Cuba today

When in April 2005 I visited Cuba for the first time, the most important reason for me was to reassure the fact that a country without an economy based on capitalist exploitation could be much better. This time, in December 2007, and with that first question satisfied already, what was driving me back to the island was to be able to understand more clearly the diverse and profound contradictions that I experienced in my previous visit.

The monetary duality and the popular distraction

With the Special Period (when at the beginning of the 90s the Soviet Union stopped supporting them) the Cuban state, in a quest to control the influx of dollars, introduced a new currency: the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC)(Peso Convertible), also known as "divisa", "Fula / kilo" or "chavito”. Thus, Cuba has 2 currencies: the Cuban Peso (CUP), the national currency; and the Convertible Peso (CUC). The ordinary Cuban earns in Cuban pesos, many establishments use this currency, but most goods are handled in Convertible Pesos (CUC). Comparing the Cuban currencies –we should take into account that the government taxes heavily any exchange producing a considerable difference- with the American or Canadian dollars in February 2008 we have:

1CUC = 1.10 CAD = 1.20 US = 24 Cuban pesos (CUP)

Cubans earn between 240 and 600 Cuban Pesos (10 to 25 CUC) per month. With only this monthly income Cubans could not go to the shops or businesses that offer services and/or products in CUC. So how can we find long lines for those shops? And it is the same for restaurants or places where they sell desserts or perfume in CUC... My first night in Havana I was invited to a Los Van Van ”concert of “ the National Theatre, the venue was packed full and I think I was the only tourist. With a maximum salary of 25 CUC a month, how could a large group of Cubans spend 20 CUC only at the entrance?.

To give a better idea, some prices are: a decent shirt about 15 CUC, 10 bananas cost 6 PC (0.25 CUC), papayas or “bomb fruit”, pineapples at 3 PCs (0.33 CUC), a bottle of regular rum costs little more than 4 CUC, a box of "Planchao" (the local rum) or a beer in the street are 1 CUC, a decent pair of sandals not less than 10 CUC, perfumes cost not less than 5 CUC, shampoo 4 CUC , a bottle of water 0.6 CUC, a regular dinner for a person, depending on the restaurant, can range from 3 to 15 CUC in restaurants which sell in CUC and between 0.8 and 4 CUC in the ones which deal with national currency. The public transportation is 0.20 PC (0,008 CUC), the "machine" or “maquina” (old cars that cover fixed routes through Calle 23 or Linea in Havana), horse carriages in the province, bicycle taxis and other similar means of transportation cost an average 10 PC (0.45 CUC), taxis do not go over 5 CUC…

The state provides a very basic monthly food basket to every person: 5 kg of rice, 3 kg of white and brown sugar, 1 kg of fish, coffee, salt, oil, beans, eggs and daily bread. "For children aged 0 to 13, pregnant women, and some medical cases (cancer, for example), one pound of beef or chicken per capita is distributed monthly, but the distribution is not timely. For children younger than 7 years, a litre of concentrated cow milk, every other day. In cases of children not tolerant to such milk, evaporated milk is distributed. For diabetics, pregnant women and other patients, one kilogram of powdermilk is distributed monthly", says a report by opponents of the regime. Children older than 7 receive soy yogurt. There are also shelters for homeless people, and places that offer meals at no charge. Although there appeared to be far less than before, some say because the economic crises, others because there is less need to have so.

To live comfortable the Cuban has to "invent", there are 3 markets: the "Agro" which sale in Cuban pesos, the national currency; the "shopping" which sale in Convertibles (CUC); and the black market that works on both of them and also has "independent" locals. But where do Cubans get the money to spend? According to some statistics, 35% of Cubans receive money from relatives abroad, but there is also a large percentage who keeps state property for themselves, to ensure some profits, as they say, “by the left". So, those who distribute rice do not sell everything and deal some on their own, same with those who deal with oil, chicken, fruits, national currency restaurants, tobacco, sugar, etc. It can be said that 8 out of 10 Cubans "resolve" one way or another.

This "inventing", this "resolving", this survival "by the left" distracts the energy, the time of the population completely, diverting efforts towards informality and “smartness” instead of economic progress, community welfare and social progress, in the same way as any other country. At the same time, noticing that there is a privileged bureaucracy that legitimizes itself, there is very little interest and desire to completely understand the problem and try to provide the necessary solution.

