pe ings who collected rent the
oe but the workers had only
ae employment, at the sugar
mica Oday, much of the housing,
% arly in rural areas is provided

N

oY all Cuban houses have tile

3 Bey washed out as there are
PS and no basements. “Win-

dows”
ete mostly shutters, that is,
i. Slats, in the manner of vene-

i ass and can be opened or

4 : lever. This is probably be-
hough Iving in a hurricane zone

_ atge hotels mostly were
thutters. wir big buildings have glass
lsed to, pout windows as we are
“dling ‘ e houses have a sort of
a a On city streets there are
ove 8S Over the shutters. As we

hrough
treet gh many very narrow
te the skill of our drivers
os lating corners was amazing!)
€ able to look through open

Otway
itterion and see clean and cheerful

Cuba’
teed Most difficult problem is in-
eang ‘said To build a modern Cuba
Mation ype ractically rehouse the entire
Ble stil] 4 the countryside many peo-
With ro ash in the old huts of mud
having % thatched with palm leaves,
Nd no nly one or two small rooms
100 gque conveniences.” About every
Castle pure kilometers one sees a
OWneq r large mansion, formerly
OWne ‘ the sugar king who also
Plots of a peasant huts and_ little
Of three and. They are the inheritance
lalist ae cries of feudal and capi-
Bnew ho, To provide everyone with
Pecially Ouse will take a long time, es-
Woulg n” the blockade conditions. It
What unreasonable to expect that

etican’ ,SPanish colonjalists and
2d unim Capitalists left unchanged
; oe for 3-4 centuries can
tn just ii and all the people rehoused
8 hundr years. Nevertheless, we did
Sett]e iad of fine new apartment
80 de S around Havana, in Santi-
1 the me and other places, thanks
the Soviet of the socialist countries,
Rave cy Union particularly, which
Making : an entire factory for the
Stabling th prefabricated apartments,
Aeientiy €m to build quickly and ef-

| The ta SOCIALIST AID
Kilometer ond of Cuba is over 1,000
Noun = long. The height of the three
Foygh ¢, anges is nowhere great
Moisture. gather snow and provide
Teh of’ Creeks and rivers are dry
ct ne time, the rainy season is
Using Bore: Therefore new modern
Fnds 9 elites the drilling of thou-
na ins ells, the laying of great wa-
‘ns, 9 and elaborate sewage SyS-
Will tast viously this is a project that
The Several decades.

*ecived ne and material assistance
, easurable the socialist countries is
1° acknowy] € and Cubans are the first
teal men edge it; they appreciate the
ry. Ning of international solidar-

ho
n, : i
€ instance an entire hospital

has been donated, the Lenin Hospital
in Oriente Province; all the prefabri-
cated sections of the building, and all
the furnishings and equipment re-
quired as well. Other socialist coun-
tries, China, Poland, Czechoslovakia
and others have made great contribu-
tions of textiles, machinery, china and
cutlery, to name a few. Skilled in-
structors have ‘been provided, but the

* number of these grows less as more

and more Cuban workers and_ techni-
cians become proficient, resulting from
the new free educational policy. Eleven-
year-olds in ’59 are now 22-year-old
educated young married women.

There is some trade with capitalist
countries. Britain has sold many buses
to Cuba. We saw Canadian flour in a
bakery; shipments of livestock and
poultry have been on a big scale. Can-
adian trade with Cuba could be much
larger» were it not for restrictions
placed on our country by the United

States.
CANADIAN SOLIDARITY

We visited several schools; they are
good buildings, well organized with
good equipment and bright, dedicated
young teachers everywhere. We were
proud to present to a school for the
blind three Braille typewriters, pur-
chased through collections and dona-
tions by the Vancouver Canadian-Cuba
Friendship Committee. This Commit-
tee has made many donations previous-
ly of various kinds; medical and surgi-
cal equipment, school supplies, sub-
scriptions to medical journals. They
are always grateful to receive assist-
ance in this work. Many young stu-
dents we saw carried school bags just
like our youngsters. Most of them
wear a very neat uniform, the boys
grey shirts and pants, the girls white
plouses and light grey shirts.

The only industrial plants we visit-
ed were a cigar factory and a rum
factory, both producing Cuba’s most

world-famous products. Most of the :

cigars are still handmade. Some ma-
chines have been introduced, operated
by girls. The handrolling is done by
men only. Th
rows one behind the other. There were
many vacant seats the day we were
there because @ contigent had gone to
work in the sugarcane fields. Perhaps
because it is silent work, that is, no
machinery, it is traditional in a cigar
factory to have a reader, chosen by
the workers, to read aloud (nowadays
over a loudspeaker) either from the
press or whatever they choose them-
selves. Obviously there was no speed-
up anywhere although they still work
on the piecework system. Women
workers and some young boys. were In
the sorting and packing.

