During the early 90’s it was really hard to get anything to eat, rice and beans was a luxury. It has gotten better since then, and for those with access to hard currency it’s not bad.
And yes, Cuban food in the US is not only better it is everywhere and cheap! Pollo Tropical, is all I have to say.
I requested and received political asylum. I am a naturalized Canadian citizen now working in the US on a H1B visa.
When Castro dies nothing will change in Cuba, for all intents and purposes he’s been dead since July 2006 and nothing has changed. Raul, or maybe Fidelito will continue running the country as is.
There is a very small, very vocal minority of Cuban exiles who I’d characterize as extremists, they’re nuts plain and simple. They’re never going to return to Cuba of 1958. There’s a somewhat larger, political group who has figured out that they way to going political power in the US is to present a hardline front to Castro, they don’t care about Cuba or Cubans, they just want power. Interesting aside, US congressmen the Diaz-Balart brothers are related by marriage to Fidel Castro, and are cousins of Fidelito, Castro’s oldest son and likely succesor to Raul.
The vast majority of Cubans in the US and other places I’ve found to be much like me. Sending money to their family, either going to visit when they can or briging their relatives over if possible.
TI actually have a lot of other questions, but I’ll stand aside for a moment and let others ask: but let me say thank you for the interesting and well-stated answers you’ve given to all the questions so far.
I have not seen the film, many films that deal with leaving Cuba are not seen in the island, even if they were made there.
There are couple of options for Cubans to leave the island. First there’s what I did, some of us have an opportunity to travel and take advantage to defect. Most Cubans however can not travel abroad, for those the options are 1. Get on a raft and try to get to Florida, 2. Get a foreigner to send you a letter of invitation, usually people who marry Cubans use this route, or 3. Apply for a US visa, the US issues 20,000 of these every year.
Options 2 and 3 are complicated because although you may have permission from the US or some other country to go there, the Cuban government still has to approve you to leave. My guess is than in your movie the girl got a visa from the US lottery (called el bombo), and the grandmother had received a letter of invitation from someone who wanted to marry her.
There a little bit of a holding pattern going on in Cuba now. With Fidel out of the way some things will change, but not in the way people in the US expect I think. Raul seems to be leaning towards a vietnamese or chinese model, with more economic openings but continued political hardline. But nothing, absolutely nothing will change until Fidel dies, he’s too big a figure.
Can you go into a bit more detail about how you gained asylum? Practical details. Like did you just say “see ya suckers” to your colleagues at the conference and took a cab to the consulate or something?
It went pretty much like this, there were 5 of us IT types traveling to the conference. It was a Microsoft thing so some of us were developers, other IT support, some who were there to watch us, and so on. We were staying in a small hotel near the trade center, two to a room.
Before leaving Cuba I had let some friends in the island know that I wanted to stay in Canada and they had given me the address of a couple who could help me. Our first night in Toronto the IT group got together to go out to dinner, and on the way to the restaurant I told them I was not feeling well and was returning to the hotel room. Instead I took a cab to the address of the couple who was to help me and met with them. They gave me some instructions, basically to go back to the hotel room and to look for them ouside the hotel the next morning.
I did as I was told, and the next morning as we were leaving the hotel as a group I saw a mini van pull up in front of the hotel, the couple were in it along with a catholic priest, who I later learned was also Cuban. They waved to me and called me in a very friendly manner, I told the two or three guys walking with me that I thought I knew them and was going to get closer. Instead I got in the van and rode off with them.
The best thing about that day was later, when the couple and the priest took me to some function in the church. Food! Everywhere there was food. I was still in Cuban mode so I grabbed a plate and was filling it about a mile high when the priest came over and told me laughing to take it easy, there was plenty more.
From there, the priest took care of a lot of paperwork for me, I mainly signed papers and sat in an interview with a couple of government officials. The next week I had a permit to work, and haven’t looked back since.
