Cuba
left an everlasting impact in my life. I learned so much about the culture,
religion and the history of this beautiful place. It was a very humbling
experience – seeing how people adapt to their homes and how they are so
passionate about their country just amazes me.
La Habana was a beautiful city, filled with so much
character and history. I loved seeing all the street art and beautiful
architecture. Everywhere you turned there was something interesting and special
happening. For example, El Capitolio that resembled the White House which was
completed in 1929. It was the tallest building in Havana until the 1950’s. Also,
the former Presidential Palace that was used through Fulgencio Batista’s
presidency which is now the Museum of revolution. Fun fact: the palace’s
interior was embellished to the nine by Tiffany & Co. Don’t even mention
our awesome ride on a vintage pink convertible Chevy! It was such an
unforgettable moment; driving down the Malecon with the nice breeze seeing
people having the time of their lives there listening to music, dancing, and conversing. Just beautiful.
The frozen cocos that were being sold on the corners; finger licking delicious!
You see people dancing in the streets, live music going on, delicious smell of
ropa vieja in the air, people fighting for taxis all happening at the same
time. The Jazz Concert on our first night in La Habana was beautiful as well
where we also got to try our first Cuban mojitos which is Cuba’s signature
drink!
Matanzas,
now this is the city where I feel I learned so much and where we met some of
the most beautiful, most kind hearted people. The authors whose work we
translated, the House hosts and cooks and our wonderful friends from La Vigia.
All the authors were such wonderful people but I got the privilege to work with
Yanira Marimon and Raul Piad. We mostly interacted with Yanira because we saw
her a bit more often than Raul. She also has this beautiful cold natural
healing water pool in her backyard which she always offered us to enjoy. She
literally always welcomed us into her home with arms wide open along with her
mother and daughter. I loved working with Yanira, her poems were so touching
and moving. When she first read the poem that Mauricio, my translating partner,
and I had to translate, I could feel the sadness and all the emotions in her
voice. I learned a lot from her too, about the history of Cuba throughout her
poems. She was just a very heartwarming, caring person; someone that carried so
much positive energy although she’s been through so much in her past. We also
got super attached to our friends from La Vigia. Elizabeth, Lorena, Adrian,
Hector and Alejandro were our night tourists aroud Matanzas and always took us
to art concerts and places where they would perform music or talents. We got to
spend a lot of time with them and get to know them on a personal level. Another
thing about Matanzas that I will never forget is the food. We ate three course
meals, three times a day. So much food but super delicious. We ate lobster,
ropa vieja, lots of flan, pork, rice and the list keeps going and going. All of
it was home made by our amazing house hosts! The B&B that I was staying at
was awesome! I had an awesome roommate and all the people that stayed in our
house got along very well. We had a rooftop that overlooked all of Matanzas and
we would go up there and talk and enjoy the scenery. Another thing was that for
the bad hair days and not being able to find an outfit that suits the hot,
sweat drenching Cuba weather, I ran late a couple of mornings for school but
the amazing and lifesaving mototaxis saved me a couple of times. It was my
first time riding a motorcycle but it’s something so common in Cuba it was a
must and it got me to class on time! Needless to say, half of my heart is in
Matanzas.
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