UH Cuba edition

April Lopez

In the spring of 2014 I enrolled in what would be one of my last Spanish classes before I would graduate within the year. I was told we would have the opportunity to go to Cuba for  a week, and wow what a week! My experience in Cuba was a bit overwhelming, in a good way of course. I simply don’t know where to start. We primarily stayed in Matanzas, Cuba which is a relatively small town where everyone for the most part knew each other. I would say for me the most striking and impacting part was the generosity of the Cuban people. From an American perspective the people of Matanzas were living in poverty, yet everyone seemed so content and happy! They were so willing to help out and offer the little they had to us. One of the projects we worked on was centered at the ‘Casa Vigia’ an editing house that creatively based their publications on books made of recycled material.

I was truly inspired as to how they would take material that I would have considered trash and turned it into something wonderful. I was amazed at how they can make something out of what I thought would be nothing. The amount of work and pride that is put into hand crafting these books was unbelievable, needless to say I bought quite a few books while there. Aside from the various lectures, museum visits, editing houses we visited what I take from Cuba is the pureness it contained.

The walking down the street to your local little market, the dancing I did with Cubans, the negotiating at the little markets in Havana, sharing a piece of Yuca with my fellow classmate. Things I would have normally not done, or ignored by being attached to my cell phone. Which brings me to one of the songs we kept singing which was ‘Madre Tierra’ by Chayanne and I felt it was not only our anthem for visiting Cuba but something I should take home and live by.

Abre tus ojos

Mira hacia arriba

Disfruta las cosas buenas que tiene
la vida

I feel American life is too fast and you tend to lose yourself in it and being in Cuba I learned I should put my phone away every now and then and kind of slow down and enjoy the beauty that is around me.