I’m amazed by the diversity of interesting people we get to meet on the Boards! This is a really great, informative thread, lalenin, and I hope you’ll spring the $15 to become a member and stay.
I love this as a new slogan for the U.S.: The U.S.: Just like Canada, but more so! 
I told you your experience would make a great thread! Hope you stick around.
So do people in the USA and Canada have a realistic impression of what Cuba is like today? Or are you constantly telling them, “No, it’s not like that at all…” and if so, what is their biggest misconception?
Interesting. Were there any threats, explicit or otherwise, given before you left for the conference that if you defected bad things would happen? Do you fear for the safety of your family/friends because of your defection?
It’s hard to get across to someone living in the US or Canada what is like to live in a repressive dictatorship. When describing life in Cuba I sometimes get asked ‘Why don’t the Cubans do something about it?’. Well we do, some speak out and go to prison, some act out and get executed, and some leave. Those are the choices, along with the consequences. It’s not like I can write a letter to the editor and vent againts Fidel on Granma (Cuba’s official newspaper), or form a new political party to run in the next eleccion, both those options are illegal.
I am also sometimes disappointed when, Canadians especially since americans can’t go to Cuba, talk about how poor Cubans are, but how happy they are. What the hell else are we supposed to do? Kill outselves?
I didn’t tell anyone in my group what I was doing. The only thing that worried me about defecting was the chance of not being allowed to stay and sent back to Cuba. I’ve no doubt I would have done time for trying to leave.
Omygod this is chock full of international intrigue. I feel like I should be wearing a trenchcoat and dark glasses while I read it!
Expanding on that a bit…
…what’s your reaction to the occasional Hollywood or celebrity figure who visits Cuba, meets with Castro, and then expresses admiration for some aspect of Castro’s regime?
Hell, if he doesn’t have the spare cash, and doesn’t mind it, I’ll spring for his first year. I think there are a lot of people that could use the viewpoint of someone who has lived in a Communist/Stalinist model.
And the way the bit about missing Cuba was written made me miss my home too. So… yeah.
If you’re interested, lalenin, my e-mail is in my profile.
Oh they’re not that occasional. If you’re in Havana and hang around the bigger hotels, you will see some sort of celebrity every single day. Some are Hollywood types, others are literati. It’s kind of disappointing to hear some of the comments the Hollywood types make, but I don’t think most of them are that intelligent anyway so no big deal. I was really disappointed when I read about Gore Vidal’s recent comments though. I thought he had more on the ball.
From this side though it’s a little amusing to see that those who praise the Cuban government would raise holy hell if their own government treated them as Castro treats Cubans.
Since you’ve been gone so long, you may not know this, but I gotta ask anyway: How do Cubans in general feel about Hugo Chavez? From what I’ve read, I can’t decide if he’s trying to buy the love of the people or annex Cuba as part of some grand plan to become the head honcho of Latin America, or perhaps something else?? Between his hatred for the US, the proximity of Cuba to Florida, and his current spending spree on Russian weaponry, frankly, I have to wonder.
As an aside, my husband was stationed at Guantanamo in the early 80s and he loved the area in general. I’ve looked as a few touristy websites and Cuba looks like a lovely place full of potential. How much of the island have you been to?
If there was ever a change in the relations between Cuba and the US that would permit free travel, I’d love to visit the island. I wonder if that’ll happen in my lifetime??
How do people get to go back to Cuba for a visit? I’m assuming you personally would probably be jailed for defecting if you were to return - are the people who visit ones who got out via the lottery system you mentioned?
The official line on Chavez is he’s a great revolutionary. One the streets he’s generally seen as a little bit of a clown. He seems very subservient to Fidel and that’s not a good trait for a head of state. He’s also been shown singing, badly, in shows from Venezuelan tv, very clownish.
I’ve been everywhere in Cuba, it’s a beautiful country, and most tourists only see the beaches, but there are great natural wonders too. Mountains, waterfalls, caves with stalagtite formations that are fantastic.