Cuba on My Mind
Partido Independiente de Color via Afrocubaweb
Part One
traveling to Cuba
I have been traveling to Cuba for over 10 years. In November of 2015, I arrived for the first time for a conference at the University of Havana. With free time in the convening schedule, I walked down the streets of the backroads of Old Havana. I passed four-story colonial-styled homes, which lined the streets packed tightly and were colored in light teals, pinks, and off-white. An older Black man and his grandson stood at his door and shouted in English, stern but inviting: “We are Black here!” My Spanish was rudimentary, so I replied back, “I know,” and smiled. He stated back, “Inglaterra,” implying that I may be a Black British visitor. I said, “No, jamaicana,” not claiming the political weight of the American passport in my bag. He returned my statement with a smile and nodded with connection and approval. His grandson, about five years old, attentively watched the diasporic rhythm of our interaction.
I used my Blackness and Caribbeanness in my early travels to Cuba, when my Spanish would not suffice. Dancing, laughing, cooking, and sharing as I wore head scarves, braids, flip-flops, and shorts—I moved around with ease because I looked Cuban (aka a Black diasporic young lady). I created a footprint of my favorite and frequented shops, parks, and places to sit and get Wi-Fi. I loved seeing the same faces on my preferred Havana running route from San Lazaro past Antonio Maceo’s statue and then the fort at the end of the Malecon. At that time, I traveled to Havana for conferences and Spanish lessons. This was during the softening of US/Cuba relations in the Obama administration and the opening of travel restrictions, while also raising the bounty on political exile Assata Shakur. I was among the crowds of Cubans that lined the street to see the caravan of the US’s first Black president. This period signaled a possible end to the blockade initiated in October of 1960 by the Kennedy administration, but with concessions.
history, a free-ish Cuba, and US foreign policy
Cuba has a deep and complex history with the United States, the latter shifting from ally and partner to occupier and neocolonial overlord. Our contemporary understanding of this relationship stems from the Spanish American War of 1898. After thirty years of anti-colonial war with Spain to gain independence, the US came into the war with promises of liberation and support of a “Cuba Libre” (Free Cuba).
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