Sydney's Place

We recently spent a week and a half in Cuba. And with a year of Spanish under our belts, it was fascinating to chat with the everyone we could about the state of things in Cuba. The economy. The 12 hours of power outages we had every day outside of Havana. What people think about the Castros,  Obama & Trump 🧵 👇

Genart collector. Tinkerer. Investor. Crypto maximalist. Nomadic traveler w/ my wife and 3 kids. Temporarily settled-ish in Spain

This, in a country where Castro would drone on for hours about the imperialist yanquis. And where Miguel, the 81 year old father of one of our hosts, was teary eyed with fond memories of the revolution and all the good that Castro and Che did.

I didn’t tell Miguel that the Castros ordered the murder of the father of the woman down the street who runs the art gallery…it wouldn't have changed his opinion

Cuba is utterly broken right now. The economy is in shambles. There are no products on shelves (we saw some “markets” with up to 20 products!). Pharmacies have 1 or 2 drugs…and some left over masks. Gas lines were 3-4 hours long.

The average state salary - whether a teacher or doctor or lawyer - was 3000 pesos a month. About $10. And not enough to buy a carton of eggs anymore.

The enthusiastic youth gtf out as soon as they can, so it’s a country of older people and little kids. With the lowest birth rate in the Americas (because women are educated…and don’t see much future for their kids)

They blame the US embargo for much of their woes. And COVID. Though I think the government used COVID as an excuse to line their own pockets.

There is some truth to the US-imposed embargo being a real problem --> We literally couldn’t bring a cigar from a local farmer back to the US. Or a nice bottle of rum. US Customs agents say that is because cigars and rum are helping out Cuba's government...

But more than anything, it was the decisions of Fidel and the nationalism that he enforced/cultivated that led a once rich nation into utter decay.

If you get the chance, go to Cuba! Help the people by staying at homestays. Find small comedores and eat delicious food, cooked with love. Bring loads of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and hand them out. Bring school supplies - even blank sheets of printer paper were received with much joy!

Fairly eye opening to me when our 71 year old Cuban host in Havana got very animated about Americans being super nationalistic as Trump would likely return.