Some other notes regarding the economy

There is lack of quality in certain products and services provided by the State, although I found improvements in many things which I’ll comment later, we can see the case of the Cuban pizza. Those pizzas that are sold in local currency stores cost 5 pesos (CUP), and although I found it good enough, for many people with whom I discussed it, those pizzas are neither good nor healthy, the consumer is not satisfied. On the other hand, those that are sold in the Cafeterias cost 1.1 CUC (5 times more), I personally did not find justification for such a gap between prices, but there was a difference in quality. Now, establishments that sell in CUC also belong to the State… So what is happening?

It is not uncommon to see Cubans with cell phones, just the line costs 100 CUC and Cubans cannot apply for it (another restriction of the Special Period), it has to be requested by a foreigner. The actual machine is not less than 50 CUC and the cheapest card is at 10 CUC per month… again, how do Cubans multiply their wages?

While telephone calls are affordable in Cuba (interprovincial calls cost about 0.3 pesos per minute using the “Propia” calling card), Internet access is restricted to schools, universities and Health Care Centers, as well as government establishments. Access to the network through the ETECSA booths is 6 CUC per hour, many people here also does magic to connect.

In Holguin I met Carlo, who worked for the State for 2 years as a driver after the disastrous 1991-92 period, he earned little more than 400 Cuban pesos (about 17 CUC) per month. Then he made himself "independent" and has since worked as a private driver, he gets paid mainly in Convertible Pesos (CUC) from a tourist majority of clients. For each trip he charges not less than 10 CUC. The main problem that people who work like Carlo find is that in the end they are working illegally. If the police catch them, sanctions range from 15 to 50 CUC, and if it is not their first time they can lose the license or even the car. There is even a so called "pot plan" (plan maceta) by which if a Cuban is enriching too much illegally, the government can confiscate all his/her belongings, without opportunity for appeal. How much is “too much”? That depends on the bureaucratic machine.

Carlo, like his cousin who lives in Miami, approves the regime but he knows that there are things that must change. However, his daily struggle prevents him from acquiring the consciousness to understand what is necessary. "My cousin wants to come, he does not like the United States, he knows that this is his island, but the economic problems forced him to leave. I am not leaving!", Carlo stated.

Just like Carlo, much of the population has an alternative source of income, illegal but without appropriating State resources: cutting hair, selling products on the black market, renting something, making tattoos, teaching some art, makeup artists, and so on. As I said before: the Cubans "invent".

Martin, in Santiago de Cuba, said he knows what is wrong, although it is not easy to understand, he also supports most of the things that the revolution has achieved. He confessed: "If the State would give me a salary that allows me to live at ease, I would fight for being part of the state without hesitation". Nowadays he works in a "shopping" and along with his wife has a rental house for foreigners. He hopes for a change for the better, he doubts that the Cuban people will let go what has already been achieved, he also believes that opening up to capitalism is threatening.

Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union

During the period when the island was supported by the Soviet Union, the standard of living of Cubans was much better. But there was also considerable waste and abuse of resources, due to an increasing belief of wealth and abundance. There was little maintenance to the means of transportation and facilities for general use, for example. There is still support for these services by the state, but there are serious differences, the price cannot be lowered and there is still a tendency to neglect. Back then, the Soviet Union not only bought sugar, coffee and tobacco above the market price, they also exported many things to the island at subsidized prices. At that time there was only one currency: the Cuban Peso (CUP) and the purchasing power of the population was many times higher than the current one. Tourism was restricted because there was no need to open up that industry, that way the government was preventing “ideological invasions”. The Cubans could go to their hotels, shop without restrictions and had increased state support in basic services.

The Soviet Union collapses after a degeneration that started in 1924 with Stalin, the worker’s state suffered a huge political strike, a bureaucracy was formed out of the historical conditions and economic contradictions. The new state fails to promote revolutions in industrialized countries and, quite the contrary, betrays many opportunities. Just like it happened to Cuba later on, the USSR accomplished a lot after destroying the capitalist system in its territory, but the backwardness of its industry, added to the constant pressure, external and internal, created the conditions for the complete betrayal and future destruction of the first worker’s state.

