SEMO group gets close-up look at Cuban life

With the blessing of the U.S. government, a Southeast Missouri State University group got to do what most Americans legally can't -- visit Cuba.

The 17-member delegation of faculty, students and area residents took a weeklong trip to the communist nation, departing on March 27. They returned on Wednesday.

The university organized the trip as an educational journey, receiving the necessary federal approval from the U.S. Treasury Department, which requires detailed financial records be kept of such academic trips. Not counting spending money, the trip cost about $30,000 with participants picking up most of the bill.

Those making the journey said it was a chance to see a forbidden land.

What they found was a country of crumbling buildings, old cars and rationed food.

The almighty dollar, they said, is king in communist Cuba. Cubans work for the government, but in a country of 11 million people where the average pay is $12 a month, everyone has a second job to try to grab a little extra cash.

"Everyone was doing something on the side," said Dr. Peter Gordon, the Southeast marketing professor who organized the trip.

Gordon said store clerks routinely pocketed customers' money without ringing up sales on their cash registers.

"Almost anyone who has a private car is selling off their spare time as a taxi driver," he said.

There are makeshift restaurants in homes in Havana with tables and chairs set up in every room, Gordon said.

Gordon and his fellow travelers spent most of their time in Havana, Cuba's capital, which has a population of about 2 million. They also traveled to Varadero Beach, a tourist area.

Poverty standard

Outside of tourist areas, the group found a country where poverty is standard. But Gordon said people aren't starving on the streets. Cubans get free housing, medical care, education and food rations.

Building maintenance is almost nonexistent, Gordon said. "In Havana, it looks like a bombed-out city," he said. "There are buildings literally falling down."

The sidewalks are crumbling, too. "No money has been put into the infrastructure for years," Gordon said. "I think the Cuban economy is on survival mode."

For retired businessman Larry Jackson of Cape Girardeau, the trip brought back memories of when he was a student working on his master's degree in Spanish at the University of Havana in the summer of 1950.

"I was curious to see what it looks like nowadays," said the 75-year-old Jackson, one of the few in the group who could speak Spanish.

Jackson said there's a big contrast between the luxurious world of the tourist hotels and the simple existence of the average Cuban.

Jackson said he and others in the Southeast group handed out everything from pencils to soap.

"People were happy to get them," he said.

Jackson said the Cuban people seemed relatively happy. "You don't see a lot of people who are real sad or look like they are ready to shoot their government," he said.

But another member of the group, political science department chairman Dr. Peter Bergerson, said there are many Cubans who want to live in the United States.

Bergerson said 20,000 Cubans a year immigrate to the United States, including 14,000 who are selected through a lottery. Each year, 585,000 Cubans apply for permission to immigrate to the United States, he said.

Bergerson said the Cuban economy is based on the exports of cigars, rum, and the dollars generated from tourism. Many of the tourists are Canadians.

Cape Girardeau resident Gregory Tlapek made the trip to practice his Spanish. He and Jackson, as well as three other local residents, paid about $3,000 each to take the trip.

Subsidizing students

Tlapek said they were enrolled as students for purposes of the trip. The money they paid helped subsidize the six students on the trip, who each paid about $800.

Six faculty members made the trip. Each paid about $1,700, some of that coming from professional development money the university earmarks for faculty. But all faculty members paid for part of the trip out of their own pockets.

Student Craig Bohnsack said expanding the trip to include area residents made it economical for students to participate.

Bohnsack said police and soldiers were stationed all around Havana. But he said no one in the group felt threatened and it was safe to walk the streets at all hours.

As a result of the American embargo, tourists can't use credit cards in Cuba. "We had to use cash," Bohnsack said.

Bohnsack said he spoke to several Americans who entered Cuba illegally, flying in from Toronto, Canada, without getting the proper permission from the U.S. government.

Even with the embargo, some products get in. Bohnsack said Coca-Cola can be purchased at almost any restaurant. It's brought in from Mexico, he said.

Student Rubi Spitzmiller said Cubans on the streets are constantly hawking goods. "They will try to sell you everything from cigars to lobsters," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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