Toto, I don’t think we’re in Varadero anymore.
I’m in Cuba with the Calixto Garcia Solidarity Brigade, a group named for the famed general of the Cuban War of Independence. Roughly two dozen of us came from across Canada bearing medical and educational gifts.
Friends of ours had convinced my partner, and then me, to undertake this adventure. Being a culture vulture, I jumped at the chance, in part to learn from the Cubans and in part to study the Canadian leftists. Some leaned so far, they walked in circles. One of the most bizarre exchanges I witnessed involved two leftists snapping at each other. Angrily, one called the other a vicious slur — “neo-colonialist.” It was ugly.
This is the brigade’s fifth such journey, which sees participants travel across the country, learning more about the Cuban people and experience beyond how to make a mojito.
On our first day, two different schools — a primary school and a medical university — each recreated a pivotal event in Cuban history: the massacre of eight medical students by the Spanish government in 1871. It was meant to deter rebels. (It ultimately didn’t work.)
Perhaps Cuban history is a little more dramatic than ours, but it’s still hard to imagine Canadian schools recreating such grisly events. Picture children witnessing and participating in the hanging of Louis Riel just before nap time.
At the primary school, the recreation was followed by the singing of both national anthems: first Cuba’s, then Canada’s. Unfortunately, the PA system went down, leaving us without music. There was an awkward pause as we stood in front of several hundred Cuban kids and wondered what to do. Then one of our brigadiers bravely stepped forward and began to sing “O Canada” a cappella. We all joined in. The interesting part came when we completed the first verse and paused, trying to remember how verse two began. Many Canadians can attest that the space between those verses can be a bleak and desolate universe. Luckily, that same person, having an unnatural familiarity with the complete Canadian anthem, initiated that second verse, and, once again, words rushed in to fill the vacuum.
My partner, as a proud Indigenous woman, has, for as long as I’ve known her, always refused to sing Canada’s anthem, as a political protest. But to my left, I could hear her singing. If you ever want to know what it takes to make an Indigenous woman abandon her political commitments… it’s the sight of 700 children smiling at her, waving Canadian flags. She sells out easy.
Interestingly enough, all this was happening in the province of Holguin, better known as the original landing site of Christopher Columbus back in October 1492. I guess this is why October is officially known as the beginning of tourist season. Personally, I hope to make less of a global impact during my trip, but I make no promises.
Some of the things Cubans are best known for include baseball, rum, boxing, cigars, and doctors. I’m a bit of a conservative traveller, so I found myself sampling only one of those five — I’ll let you figure out which. But one interesting thing I learned was that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, several Manitoba First Nations communities appealed to Cuba to send doctors up to their communities to provide necessary aid. Times were dire. The Manitoban and Canadian medical systems were failing them. Cuba was apparently willing, but for reasons known only in the deepest, darkest bowels of Parliament (imagine the hidden rooms in the recesses of Hogwarts where mischief and evil frequently prowled), Canada said no. In both official languages.
We have another week to go. Much of it involves seeing where Fidel Castro grew up. Went to school. Fought soldiers. Invented the Cubano sandwich.
There have been a few minor medical issues with our group, and the medical staff has been consistently amazing. It’s felt like what a safety net should actually be. In this country, it is difficult to find a toilet with a toilet seat (many think of them as unsanitary, which does make a certain amount of sense), but, all things considered, and as weird as it sounds, I’d rather have their doctors when we need them than a toilet seat.
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