{"id":70267,"date":"2018-04-17T23:57:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T04:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=70267"},"modified":"2018-04-17T23:57:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T04:57:33","slug":"in-cuba-family-means-collective-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/in-cuba-family-means-collective-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"In Cuba Family Means Collective Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Giulia Petroni<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

HAVANA \u2014 A sunbeam streams through the window and crosses the living room. It is 9 a.m., and Lesbia is opening the shutters while humming the notes of Cuban guajira. They resonate in her mind as the most powerful of memories.<\/p>\n

It was the late 1970s, and Lesbia was in her house in Matanzas. Her mom was getting ready to receive family for lunch. Eleven siblings, three children each. It was the same every Sunday: a meal, a guitar and songs until late afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiempre juntos,\u201d says Lesbia. Always together.<\/p>\n

This is how she defines family. It\u2019s the essence of Cuba and, perhaps, an inadvertent product of the socialist experiment.<\/p>\n

Scarcity forces entire families to live under the same roof. Houses with three bedrooms accommodate up to nine people. The sense of community \u2013 the greatest strength of the Cuban population \u2013 stems from the necessity to share.<\/p>\n

Physical closeness ensures a continuous exchange of knowledge and wisdom. Stories are turned into life lessons that family members pass on to each other.<\/p>\n

At the same time, as the country undergoes historical changes, generational gaps become more tangible: Young Cubans face the limits imposed by the regime and mature a stronger desire for openness.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lesbia Alem\u00e0n, 48, has no memory of life before the revolution, but carries vivid remembrances of the hardship that caused Cuban leader Fidel Castro to declare in 1990: \u201cThe events happening right now are beginning to transform the life of our country from a normal situation to a special period in a time of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Berlin wall fell, the umbilical cord binding the fates of Cuba and the Soviet Union disintegrated. To face the imminent economic collapse, the Cuban government announced a series of restrictive measures on the consumption of electricity and primary goods. With the private sector virtually non-existent and the country unable to afford many imports, products simply became unavailable.<\/p>\n

A year later, in 1991, Lesbia became pregnant.<\/p>\n

At that time, she and her husband Kiki lived in Matanzas. Their house was assigned to Kiki after he took part to a so-called \u201cmicrobrigada\u201d \u2013 a collective form of self-help, where workers organized in groups to build semi-prefabricated buildings for themselves and their colleagues.<\/p>\n

Kiki was a professor, and Lesbia an accountant at a poultry farm. Together, they would make 650 pesos per month, about $35. Faced with massive food shortages and needing nourishment during her nine months of pregnancy, Lesbia bought and butchered a sheep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe special period was difficult for all of us,\u201d says Lesbia. \u201cBut my dad used to say \u2018It\u2019s gonna be just fine. We\u2019ve been through harder times. Before, we couldn\u2019t even study.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the revolution, he meant. Before Fidel Castro provided Cubans with free education.<\/p>\n

From generation to generation, members of a family teach one another that it could be worse, that it had been worse.<\/p>\n

Today, sitting in the living room of her three-story house in the neighborhood of Vedado, it is now Lesbia who tells her daughter to appreciate the way things are. Sometimes, however, she finds it difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has different desires,\u201d says Lesbia referring to her daughter, Leslie. \u201cWe have a different mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesbia imagines the state as a father, the Cuban people as his children. The government takes care of education and health services, but it simply cannot afford anything else. They can\u2019t have more, she says.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cDo you have a dream?\u201d I ask her.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cYes, that my family stays healthy,\u201d Lesbia replies. \u201cHere in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cDo you feel free?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter Leslie, 25, doesn\u2019t feel quite the same way. Eager to explore the world, she doesn\u2019t understand the government\u2019s travel restrictions. After all, what does the government get by limiting travel to other countries?<\/p>\n

\u201cYo solo quiero ir a conoc\u00e8r el mundo,\u201d says Leslie. I just want to get to know the world.<\/p>\n

Until five years ago, Cuban citizens had to apply for an exit visa to be able to travel, even on vacation. When Lesbia\u2019s cousin got married in Canc\u00f9n, Mexico, she and her family couldn\u2019t go to the wedding, even with all costs covered. The government didn\u2019t grant them permission to leave the country.<\/p>\n

