by Stephen Cunliffe
For the Sequim Gazette
In early 2013, my wife Suzanne and I went on a small group photography trip to Cuba, authorized by the Department of State as part of a cultural exchange.
Besides a lot of camera gear, we all took with us a keen curiosity about Cuba and its people, isolated and embargoed for so long by the United States. We visited three distinctly different locations: Havana, the capital; Trinidad, a small and beautiful colonial coastal town celebrating its 500th anniversary; and Vinales, a richly productive agricultural area with some fascinating and massive limestone formations. And we even stayed overnight at the Bay of Pigs.
Although the individual details of the trip rarely went as planned — as an example the charter airline that flew us into Havana from Miami went out of business before our return — it all added up to a very successful adventure.
Besides yielding an enormous number of digital images, it gave us some understanding, perhaps a bit superficial, of the way the Cuban people live.
In terms of material possessions, they live in poverty and with very little in the way of political rights. But they also have higher literacy rates than the U.S thanks to free education, and lower infant mortality, due to free medical care.
With Fidel confined to his sick bed, and brother Raoul in charge, there was a definite sense of impending change, with no real sense of what the change might be. Since our visit the political climate between Washington and Havana has improved, but the embargo, which can only be lifted by Congress, still remains.
Raoul has encouraged the development of small businesses, especially in the hospitality sector. We learned the difference between private and government controlled restaurants. In the former we were cheerfully greeted and fed interesting food, while service in the government controlled restaurants (which were by far the majority of all restaurants) was usually surly and the food predictably bland. All meals in both types of restaurants came with live music, and even the music was better in the private paladars. There was a similar contrast between private bed and breakfasts called casas particulares, and hotels, all of which were government operated.
But apart from hospitality, which mostly caters to visitors from Europe who can come and go as they please, there still is very little allowed in the way of private enterprise.
We saw plenty of the famous old American cars, and just as many not so old, and fewer glamorous Russian cars as a reminder of the close ties between the USSR and Cuba which only ended in the early 1990s. Che Guevera’s image popped up everywhere, much more iconic than any image of Fidel.
We saw long lines of customers at the official government food stores where rice, beans and sugar are almost the only products available. Some of the scenes reminded me very much of my travels to Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
And so we gained some understanding of life in Cuba and brought home thousands of images. I look forward to sharing some of them when I present our Traveler’s Journey on Feb. 18.
About the presenter
“I was born in England, completed my formal education at Oxford University and then entered the corporate world. My career brought me to the United States in 1983 and I have lived in various parts of this country since then.
“When I retired in 2006, I moved with my American wife to the Pacific Northwest. This has long been my favorite part of the continent, English weather with less traffic and more spectacular scenery.
“Retirement gave me the opportunity to start a small-scale business based on my interest in nature photography. Winning Grand Prize in Canon’s 2009 national nature photography contest gave me instant, if not wholly deserved, credentials. My work is displayed at a number of galleries in Washington and Oregon, as well as on my website at www.admiraltyimages.com. I pass on all the proceeds of the business to the Jefferson Land Trust, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
My trip to Cuba brought me the interesting challenge of moving away from wildlife and landscape photography, to capturing images of people in mostly urban settings. I really enjoyed the change of subject matter and I hope the results demonstrate some of that enjoyment.”
About the presentations
Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition. All of the money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for volunteers working on Olympic Discovery Trail projects.
Shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sequim High School Library at 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Suggested donation is $5 for adults; those 18 years old and younger are free.
One selected photo enlargement will be given away each week as a door prize. Creative Framing is donating the matting and shrink wrapping of the door prize.
For more information, call Dave Shreffler at 683-1734.
Traveler’s Journal
About the presentation:
When: 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18
Where: Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Cost: Suggested $5 donation (adults); 18 and younger, free
Presenter: Stephen Cunliffe
Presentation: “Cuba on the cusp of change”
