Cuban identity hangs in the balance as door to US opens

The prospect of a new era of openness thrills many Cubans, desperate to break free from a regimented society after more than a century of mismanagement under successive regimes.

The streets of Havana in 2010. As US-Cuba ties warm, the prospect of a new era of openness thrills many Cubans, desperate to break free from a regimented society of low incomes and empty shop shelves. Desmond Boylan/ReutersShow less

From Fidel Castro’s rebel headquarters to Guantanamo Bay, one of Cuba’s tourist trails begins with a bracing three-hour mountainside trek and ends with a journey past sugar plantations and along roads lined with tamarind trees.

Those points of departure and destination stand as powerful symbols of two opposing cultures that are at last edging towards an uneasy rapprochement.

For more than half a century since Mr Castro’s revolution toppled the hated Batista regime, Cuba has been the enemy at the door of the United States.

At its nearest point, the defiant Communist state lies just 145 kilometres from the Florida coast. But it is out of bounds to all but a trickle of American visitors.

Now, a cautious charm offensive by president Barack Obama, reciprocated in Havana, looks likely to end this relic of the Cold War.

Hurdles remain: the US says its Guantanamo naval base is non-negotiable while Raúl Castro, the Cuban president since 2006 when ill health forced his older brother Fidel to stand down, insists the Caribbean island will never renounce its “independence, freedom or values”.

But whether a substantive deal is struck during the closing months of the Obama administration, or left to his successor, a transformation in US-Cuban relations is undoubtedly under way.

At present, only about 100,000 US citizens can sidestep strict travel restrictions and visit Cuba each year. Most visit under a 2011 relaxation of the travel ban which allows “people to people” trips for charitable and educational purposes.

Even conservative estimates suggest this figure will multiply 20-fold as general tourism becomes possible. CNN quotes travel experts as putting the potential annual number of US visitors at five million, compared with the present level of three million international tourist arrivals, chiefly from Canada and Europe.

The prospect of a new era of openness thrills many Cubans, desperate to break free from a regimented society of low incomes, empty shop shelves and a bizarre dual currency in which the convertible peso is valued 24 times higher than the “national” peso used only by Cubans. But it fills admirers of the island’s special charm with dread.

A typical lament is that while McDonald’s and other fast food outlets will proliferate, the trademark Cuban spectacle of vintage US cars may quickly fade.

“I share the fear that my fellow-Americans will want Cuba to be just another Cancun [a brash Mexican resort],” said Michael Faust, on a charitable mission from Colorado.

“I might have come just in time,” said Kevin Kent, a tourist from Canada. “I don’t dislike Americans, but worry that the ones who come here as things open up will be the ones with no education or too much, not those in between.”

Whether Cuba is ready to cope with an influx is another matter.

Internet access is rare, expensive and slow. Tourist accommodation is typically modest and sanitary arrangements – especially outside Havana – can be wretched.

Mr Kent was damning of his resort on Cayo Santa Maria, an island off Cuba’s northern coast: “It styles itself four-and-a-half stars but wouldn’t get three in North America.”

Shops are drab and poorly stocked, restaurants serve plain variations of meat or fish with rice and back beans and many ordinary Cubans, earning an average of US$20 (Dh73.50) a month in the public sector, must buy basic provisions at cut-price ration stores.

Many families rely on money sent from relatives who have settled abroad, especially in Miami.

Despite that, the island is alive with music, its people are warm and there are expanses of lush landscape and stretches of picturesque coastline. Yet residents who have contact with the western world are aware the island needs a makeover after more than a century of mismanagement under successive regimes.

“Socialism has not worked,” said Erik Garcia, 28, a tourist guide. “We tried too hard to copy the Soviet Union. It could be made to work, but only with big investment in infrastructure.”

“I am delighted with the warming of relations with the US but it is important that Cuba retains its Cuban identity.”

One part of Cuba that lost this identity a long time ago is Guantanamo Bay, where about 120 suspected extremists are still detained. The US aims to close the military prison but has no wish to abandon the naval base, leased since a treaty of 1903.

Only glimpses of the base are visible from Cuban soil, and then only through binoculars from an observatory off the main road leading to Guantanamo city.

Despite his mixed views on Cuba’s postrevolutionary progress, Mr Garcia wears his heart on his sleeve. “It is very emotional as a Cuban to stand here,” he said, looking out from the entrance of Fidel Castro’s headquarters. “It makes me proud, very proud, of what I am.”