Reporting From Havana, Cuba

A woman passes time in front of her home in Havana, Cuba.

It is late at night and I am lying in bed in an old, dimly lit and dusty room in Havana, Cuba. It is the home of a small family I found on the internet and I can hear the shrill cries of their infant son coming from the other room, which is not at all what I need right now. The last 40 hours were spent traveling, a really gruesome trip this time that took me from New York to Denver to L.A. to Mexico City to Cancun to finally here in Cuba. I am almost too tired to type, and I can't figure out how I will even get this posted since no one seems to know where I can find internet. I suppose I have figured out more complicated things in my life, so I won't worry too much about it.

I will be in Cuba for the next month exploring a variety of different stories that I will share with you. Originally I wanted to put this entire project on Twitter, giving updates several times every day, but Cuba’s government-run communications will make that impossible, so I will save it for my next big project.

Cuba is a fascinating place and potentially coming to a crossroads that could change the life and culture here forever. As a photographer, I feel it is important to record things that will be lost, and I hope to do that here.

I managed to drag my beaten down body outside for a bit of exploring tonight, and although my eyes were half closed due to fatigue and another quarter closed thanks to my sweat pouring into them, I saw a bit of the local culture and am excited to begin to capture it. 

I have mainly come here to learn about the people and explore pertinent social issues and really don’t have many ideas about subjects I want to focus on. I have a workshop student for 10 days and we will be working on a photo story about Santería, the controversial Carribbean religion that is still practiced here, but other than that I am keeping myself open to whatever there is to document here. 

I ran into a small group of cross-dressers on my short walk tonight and I am very keen to find out how they are viewed here culturally and if there is a large community here. If there is, I would love to document that world and would happily do so in drag if that would make them more comfortable with me. I suppose a war photographer drag queen in Cuba would be something no one has seen before ;)

But for now, I must sleep. I get so down sometimes from all the travel and there is nothing worse than the way the world looks when you are exhausted and in a new, strange place. I spent my first three months working alone overseas when I was 16 years old and I will never forget how I got lost in the metro system for five hours after my long flight. When I finally made it out and found my hotel they had given my reservation away because I was late and were now fully booked. I went outside to a phone booth, called my Mum collect and cried like someone shredded my teddy bear! I still get that feeling sometimes, but have learned to spare my poor Mum and keep it to myself. I also realize that feeling usually goes away after a bit of sleep.

Day 2:

I must say that Cuba is turning out to be a horribly frustrating place. It is expensive, there are huge lines and waits to do just about anything and communications such as phone and internet are nearly impossible due to full government control. Cubans are apparently not even allowed to use the internet, only e-mail, so getting online involves going to the capital building, handing over your passport, paying $6 an hour and using the slowest computers imaginable. No internet cafes, no internet in private homes—it will make my life quite difficult, but I will do my best to make posts as often as I can.

This is the display case at the largest communications store (government-owned) in Cuba.  As you can see they offer a very wide variety of useful products... :)

Comments

[David Wilton]

I felt really down when I landed in Santo Domingo several months ago, not having traveled much for several years in such a poor country. I was sick too. Do you ever think of taking some time off to remain in one place to rest and recover?

[spider]

And I thought I had bad days. Take this to heart any story that will change lives and the way people think about social injustice, any story that will change society for the better is worth telling no matter what. In fact the more it needs to be told the harder it will be to tell it. Tell it anyway. We need more people of courage telling stories that change us. And I hope the baby learns to laugh at night instead of cry. LOL-- you have a good one!

Spider

[robin]

I look forward to following this! I have some shots from my holiday to cuba on my blog www.shotsfromthesmoke.com readers may also enjoy.

Looking forward to seeing how you capture the country.

Robin

[Roxy]

Hi Zoriah. I am just wondering, being an American citizen, was it harder to get in to Cuba? Or have the laws and restrictions between USA and Cuba changed? I must say I've been to Cuba twice and I love the people. I stayed in a resort so your experience there is much more unique and special. Looking forward to seeing more pics and yes, it would be interesting to see a photo of you in drag. :)

[Heimana]

Yeaah, reminds me so much my trip there! Loved Havana btw...
The 2nd pic is taken in a Cadeca shop, isn't it?

Got a bunch of pics over there: http://heymana.com/picsengine3/#album=30/photo=1172 not as good as yours for sure...
Hope you'll get better very soon, take care!

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