The Special Period in Cuba began in 1991, when the Soviet Union ceased to help. Being the beginning of the 90s the worst time, the Cuban economy still has not recovered despite the help of countries like China and Venezuela. An example of the debacle is the absence of products like the “macho” bananas, corn, cheese, bricks, cement, which, as I explained before, is partly due to speculation by Cubans themselves, their attempt to "resolve". I could witness many Cubans taking products from one market (province, city) to another, where they pay more for them; they hide to sell later at a higher price, and so on. But, on the other hand, there are many lands that need work to become productive.

The State knows what is happening, the police for example, aware and everything, turns a blind eye. To enforce the law would produce mass protests; the bureaucracy itself has to allow the black market to avoid threats to their privileged position. One more of the ironies is for example the fact that while Cubans loyal to the revolution, those who endure the hardships of their economy, cannot go to a hotel (given the case they had the money for it), the “worms” (gusanos) coming from Miami can do whatever they want.

So far we know that the salary is very low, that the State subsidizes part of the food basket, part of the transportation, the health system, the education system, but still is not enough. If we take the Cuban State as a global enterprise, how can it pay more to its workers if their production is still low and of dubious quality?

Class struggle, internationalism and scientific socialism

When Marx and Engels were studying history, economy, society, they realized that capitalism creates two classes of radical conflicting interests: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle" they understood in the "Communist Manifesto", in this struggle one must choose which position to take. Classes are defined by their relationship to the means of production: those who own the means of production are the bourgeoisie, they need the labour of the workers: the Proletariat, those who need to sell their labour to survive. Other classes are for example the peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie (students, merchants, which at the end sell their work too but are closer to the bourgeoisie). The bureaucratic machine that rules Cuba is not a class as such, it is a caste that holds the power from the workers and from the bourgeoisie and achieves its privileges through the limitations imposed on the majority of the population. Surrounded by contradictions, the bureaucracy has the necessity of keeping the population heavily dependent.

The socialist revolution must be pushed by that class which has the interest and the position in the economy to achieve it: the proletariat. In Cuba, a guerrilla movement was triumphant and the worker’s state was deformed from inception. The Cuban revolution could succeed in a world balanced with the U.S. on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. Had it happened now, the outcome would have been probably different.

In countries not fully economically developed, where the bourgeoisie is overthrown (Russia, China, Cuba, etc.), the revolutionary internationalism is a fundamental task, the exporting of the revolution, the promotion of revolutionary opportunities in developed countries in order to solve future limitations. Stalin created a theory that is the opposite: "socialism in one country", the betrayal of the revolution. Isolated Cuba, without the support from the United States or Mexican industries, will never be able to complete the development of its economy and have a say in a global market whose rules are dictated by the industrialized countries. The best hope for the Cuban people, without the support of the proletariat of an industrial power, is the already classic “resistance” and the aid that can be provided by friendly countries such as Chavez’ Venezuela or the good relations with a China that is going through a critical stage as well.

In the meantime…

Some of the issues the government has to solve urgently are the problem of the two currencies, unify them or improve the Cuban Peso (CUP), restore the purchasing power to the people, eliminate misappropriation, minimize the illegal private work, speed up industrialization, modernize agriculture, and so on. To accomplish this, the state must raise wages while increasing the prices and quality of what it offers. Under the existing circumstances, all this is impossible.

But there is a lot that can be done in terms of industry in the meantime, eg. in tourism, implementing guides at various locations would create jobs; further improvements in transportation integrating the private drivers; preparing more fields for cultivation and stop importing what until very recently they were able to produced, etc. But there is one thing that slows this down: the bureaucracy! The complication is vast. Greater control, without salary improvements, is very difficult. A political revolution, the seizure of power by the workers, would put these and more choices on the agenda, without looking for personal privileges, without fearing losing a job. Based on constructive criticism, Cubans, who know their industry better than anyone, can propose solutions to revitalize the productive machine and increase the quality and quantity of goods and services for the interests of all Cubans.

But there is another major obstacle: the lack of political awareness among the population due to the everyday distraction caused by the want. And the circle is closing. Cubans, especially those born after the revolution, do not have a real socialist consciousness. Those who claim to have studied Marxism, did so by memorizing pages, without understanding its historical and class foundations. The state keeps using their revolutionary heroes and the Fidel’s personality, while idealizing Jose Marti, a XIX Century ideologue, who is also cherished by the Cubans in Miami. Marti, who lived during the independence wars against Spain, invoked an independent Cuba and other progressive thoughts, but took as an example the European democracies of the time, defending private property and other bourgeois thoughts.

