There is a freight of circumstance knotted around that contrasts you will find in Cuba.
As you have probably heard, Cuba is not like any place you’ve been before. Witnessing the outward detail of her majestic decay contrasted against the inner beauty of her people will challenge you – and in ways that can be transformative. You can find yesterday in Cuba, but I urge you to use your travels to Cuba to break your pattern of repetition, cut loose the modern grid of predictability and allow yourself to be challenged intellectually and emotionally. Ask some questions that Cuba can help you answer. For example, why do you associate newness with relevancy, or is it right to relate material possessions with identity?
You may confront for the first time the idea that we might be alive for reasons other than consumption.
One little known fact about Cuba that is easily overlooked until you visit the island nation is the virtual absence of modern commercial advertising. In fact, Havana is one of the few remaining major cities in the world where garish advertising does not frame the view of every street corner. The same applies to all of Cuba’s urban environments and rural landscape.
Sometimes, great harvests come from arid sources. Cubans’ musical ability is one example of how they have coped with extreme want and need of basic necessities by finding a creative outlet.
For Cubans, music has a physical dimension as the mastery of a craft but there is also a metaphysical dimension that is a cultural connection to an eclectic blend of histories and influences stretching back hundreds of years. Turn any corner in a Cuban city and you will likely encounter musical Cubans unleashing their gifts, paying no attention to the oily puddles and rusty rebar that surrounds them.
