Making Friends in League by Beate Marston

Sisters Across the Straits (SAS) is a unique project initiated by LWVFL in 2010. Established to facilitate positive relations between Cubans and Americans, women in particular, (as intended in sec. 515.574 FR U.S Department of the Treasury OFAC guidelines, providing support to the Cuban people), while also functioning as a fundraiser for the FL League. Any LWV member can participate. 

The November 2023 group of eleven members, myself included, were from six different Florida Leagues and was the first group able to go after COVID-19. It was great meeting members from Leagues across Florida.  Since SAS’s inception Annie Betancourt, a longtime LWV member of Miami/Dade County, has been skillfully navigating the travel logistics, and making all arrangements to ensure participants have a safe and well-rounded five-day experience while in Cuba.  

My excitement about visiting Havana peaked the morning of departure as I arrived at Tampa airport with my solitary carry-on bag. I marveled at the mountains of luggage many of my co-travelers were patiently maneuvering through the check-in line. In my excitement, I didn’t give it much more thought as I was aware that Cuban Americans do take “things” back to family, and not until the end of our trip did the importance of the amount of overstuffed checked-in luggage dawn on me. 
 
We were so fortunate to get a deeper understanding of the complexities of Cuba, both internally and externally. We were able to talk to Sir George Holingbery, British ambassador to Cuba, about the challenges of diplomacy. We heard from a former Cuban diplomat and Uni of Havana professor Dr. Carlos Alzugaray, a proud communist who also acknowledged that there are “challenges” in Cuba that are not solely a result of the American embargoes.

We chatted with Maite, the young woman who prepared breakfast for us every morning to help make ends meet, although she teaches at Havana University and is working on her PhD. Julio, our trusty driver, has studied IT and web design, but earns a living to support his family, by driving tourists and groups like ours all over Cuba, sacrificing seeing his family for weeks at a time. Doctors and teachers for example earn about 7,000 CUP (about $28 in a parallel market) a month, and with Old Havana’s several UNESCO World Heritage sites, foreign currency from tourism is what keeps many Cubans afloat. A visit and tour of Temple Beth Shalom in Vedado, considered the headquarters of the Jewish community in Cuba was another highlight, while the opportunity to attend Friday night Shabbat service was an unexpected treat. 
 
The poverty and extremely poor living conditions we witnessed in Havana and surrounding areas were striking. People go hungry every day and despite the Cuban Government providing all people “equally” with monthly rations of basic food (rice, beans, sugar), for many who have no outside resources it is simply not enough. The weekly farmers market provided a brief glimpse of meager offerings of mostly root vegetables, malanga, Yucca, some avocados, mangos in season at the time, and onions. Many goods (unaffordable to average Cubans) available in supermarkets are accessible primarily by people who have access to US dollars, this excludes those with no connections and the very poor, and then there is also a thriving black market.  
Although healthcare is free, there is no pharmacy around the corner where you can pick up some aspirin, bandages, vitamins, or any of the things we take so for granted in our daily lives. Over-the-counter medication is in short supply. 

I now have a much deeper understanding of the real importance of those mountains of luggage at the airport, no doubt filled with supplies of rice, beans, sugar, soap, and OTC medicine. They represent a trickle of a lifeline that helps keep family and friends alive until the next visit.   I was left with an appreciation of the resilience and resourcefulness of the Cuban people as I sensed their shared pride for working hard to survive, despite the challenges from both within and the outside. It left me sad knowing this humanitarian crisis is happening a mere 90 miles from our shore and realizing the lack of political will on both sides to do anything significant to alleviate the real hardship people in Cuba have been facing daily for decades with no end in sight.