLD. STORIES OF IMMIGRANTS. 

 

Jose is an immigrant who was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. He is a Uber-driver. He is 24 years old and has no more than a primary education. 

– Oye, Jose, como estas, ermano? /Hello, Jose, how are you, brother?/” – I ask him.

And  Jose started his story…

– Dude! I work 12 hours per day to pay for my apartment. No rum, no beer… Here we don’t gather like in Cayo Yeso /a Havana neighbourhood/. Here we have to work hard… Trabajo or I am out… My parents paid 10 000 USD for a speed boat, which managed to pick me up successfully on the 7th time from a secret shore in Pinar del Rio to Key West. My parent waited for me there. I hadn’t seen them for 4 years since they ran away through Mexico. Ermano, this isn’t Cuba… 

–  But why? – I asked.

– Because the people here are different. They don’t celebrate, they aren’t generous… 

– But Jose, here you can make money! Why are people stingy? Miami is a rich city and you earn well! 

– We do… But do you know how much apartments cost around here? Insurance, taxes..? 

I didn’t even ask… Jose is paying a debt to his parents for bringing him to Miami. He is always paying for his car and apartment /maybe some of the most expensive in the US are in Miami/. Of course, a lot of Cuban could envy Jose for his modern car, a smartphone with internet, modern clothes, and opportunity to travel anywhere he wants /if he finds time/… 

The Cuban person is cheerful, careless, and social, From Jose, I found out that in Miami a big part of the Cuban habits and practices are impossible to implement. The Cubans usually visit each other just like that – to ask for a cup of flour, or sugar or to talk about some rumors he has heard about the neighbour… 

This is why Jose’s life has drastically changed in Miami. Here he has to work sometimes even for 14 hours a day to afford all the possessions that seem impossible for his fellow Cubans. Is this the most important? I leave the answer to you, our readers.

I found Vladimir – a waiter, who works in a Mexican restaurant on the Cuban 8th Avenue in Miami. Here is what I found out while I was sipping my coffe and waiting for my grilled fish… 

– Ermano, I used to be a chef in a state restaurant in Havana, but I lived in Guanabo. My child is waiting for me there… I imported meat and vegetables, the personnel and I sold them and shared the money. Here, in America, I work in three restaurants changing shifts and I have absolutely no free time and off days. I have to pay for the car and house… Although, over the last couple of months I’ve been feeling like I really don’t care about the Chevrolet and the I-phone. I have no joy in my life here… Nobody has time around here! Everybody has gone mad! Bit this is my life now…   

Vladimir thinks that if he goes back to Cuba it would be a shame and disgrace since living in Miami by Cubans is thought to be a great success and a symbol of prosperity. Vladimir was accepted in America because he is a brother of an immigrant from 2002, who recommended Vladimir. 

Next, I met Luisa the daughter of the guesthouse ownerята in Vedado, whom I work with. 

– Luisa, come with me to see your mother. Enough work. After all, you have been working for a whole year now. 

– I can’t, mi Amor… My boyfriend and I have to stay for another year if we don’t want to lose our American residency. We have to work, the expenses here are big… Our rent /for a 60 sq m apartment/ is 900 USD per month and for the rest, we pay at least 600 USD. We have neither time nor money… 

– Maybe health is most important – I added. She laughed. 

Lusa and her boyfriend have passed the border illegally through Mexico and stayed in the USA in accordance with the Wet feet, dry feet policy. They did all this risking their lives… Now Luisa works at the Immigration Desk at the Miami airport. What an irony! Luisa has no right to leave America for another year or she will lose her business visa and the money given to the smugglers who helped her pass the border. Social networks such as WhatsApp are the only way to communicate with her family for now. Luisa has a second job as an office assistant. Luisa stuffed my luggage with children’s clothes for her cousin in Cuba who is pregnant. A few minutes later I was very sorry I took them since I had to throw half of the souvenirs I bought because of the strict control check valid, especially for Miami–Havanа flights. Ass I already mentioned in February 2020 Trump forbid flights to all Cuban cities except for Havanа. Another surprise was waiting for me at the airport. Although I have a Cuban visa I am told that it is not valid and I need a new one in exchange for 100 USD. This reminded me of how Cubans put a tax of 10% on American dollars used in Cuba. So I paid 100 USD. I threw loudspeakers, 4 pairs of clothes and I am still left with so much luggage… Finally, I managed to sneak in because of my skin colour (I am a European after all). Once I got onto the plane one of the flight attendants told me that there is no room for hand luggage on the plane so I needed to check in my second suitcase as well. All the luggage compartments in the plane were taken – everyone had 2-3 bags per person…

Julia has been living in Miami for 40 years. Despite being Cuban, she prefers talking in English. Eventually, I found out that she still hasn’t met her sister from her father’s third marriage. Her sister lives in Matanzas, Cuba. They have never met…

– Julia, how is life in Miami? She answered in English that she is very busy…

On the second day I tried to start a conversation, but very hard…

 – My parents came here bare-handed. They arrived in Miami on a ship from Mariel harbour. I was 19. Before that my father spent in jail 20 years without court or an official verdict. Nevertheless, I was happy that he was alive. They released him and my mother and I boarded the ship. This was the greatest trauma in my life after the death of my brother 7 years ago. 

Julia and her parents are part of the Boatlift affair. This is one of the biggest mass migrations of people from one country into another.  In 1980 after an agreement between the USA and Cuba for an exchange transfer of prisoners of war Fidel Castro announced that everyone who wants to leave Cuba is free to do so but only after renouncing ownership of their property in Cuba. Special ships were prepared for Miami. More than 150 000 Cubans eave Cuba the same year. 