Similarly in the rum factory. We
were shown the whole process from
the making of the rum to its bottling,
labelling and packing, employing men
and women. No hurry was at all in
evidence. That visit was concluded
with a sampling in a small bar for the

ey sit at long tables in:

benefit of tourists and perhaps the
glint in our eye was the most notice-
able souvenir we took away with us!

As we travelled through towns and
villages we seldom saw a garden
around the houses although there was
often space for it, even in the cities.
Perhaps this is a mark of the past
when Cubans hardly knew of any other
crop than sugar. Some have flowering
bushes and trees, of which there’s a
delightful abundance. Many have
either a banana or an orange tree. It
is probable that as they become more
and more accustomed to the “new”
vegetables and seed is available, home
garden plots .will become more wide-

spread.
SHORTAGES STILL

The Cubans were not embarrassed
to tell us that many things are still ra-
tioned, like meat, fats, milk; and even
citrus fruits that are reserved for ex-
port, They’ve not had butter for a very
long time and in many places we were
not served any. Exports permit them
to get much needed items from abroad
and to hold the balance of their cur-
rency. The Cuban peso is level with
the U.S. dollar. But much of the ra-

- tioning the people are compelled to

accept. must be blamed on the U.S.
blockade. It was agreed that there are
shortage of clothing and that there are
many: empty. stores, which capitalist
newspapers have made much of. But it
is algo true that nowhere did we see
any people wearing bad: or shabby
clothing. All are well clothed; every.
man and boy on the street wore a
clean shirt; every woman wore a color-
ful attractive dress. Young girls
looked little different from ours in
their manner of dress. By way of con-
trast, in Mexico city we had seen many
shabby people, barefoot children. True,
they are not rationed as are the

Cubans at the present time, but nei- .

ther can they buy many of the goods

offered because they don’t have the
money. Today Cubans have an assured
income. and can pay for everything
they buy. The young people go out in
the evenings, they are attractively
dressed and go freely to dance in the
big hotels, etc.

We visited a replica of an ancient
Indian village. The original Cubans
were Indians; by various means they
were virtually wiped out by the invad-
ing Spaniards who later imported
slaves from Africa to help exploit the
country. Today there are only “Cu-
bans”; the descendants of both Spa-
niards and Africans and, not impos-
sibly, of some of the white exploiters;
for instance, at one time the British
occupied Havana. Castro has stated
proudly that the Cubans are “a na-
tion of color” and one can see a great
variety of browns and blacks and of
features.

Everywhere the food served to us
was well prepared and attractively
presented by efficient waiters and
waitresses. Contrary to our expecta-
tions, Cuban dishes are not highly
spiced. Of course we had some un-
known items that were not always ac-
ceptable to our Canadian palates but
that was our own shortcoming. Menus
varied with both meat and fish. Inci-
dentally, fish ‘is a comparatively new
item in the ordinary Cuban diet. Until
recent years there was no fishing in-
dustry; many superstitions existed re-
garding fish; certain fish were ‘Sup-
posed to cause certain diseases. All
this is gradually being overcome and
there is now a growing fishing ‘in-
dustry.

One other interesting side trip we
made was to visit a former ‘Alberta
farmer, George Faulkner who, eight or
nine years ago, packed up and went
to Cuba to live, taking with him 150
sheep and some machinery. He made
a sizeable contribution to Cuban agri-
culture. He lives now with a daughter,
having at last retired, being 96 years
old though talking of visiting Vancou-
ver within the next few months. He is
frail but alert. He lives in a pleasant
home provided him, with a lovely
garden and orchard from which, on
January 2, we plucked and ate some
delicious oranges. This house formerly
belonged to Batista’s brother!

From what-we observed and in re-
ply to some enquiries, it appeared that
most Cubans had been Catholics; we
saw churches and heard church bells.
‘However, we had the impression that
the church had not played such a pro-
minent part in the people’s lives, as
for example, in. Mexico. Most of the

priests were Spaniards and the major-.

ity went back to Spain when the Re-
volution took place.

In conclusion: Christopher Colum-
bus called: the Island of Cuba “a
jewel.” For 400 years the precious
jewel was first owned by the Spanish
colonialists, then by U.S. monopolists.
Now it is safely. in the possession of
the Cubans themselves. By their
achievements they are giving this love-
ly jewel a new brilliance whose shine
is reflected over all the rest of Latin
America!

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 20, 1970-—Page 7