Like China, Cuba will have two options when the bureaucracy in power can no longer keep the upper hand, even more with the imminent absence of Fidel. On one side is the return to capitalism, we just need to look at the countries of Eastern Europe or Russia to find out what this would mean in the Cuban soil. The other is the assumption of power by the proletariat at the head of the other social groups and the beginning of the construction of the real socialist order, with a firm search for revolutionary internationalism, not only that of exporting doctors or teachers, but understanding scientific socialism, realizing that Cuba needs to develop its economy to refine their aim towards true socialism.

The Energy Revolution and its good impact

Since 2006, Cuba has been developing a deep reform in the use of different energy sources with special emphasis on the electrical system. It tries to renovate production sources, rationalizing energy use and improving the distribution system. What has been achieved so far is a minimization in blackouts, aggressive distribution of energy-saving bulbs, use of natural gas for electricity generation, distributed generation through highly efficient engines, some awareness in the population, projects for the use of solar panels and power generation using wind energy. In Pinar del Rio, for example, there is a company working on solar panels, but the current deadlock is due to lack of resources and the excessive paper work to get them. Yamisleydi, an engineer friend of mine, commented that where she works there has been a waiting period of several months already.

Public transportation, in general, has improved a lot. The Venezuelan oil supplies and the buses that are available at affordable prices from China are some of the factors that have led to this. There are more buses (guaguas) in the big cities such as Havana or Santiago, the price per trip is symbolic (0.2 CUP), a cab from Vedado to Centro Habana, in the capital, can cost around 3 CUC; I referred to other prices before. The inter-provincial transportation is still separated between those for foreigners and those for locals, the buses are the same make and model, the freezing air conditioning is the same, but there are three key differences: price (the Via Azul for tourists costs at least 10 times more than the Astro for locals); only the first one has TV; and in the Astro, before the trip, the driver gives a 5 minute speech about how to take care of the vehicle and other measures to be taken in these "buses" that are "ours, the bosses travel in their own private cars". The bathroom was only for emergencies, because the liquid required to clean them is limited.

This time I saw more cars in Havana, or at least I got that impression, I was visiting the other places for the first time so I cannot compare. There are also more constructions going on, this in several locations. But at the same time I have heard that there is more violence on the streets, more people driving drunk. I have not a witness any of this, I just saw a traffic accident near the Habana Libre Hotel, but never knew what caused it.

Education and Health

In Cuba, the pre-school, primary, secondary, college, university, specializations, are free. Nobody is asked about their income so that they can study. Education is available to every single Cuban.

In universities many of the students are from other countries like France, Peru, Argentina, Haiti, and Sudan. I think this helps them a lot giving them a more global context to what they are learning. There is a large number of incentives for those who stand out, for those with better levels of achievement. For example, Yamisleydi received a couple of days in Varadero for her and a companion for a weekend all inclusive. Another friend told me about consumer vouchers for clothing and restaurants. At any level, semi-internal students have classes until 4 pm. The ones with scholarship (which wear a different uniform in schools) live in campus for 11 days and then go home for the other 3 days of every 2-week period.

Someone told me something interesting: "It is true that the Revolution taught us how to read but it immediately banned us from writing", and to some extent this is true, there are restrictions on the island but it has also changed with the "Special Period", I found people talking more openly about the regime, many websites have a strong position against the revolution and the writers live in the island. Of course this is also progressing at a snail's pace. I spent the first night of 2008 in the Malecon of Havana with some street musicians, among them there was a captain of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and a Rap artist, on some of the improvised songs, they would “attack” each other, but in a tactful manner. While one tried to explain some of the problems recognizing the good things, the other would criticize the differences among Cubans themselves and the scarcity.

The enemies of the regime would say that Cuba is not the only country which offers free education, and that there is a high level of propaganda in schools, to show you that God does not exist and that socialism is the best thing in the world, that the Americans are evil, and so on. I would reply by saying that is true, other countries have a public education, but what level of education? Cubans are recognized worldwide for its professionals in many fields. In Canada, one of the best economies among the industrialized countries, education is free only up to high school, then it costs you an arm and a leg, the state loans you money and you end up tied for years paying this debt, I know people who have finished college 5 years ago and still continue paying. In capitalist countries schools propaganda, indoctrination is far superior, they teach you that you have to work for big companies and be a good wage slave, that there is no better society that this one, that our strongest tool is the democratic vote (which we exercise every 3 years), they teach you the history that betters appeal to them without a true analysis on how we arrived to present time, they teach you about being individualistic and not to live in collective harmony and so on. About religion, what to say?, there is almost a monopoly of the Catholic Church ... In the end, education is not only the school, they will provide the basis, but depends on each person to deepen and built their own being. The basis of the Cuban educational system is admirable, although there is still a decline which I perceived since my previous visit.

