A Record of Cuban Life - Havana Times

Recording contemporary Cuban life is a good idea providing that the photographs reflect life as experienced by the average Cuban. The crumbling infrastructure, disintegrating homes, the forty or fifty people waiting for bread at the Empresa with a nearby pensioner trying to extend his monthly pension of $8 by selling plastic bags for 1 peso, families of four on one bicycle, a few avocados, mangoes, tomatoes or pineapples displayed on the porch wall hopefully to sell to passers-by for a few pesos. A woman walking the streets with two or three sweeping brushes on her shoulder and crying out her wares for sale. Huge billboards displaying BIG Brother Fidel and little brother Raul smiling benignly at their subjects surviving on $20 per month. Other billboards extolling the virtues of “Ideas” but only those of the Communist Party of Cuba which purports to have a monopoly of good ideas. This is what future generations of Cubans should know, the reality of the effects of the Castro family regime upon everyday life. I hope that a photograph will be included of those sleeping on cardboard on the sidewalk of Cristo street in Old Havana when waiting overnight to sell the few beer cans, cardboard and other refuse suitable for recycling for a few pesos. A true photographic record of the actual results of the Castro family regime’s fifty five year long control of everything in the country is necessary to ensure that future generations have access ti the truth – a picture is worth a thousand words!
The Castro family regime itself will ensure that there is record of the investment by the rest of the world through UNESCO of the restoration of Old Havana, Trinidad and other UNESCO sites – and they will claim the credit. Hypocrisy is one of their assets.
Subject to recording the truth and reality, I encourage the project!

One thought on “A Record of Cuban Life”

Carlyle MacDuff

August 21, 2014 at 4:38 pm

Recording contemporary Cuban life is a good idea providing that the photographs reflect life as experienced by the average Cuban. The crumbling infrastructure, disintegrating homes, the forty or fifty people waiting for bread at the Empresa with a nearby pensioner trying to extend his monthly pension of $8 by selling plastic bags for 1 peso, families of four on one bicycle, a few avocados, mangoes, tomatoes or pineapples displayed on the porch wall hopefully to sell to passers-by for a few pesos. A woman walking the streets with two or three sweeping brushes on her shoulder and crying out her wares for sale. Huge billboards displaying BIG Brother Fidel and little brother Raul smiling benignly at their subjects surviving on $20 per month. Other billboards extolling the virtues of “Ideas” but only those of the Communist Party of Cuba which purports to have a monopoly of good ideas. This is what future generations of Cubans should know, the reality of the effects of the Castro family regime upon everyday life. I hope that a photograph will be included of those sleeping on cardboard on the sidewalk of Cristo street in Old Havana when waiting overnight to sell the few beer cans, cardboard and other refuse suitable for recycling for a few pesos. A true photographic record of the actual results of the Castro family regime’s fifty five year long control of everything in the country is necessary to ensure that future generations have access ti the truth – a picture is worth a thousand words!
The Castro family regime itself will ensure that there is record of the investment by the rest of the world through UNESCO of the restoration of Old Havana, Trinidad and other UNESCO sites – and they will claim the credit. Hypocrisy is one of their assets.
Subject to recording the truth and reality, I encourage the project!

Comments are closed.