The conversation is delicate. Julia definitely doesn’t like mentioning not her native country but rather the political reality there. Now Julia has already had 4 Bacardi drinks. In Miami, they don’t have HAVANA CLUB or other Cuban brands because of the embargo. Even if there is HAVANA CLUB many Cubans wouldn’t drink it for political reasons. Bacardi himself runs away from his home city Santiago de Cuba after the Revolution to move his business for rum production to Puerto Rico. 

– Look, amigo… America gave me everything after my homeland had betrayed me. We came from Mariestuffed in a ship like cattle… Despite the hardships, we were madly happy and thankful to America for our FREEDOM… The cost was high – a lot of labour, sickness /my brother died 7 years ago/, but we were free. Now I have a hotel to leave for my daughters. This is impossible in Cuba. If we lived there now, we would live in poverty… 

– But, Julia, at 19 you had no choice – I told her. 

– No, Amigo. Even if I had to choose now I would do the same.

Julia is a part of the second big wave of Cubans leaving their country in 1980 for political and economical reasons. The first big wave happens right after the Revolution in 1959 when thousand of political immigrants – adversaries of Fidel Castro’s regime, flee the Island. Sure of the USA’s upcoming success as a result of their political and/or economic intervention, the immigrants are waiting for the right moment to come back to Cuba, move in again in their own houses and continue their business. However, it is now 2022 and the waiting continues… The reasons for this are many.

As I already mentioned, in Miami they /almost/ speak no English. After so many wars /unsuccessful/ the Spanish have accomplished their goal. I walking along 8th Avenue, or Calle Ocho, towards  The Little Havana. Calle Ocho starts with the Cock – a symbol of the macho, even of ego. Namely, here the immigrants and supporters of Batista come to establish the Little Havana neighbourhood. There they are waiting for Fidel Castro to be taken down… However, this doesn’t happen even after the organized by them and financed by America attempt for landing at the Pigs Bay in Cuba on the 17th of April 1961. 

Orlando is a Cuban immigrant – an ex-entrepreneur in Cuba and the current owner of a restaurant in Little Havana. He ran away on one of the last Cubana de Aviacion planes in 1960. After a whole day of negotiations, Orlando agreed to talk to me. He asked me not to mention his restaurant’s name or his own. 

– Look, kid. You are young and you don’t know… They took everything from me. The revolutionaries took my business away, stole my property, they killed my cousin. 

Filled with vengeance and pride, Orlando started telling about Cuba before the Revolution.

          – Before 1959 Cuba was flourishing! 

– What do you mean! – I opposed.  For who? The 1% of Cuban entrepreneurs? What about the levels of drug smuggling and the crime rate? What about education? Cuba before the Revolution is a marionette of America. Its population suffers from a lack of education, healthcare, lack of everything important… All of this while very few people from the ruling top are favoured… 

– What about the lack of freedom and the fact that if you are an educated and responsible person in Cuba you are powerless to use your talent because everything is owned by the party? – answered Orlando with vengeance in his eyes. What future can Cuba offer its youth with a salary of 30 dollars per month? How could they possibly feel motivated?

I glanced at the cock and I remained silent. I glanced at the cock and kept silent. Who was I after all to judge – just a foreigner. So I listened… 

          Orlando proceeded…

You could see luxurious cars in the Havana streets. It was full of bars and restaurants, the economy was developing. We used to earn a lot, so we bought 2000 decares of land next to Ciego de Avila. We cultivated yucca, tobacco, and vegetables. We signed a contract with a big company for the export of our production in Atlanta, USA. We used to live on 5th avenue and we had it all. Prior to the Revolution… After that, we had to run for our lives. My father Carlo had built his business with years of labour, but it was all gone then. Fxxk Castro and his Revolution! Hey, Amigo, can’t you see what they have done to Havana – shabby facades, poor people, who risk their lives to escape… Doesn’t it seem suspicious? Are you blind? 

I decided not to argue. The was no point. He had his arguments and so did I. 

Fernando has three children. He comes from Gibara, Cuba – the place where Christopher Columbus sets foot in 1942 to discover new lands. He moved to Trinidad and bought a wonderful colonial guest house we work with. Although Fernando earned a lot, he wasn’t pleased with Cuba. He didn’t support the political regime and didn’t believe in Socialism. He ran away to America through Mexico in 2016 and was accepted in line with the Wet feet, dry feet policy. Eventually, he took his wife and children with him and they started over their life in Huston and later in Nebraska. 

– Amigo, Nebraska is almost unthinkable for Cubans. Most of us live in Miami because of the climate, which is similar to the Cuban. And in Nebraska, there is cold and snow. It is unbearable for most Cubans. I bought a TIR by installments and I earn good money. They also send me money from Trinidad. I use it for part of the mortgage and if there is anything left I pay for my license and fr my two sons’ education. They have already chosen to stay in America. My daughter is still little. I don’t know about her yet. 

Fernando and his wife are obliged to come to Cuba every two years in order not to lose their citizenship and their property along with it. The right decision was made by the Cuban government as I see it. After all, although Fernando doesn’t like the political system in Cuba and he doesn’t want to live there, he comes from Trinidad. In 2020 he rented out a restaurant on the first floor of his house. However, the Coronavirus crisis destroyed his tourist business. I don’t know what will happen next, but I am sure that Fernando and his family will never come back to Cuba.