Although Cuba lies only 90 miles off the southern coast of Florida, many Americans think that the island nation is worlds away. But as Lisa Harsh learned on her trip to the isle, sometimes you have to throw stereotypes out the window.
Harsh, 29, who works for a children’s clothing company in Manhattan has lived in Hoboken for the last four years. She grew up in the Midwest and attended the Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, or, as she refers to it, the “little apple.”
She has always had a passion for traveling and photography. On her vacation last year, she went to Ghana in Western Africa for three weeks to volunteer at a pre-school. This year, she chose Cuba, a location of tropical beauty, vibrant culture and political turmoil.
“During the week, I have my day job, and that’s great,” said Harsh in an interview Tuesday. “But on vacation I want to get away and see new, different and exciting places. That’s one of the reasons that I chose to go to Cuba.”
As Harsh learned, Cuba is not the easiest place in the world to travel to.
But with the help of Cross-Cultural Solutions, a nonprofit organization based out of New York, Harsh was granted a Visa to travel to Cuba legally “for the purpose of person-to-person contact and cultural exchange.” In keeping with that directive, much of her time in Cuba was spent interacting with local people. She traveled to Havana and Pinar del Rio, met with the Federation of Cuban Women, which is a leading woman’s rights group, and the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, Cuba’s nationwide system of neighborhood watch programs. She was also able to visit schools, a hospital and an agricultural cooperative.
Harsh did not know exactly what to expect when she arrived. “Cuba has always been a mysterious place to me,” she said. “That’s part of its allure.”
In the end she was pleasantly surprised by the attitude of the people she met. The Cuban natives were generally very friendly toward her and the other U.S. visitors, and were as interested in our country and culture as she was in theirs.
“Strangers would invite you into their homes to eat dinner or listen to some music,” said Harsh. “That’s something that you just can’t do here.”
“I think a lot of people [in America] would wonder, why anyone would want to go there?” she continued. “But unless you travel [to Cuba], you don’t get a chance to see those kinds of things. You don’t see the music, the dancing, the people smoking cigars. Everyone there plays an instrument, and it wasn’t uncommon to be walking around the city streets and run into a huge block party with people playing Congo drums and sipping on rum. The people were so friendly, and outside, the city was green and lush. A truly beautiful place.”
The embargo placed on Cuba by the U.S. has had far-reaching effects on the population, making small necessities like soap and paper difficult to find. Still Harsh was impressed that the Cubans are happy and their cities are clean, with good schools and medical facilities.
“Sure some of the buildings are crumbling and falling down, but the details and designs are just spectacular,” she said. “In some ways it is like stepping back in time. You look at the cars they drive, there are all vintage ’40s and ’50s cars. They’re fabulous.”
Harsh believes that it is Cuba’s old-world charm that makes visiting now so imperative.
“I really wanted to go before they lift the embargo,” she said. “Right now it has that old-world charm, but once [the embargo] is lifted, things are going to change quickly. It might be for the best, but it is going to lose something, so I am glad that I was able to go now.”
But there were some things that still reminded Harsh of how far away Cuba is from the U.S. politically. She recalled a conversation she had with one Cuban family.
“I was talking to a family and they told me how some of their relatives ‘swam’ to America. Now I don’t know if they actually swam or if they used a raft or what-not, but the fact that I met someone whose family did that really brought the situation close to home and made an impact on me.”