Mexico and Russia and the USA
Walking down the streets of Havana, it was not hard for people to see that I was not a local. One of the first questions people on the street asked me was where I was from. As I mentioned earlier, I usually answered that I was from Mexico, until I got to know people a little better. I was genuinely surprised by the response and feelings people had toward Mexico. It seemed that most people I met there were at least somewhat acquainted with Mexican culture. Several times people would either compliment my Spanish, or mention the certain ways of phrasing that was distinctly Mexican to them. I found myself picking up some of the Cuban speech patterns, like saying "a donde tu vas?" instead of the way I was used to asking "a donde vas tu?"
I also found myself getting into conversations about old Mexican actors and singers such as Cantinflas (pictured) and Javier Solis. When people spoke of emigrating from Cuba, I was startled to find that many wanted to go to Mexico, not the US.
In contrast to the warm feelings people had toward Mexico and Mexicans, the sentiment towards the Russians was much different. In the conversations I had with the people I met, the Russians were disliked while they were there because they did not really mix with the locals. They apparently had places that were frequented mostly by the Russians and rarely did they meet or engage Cubans in social situations. This sentiment was further aggravated by the Russian pullout after the break up of the USSR. They told us that virtually all the Russians were gone within 3 months of the Soviet break up. The Russian pull back and subsequent withdrawal of economic support has added a great deal to the current state of shortages in Cuba. Because of this and the blackout of information about the US, there is much more anti-Russian sentiment than against the US.
I found that people in Cuba actually know very little about life in the United States. Many people I spoke to were surprised to hear about such issues as racism, homelessness, drug addiction and violent crime in the US. It was fun to tell them about such people as Jeffrey Dahmer and Monica Lewinski.
When I met Lazaro and his friends on my first night there, I thought it was funny too when they would tell me how much they liked the music of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. One night we were with some friends at a bar where the radio was playing. All of our Cubans friends at the table and other people in the bar seemed to be enraptured by the American song that came on, one of them stopping in the middle of what she was saying to say "que hermosa esa cancion." The song was Bette Davis Eyes.
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