I’ve come across this overtly confident statement twice in my reading. The first time was a little black and red book given to me by my friend Tony Labat. We were sitting in a Havana hotel room, plotting our lecture presentations in Tania Bruguera’s art class at ISA (Institutio Superior de Artes). The book documented Fidel Castro’s self defense speech before the court in Santiago de Cuba on October 16, 1953. The second time I came across the same exact statement was in Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. I don’t know if Castro read Mein Kampf or came to his book title separately. Both these men played the long game in their minds. History has an unpredictable way of unfolding. Many feel Castro was correct in his assessment of his legacy. Hitler? Not so much.
I went to Cuba twice in 2003. The first time I visited was to lecture at ISA and the second was to participate in a “performance art” circus outside of Havana, while launching my line of HolyLGM water, honey and cigars. The first time I went illegally through Bermuda and had no difficulty. My second trip I travelled legally through Miami and I am still paying for it. George Bush was president at the time and although institutional “cultural visas” were readily available, officials in both Miami and Havana treated a “legal” traveller like shit. In fact Havana has two side by side airports. One looks like any modern international airport with smiling faces and “Bienvenido” signs. The other has barbed wire, rusting tin roofs, scowling, machine gun toting soldiers and rough looking chickens pecking on the runway. I-gringo was not “Bienvenido.” The record of my “legal” visit to Cuba on my passport sends up red flags at U.S. Customs to this day.
These days a trip to Cuba has become more problematic than ever. Although, according to my second hand knowledge, Trump and Fidel knew each other well and had business dealings together, the current administration has made traveling to the island next to impossible; increasing it’s strangle hold of sanctions on the Cuban people. This could be due to a personal falling out with the Castro brothers or Trump’s predictable undoing of all of Obama’s more lenient and humanitarian policies. Either way Trump is anti-Cuba and the island continues to suffer under a U.S. blockade.
One of the many difficulties of living in the Catskills are the long, hard winters. Temperatures are twenty degrees colder than New York City and when snow dumps, it stays. By the end of February everybody has cabin fever. I’m not one to fly south to Miami. I hate beach culture and hanging with Florida rednecks and racists make snow shoveling look attractive. My fantasy was to rent a little fishing shack in Mira Mar or a funky apartment in La Vibora and hole up with the Cubans until turkey season. But in the present political climate I might as well try to rent a bachelor villa on Love Island.
The Cuban people are paying a far greater price for the sins of this administration than we are. A new Special Period may be upon them if Trump remains in office. Reports of gas shortages are trickling out and far tougher times may be ahead. If any U.S. citizen has the opportunity to visit Cuba they may be surprised to realize how friendly and welcoming Cubanos are to their cousins from the north. The most basic Spanish will get you by, as most Cubans are also taught English. I love the Cubans. History will never absolve Trump or his henchmen, but that won’t stop them from trying to spin it in their favor. I don’t know if I’ll ever have my shack on the Cuban beach. It’s not looking good. I just got my firewood delivery in preparation for the cold months ahead. Trump or no Trump, winter is coming. History will not absolve any of us from dealing with that.
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