We took a tour of the Partagas cigar factory this morning, so far the most fascinating activity we’ve undertaken. Partagas produces 25,000 cigars daily, all made entirely by hand, with 600 employees, of whom 60% are female. They make Cohiba, Partagas, Romeo and Juliet and all the other well-known Cuban brands.
We walked the floors where workers sort, cut and roll the tobacco leaves, and the training room where 100 apprentices begin a 10-month training program each year, and about 40% successfully graduate to full-time jobs in which they must produce a quota of 50 –160 cigars daily (depending on type) which go on to pass the scrutiny of quality control inspectors. Each employee is granted 3 free cigars daily as a “benefit” and we understand those usually are sold on the streets and black market to supplement the woefully poor wages. The company employs “readers” who sit on a raised dais for a couple hours daily reading books and newspapers (local, regional and international) to the employees while they work (we suspect the selection of articles is highly censored). Of course we were sadly unable to purchase any souvenir cigars to bring home.
We had lunch in Habana Vieja, a small section of the old town which has undergone substantial refurbishment and has a large open square in which restaurants serve food at tables with umbrellas. The weather is warm (80s) and muggy, so the shade is much appreciated. This is the section of town near the cruise ship dock and where many of the tourist hotels are. While it was nice to see some restored buildings, many of them seemed to have received just enough of an update to appear more like replicas than historic buildings. This “difference” is one of the major reasons we wanted to come to Cuba before relations with the U.S. are normalized eventually. We believe that when it happens, there will be such an influx of American money and tourists to this island paradise 90 miles from our shores that what is currently Cuba will be “Cancun-ized” like parts of Habana Vieja has been.
Later we went on a self-guided tour of the Museo de la Revolucion which tells the story of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others during the Revolution leading up to the overthrow of the dictator Batista in 1959. “Granma” is displayed there, a 59-foot motor vessel purchased in Florida which brought Fidel, Che and 78 other men to land on the shores of Cuba, after which only 15 of them survived to make it to their hide-out in the mountains. Other displays include a Soviet tank, pieces of a shot-down U.S. U-2 airplane, and lots of firearms and ammunition. It was very weird to look at all this stuff and think of ourselves as “the enemy” in this story, and to view the propaganda material that persists today in support of the view that the Revolucion lives on.
We overheard one 50-ish Cuban guide telling museum visitors the story, and she included the fact that her 93-year-old grandmother still believes the Revolution was the best thing that ever happened and the “fight” should continue, while young people think the older generation is “stuck in time” and the country should “move on and join the modern world”. The grandmother was a black woman who had experienced very significant pre-revolution prejudice against black Cubans and has seen benefits in terms of opportunities for the repressed that came with the revolution.
It does make us wonder what is in store for Cuba’s future as Raul Castro continues to dismantle some aspects of the communist structure that has been the organizing principle here for more than 50 years. It appears any transition might be difficult as the Cubans try to preserve the social benefits of the revolution while trying to develop a higher level of economic well being.
Wednesday night we took a taxi to Tropicana, the site of Cuba’s long-standing outdoor theatre cabaret extravaganza, in operation since 1939. Our taxi driver, Nelson, was unusually open in answering our queries about how life works today in Cuba. He loves his job, does not own his taxi or pay for his gas (the State does both), was cheerful and friendly, and agreed to pick us up again at the end of the show. He also gave us his business card which says he rents out rooms as a supplemental source of income, a common occurrence here.
The show at the Tropicana . . . how to describe it? Loud, eventually redundant-sounding music, fabulous choreography with perhaps 50 dancers who changed outrageous costumes regularly (very skimpy costumes on the lovely, slim females), and a well-designed stage set without the sort of modern pyrotechnics and whiz-bang technology people are accustomed to seeing at concerts and shows in the Western world. It lasted 2 hours and included a bottle of rum and mixers delivered to our table. Our guide book described it as one of the “must do” activities while in Cuba, so we did, although it cost more than $125 per person. We found it fascinating rather than spectacular, and it seemed our travel companions found it mostly unremarkable. Time for a new guide book (Frommers).
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