As part of President Ra\u00f9l Castro\u2019s plan of reforms, the government announced in 2013 that citizens needed only a renewed passport and a visa issued by the country of destination. However, a significant constraint still applies: visa and travel expenses. The average salary of a Cuban is 30 CUC (Cuba Convertible Pesos) \u2013 the equivalent of about $30 \u2013 per month, so restriction-free travelling is still an illusion for most.<\/p>\n

If Lesbia\u2019s generation has had decades to get used to the idiosyncrasies of the Cuban political system, Leslie\u2019s generation has not \u2013 at least yet. She and her peers don\u2019t want another revolution, but they do seek economic and social changes. For Leslie, this means mobility, access to information, an open internet, and the chance to earn more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that outside Cuba the world is moving on,\u201d says Leslie, who is willing to promise the Cuban Communist Party leadership peace in return for progress: \u201cLet us have more, we won\u2019t criticize the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the desire to travel and work abroad represents a recurring thought, Leslie is afraid to leave her family and miss her parents as they grow old. She was only 17 when she first introduced them to her boyfriend, Jorge, who has been living with them for seven years.<\/p>\n

Leslie met Jorge in Matanzas. He was a taxi-driver and she needed a ride home after a party. They ended up talking until 6 a.m. A year later, Jorgito became part of the family.<\/p>\n

To this day, the four of them make all the decisions together. They are a team.<\/p>\n

Just around the corner from the Al\u00e8mans, lives Niria de la Osa. She and her husband were born in the late 1940s, and unlike many younger Cubans, speak perfect English. They\u2019ve been living in their spacious four-bedroom apartment since right after the 1959 Revolution, when the thriving real estate market took the form of apartment trading. Through the permuta system, people could legally exchange properties, getting around the strict rules of buying and selling.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the revolution, everything became easier for us,\u201d says Niria, who was only 12 when Fidel took power in 1959.<\/p>\n

Free healthcare, free education, new apartment.<\/p>\n

Yet, \u201cin Cuba we have many problems with the houses,\u201d she says. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like you say \u2018I\u2019m going to live by myself and be independent\u2019, because here you can\u2019t do it. We share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, she and her husband live with their son and his 18-year-old twins.<\/p>\n

Dayana and Daniela \u2013 smart, motivated and in their first year of university \u2013 dream of travelling the world and getting their master\u2019s degree abroad to eventually come back to Cuba. They were taught that, despite all the difficulties, family always comes first.<\/p>\n

Proud of their roots and identity, they represent a new generation who seeks for a greater openness, but who\u2019s surprisingly less eager to leave and more willing to stay.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cWhat do you see in your future?\u201d I ask them.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cFamily. Family means our past, present and future,\u201d they say almost in unison.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cWhat is that you like the most about your family?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cAqu\u00ed no se ocultan secretos, y si se ocultan se descubren r\u00e1pido.\u201d Secrets aren\u2019t hidden here, and if they are, they are discovered quickly.<\/p>\n

Certainly, life in the States sparks their curiosity. A spotty 30-minute Wi-Fi connection along the seaside promenade, the Mal\u00e8con, makes them wonder about life outside of the island, where their peers in Spain, Mexico and the United States have free access to Google, Facebook and YouTube.<\/p>\n

As the soon-to-be post-Castro era approaches \u2013 President Raul Castro will step down on April 19 \u2013 attitudes shift. And yet, between independence and stability, Dayana and Daniela choose the only reality they know. They choose stability, they choose Cuba.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo at top: Lesbia Alem\u00e0n, 48, in Havana, Cuba. (Giulia Petroni\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Giulia Petroni Medill Reports HAVANA \u2014 A sunbeam streams through the window and crosses the living room. It is 9 a.m., and Lesbia is opening the shutters while humming the notes of Cuban guajira. They resonate in her mind as the most powerful of memories. It was the late 1970s, and Lesbia was in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":456,"featured_media":70268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4058,3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba2018","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Cuba Family Means Collective Wisdom - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/in-cuba-family-means-collective-wisdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Cuba Family Means Collective Wisdom - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Giulia Petroni Medill Reports HAVANA \u2014 A sunbeam streams through the window and crosses the living room. 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