Overall, I think there is a real lack of Marxist theory in the population, there is a lack of real revolutionary theory. Ordinary Cubans who took Marxism in schools or university did so without really focusing, they just memorized paragraphs to pass the courses and do not use an appropriate analysis. This is understandable when we look at who handles the state. The teaching and training in scientific socialism would arise many questions for which the bureaucracy would not have acceptable responses.

In Cuba, health care for the nearly 12 million Cubans is free. The same they will see you for a sore throat or stomach aches than for something as complicated as a heart or a liver transplant . The medicines are very affordable, but there are limitations to get those that must be imported from abroad.

I got sick during my visit, it started with a cold but when I reached Santiago I could not stand the sore throat and went to see a doctor which, when noted my accent, asked where I was from, I told her I was Peruvian and told me that she did not need to know if I was a student or tourist, but that if I wanted I could tell her. I talked with Lili for while, and she prescribed me antibiotics, Vitamin C and painkillers. When she gave me the prescription she warned me that although the consultation was free, at the drugstore they could charge me more for being a foreigner, so I better give it to a Cuban to get it for me. The price for all the medicines for 10 days was less than 0.5 CUC, but the place where we bought them had no vitamin C, I replaced that with oranges.

The health care system, like the educational one, is admirable, but also has its problems. Just like teachers, doctors seeking better salaries end up in the tourism industry or in Venezuela. Just as students are covering teaching posts, same happens with medical posts. Just like in education there’s often a lack of educational equipment, health care suffers shortage of medicines. In both the level is not the same as the one it had back in the 80s.

Doctors that go to Venezuela receive a salary as any doctor over there, a stipend, and furthermore, the Cuban government makes monthly deposits of 100 CUC into their account, which they can only access once they finish their contract and had returned to the island. Doctors are among the most controlled to leave the country, one reason being to avoid a shortage on the island. If received an invitation from abroad, a doctor could wait up to 7 years for the approval of its permit by the Minister of Health.

In Cuba, abortion is legal, which is very healthy in any society, not only prevents the always risky illegal practice, but also liberates women, allowing them to decide by themselves about their body and future.

Carlo from Holguin, regarding the health system, told me that his son must be injected with insulin (to regulate his diabetes) 4 times a day, the state provides them with everything. Three weeks ago they had a problem, the 12 year-old was unstable and they called the doctor to his house, he responded with a procedure to follow but it did not work. Carlo called again and the doctor told them to take the kid to the hospital and gave them a list of things to say to the emergency nurses, they regulated the child and then everything was fine. In my country, and even here in Toronto, it would have not been so simple; it could have been even lethal.

Corollary

From Havana to Camaguey I managed to travel by the bus used by the Cubans and that foreigners cannot use: Astro. When the bus made its first stop, at around 10pm., in a “Conejita” (set of facilities to be used by travelers), I got off to make a couple of short calls seeking accommodation in my next destination and buy something to eat. When I went back to my bus, I could not find it. In the middle of the night, with no money and my entire luggage at the Astro, the future was not very promising. That is how I met Nino, whose voice I heard cursing very close to my "this has never happened to me! This is the last straw! In all my time of service!…” He had been left by the same bus. That was fortunate for me, I was not entirely alone anymore. A few metres away there was another Astro parked and the drivers were returning from the Conejita. Nino approached them showing his Union Card and asked them to take him, the drivers agreed, but when he asked them to take me as well they totally refused, carrying foreigners may cost them their job. I started to worry and even saw myself sleeping under palm trees. The drivers called their passengers to take off, and when the door was closing I put my body as a barrier. I asked again, claiming that it was a humanitarian case, "what am I going to do here? Not being familiar with the area and without money?" I assured them that if the police stopped us, I would explain the whole incident. Already inside, the two drivers, Nino and I exchanged about music, about the evolution of transportation in Cuba and how they see the future of the island. At about 2 am., A man approached saying that her daughter needed to go to the bathroom, when we were entering a restaurant at the side of the road, Nino and I saw our bus that was filling up oil in the gas station.

The good Nino, with over 80 years, lives modestly in a second floor apartment in Camagüey, he is very close to seal an exchange (permuta) deal for something a little smaller in Havana. He lives from his pension and the support of his two sons.

On the issue of housing, opponents of the regime claim that " in Cuba no one owns their own house” because they cannot sell, they can just swap or exchange, and if you leave the country your property goes to the state. Cuba is the only place, which I know of, where people do not have to pay a tax on property. A minority rents from the state, and much of that rent is subsidized. As I mentioned earlier, there are shelters, but are used mostly during natural disasters. In combating capitalism one must fight the private property of the means of production, the factories, services or lands. What we look for is the collectivization of the economy, the socialization of production; we do not fight the private ownership of houses or apartments, in contrast, we demand that every individual has a decent residence. With the means of production in the hands of the workers, under a planned economy, it will be possible to enjoy what we produce without the thick filter of the voracious owner. Looking at the role of women in a capitalist society, Lenin noted that " the abolition of private ownership of land and the factories...opens up the way towards a complete and actual emancipation of woman, her liberation from ‘household bondage’ through transition from petty individual housekeeping to large-scale socialized domestic services”

Nino would comment on one of our long conversations that he could have done lots of money as a heavy machinery mechanic. He traveled to many countries where he got offered some jobs but never accepted. On the contrary, Nino felt very proud to tell me how after the triumph of the revolution, he and his colleagues helped to design the new transportation system in Cuba. For this character, what is needed is consciousness to accept that some may receive the same as you even when they work less or do not do it properly.

What Nino did speaks very well of him, that courage to face the problems having the opportunity of an "easier" way out. Many Cubans have left the island. In April 1980, for example, a group of Cubans entered the Peruvian Embassy in Havana, killing one Cuban guard. Fidel ordered the withdrawal of custody outside the embassy and, weeks later, more than 10,000 Cubans were seeking for asylum. Fidel Castro authorized the entry to boats from Florida, to anybody who wanted to pick up their relatives, at the port of Mariel. From April to September around 100,000 Cubans left the island towards the US, a minority would end up in various Latin American countries with a more difficult future. Nino, however, was among the million that march in support of his government through the Fifth Avenue in the so-called "Fighting People's March". But, why do people want to escape from socialism: a classless, egalitarian and harmonious society based on material abundance? The straightforward answer is that it has not existed or exists in Cuba, yet. That kind of society cannot be built in a single country, isolated and economically underdeveloped. That kind of society requires the overcoming of economic scarcity on a global scale through an internationally planned, socialist economy … once again we go back to internationalism.

Yet proud of his revolution and the multiple benefits that it has achieved for every single Cuban, Nino will confess with extreme seriousness and concern: "It is true Peruvian, lately there has been a deterioration, a greater fondness for taking the property of others, for shortcuts, for misbehaviour, for the “easy way” …" And this is something we already commented paragraphs above. In the mid nineteenth century Marx understood that without a massive development of the productive forces, scarcity would prevail, and with it: the struggle for subsistence. He wrote: "A development of the productive forces is the absolutely necessary, practical premise (of Communism) because without it want is generalized and with want the struggle for necessities begins again, and that means that all the old crap must revive" One more time it is underlined the international nature of scientific socialism, even more critical for underdeveloped countries.

In terms of safety, Cuba is among the most secure countries of the world. From my experience, I would go out every day with my camera without any fear, in other Latin American countries my camera would have lasted not more than half an hour and I would even put myself at high risk. However, it is fair to mention too that I did hear a lot about "Cuba being more influenced by the violence from countries like Venezuela".

The last time I saw Nino I was about to leave to Santiago de Cuba. We met for breakfast, where he would state, with passion in his eyes, raised eyebrows and a broken voice: "I have travelled the world, I have been to Germany, the Netherlands, China, Argentina, Nicaragua, the USA, Canada, Angola and others I cannot longer remember… I can assure you something, almost nowhere, in the event of a medical emergency on the street, will 2 out of 3 cars stop, public or private, and take you without hesitation until they run out of gasoline. In Cuba this still happens...”

Yuri Callirgos
Feb. 2008