00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:02.504
[waves lapping]

00:00:48.170 --> 00:00:49.730
- I remember going to Key West

00:00:49.730 --> 00:00:51.660
and looking at the southernmost point

00:00:51.660 --> 00:00:53.530
and saying it was 90 miles from Cuba,

00:00:53.530 --> 00:00:55.160
thinking I can't wait to get there.

00:00:55.160 --> 00:00:58.050
And that was probably,
you know, 25 years ago.

00:00:58.050 --> 00:01:00.749
I had nightmares before I left.

00:01:00.749 --> 00:01:02.174
Russia was in Cuba.

00:01:02.174 --> 00:01:05.440
[singing in Yoruba]

00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:08.773
It was a no-no to even want to go there.

00:01:10.550 --> 00:01:14.790
Once the travel ban was
lifted, my dad, my uncle,

00:01:14.790 --> 00:01:19.292
my sisters, we kind of just
got there as soon as we can.

00:01:19.292 --> 00:01:20.750
[harness clanking]

00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:22.700
- We Americans were not allowed

00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:24.743
to go wandering off on our own.

00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:27.460
- The first time I went to Cuba,

00:01:27.460 --> 00:01:30.313
I went on what was
called a medical mission.

00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.740
- I visited several times
because I love Cuba.

00:01:35.740 --> 00:01:37.860
And to see, could I live here?

00:01:37.860 --> 00:01:41.296
It's not an easy place to
live, it's under a blockade.

00:01:42.237 --> 00:01:46.062
[Music - Mezclarte, "Soñaba Yo"]

00:01:51.741 --> 00:01:55.991
["Soñaba Yo" continues]

00:02:18.972 --> 00:02:20.800
- I was born in Cuba

00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.612
in a small mountain town called Fomento,

00:02:23.612 --> 00:02:26.440
and I was raised in Massachusetts.

00:02:26.440 --> 00:02:29.800
- I had two scholarships
in the US and I lived there

00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:31.220
for almost 10 years.

00:02:31.220 --> 00:02:32.636
And after the Guggenheim fellowship ended

00:02:32.636 --> 00:02:33.711
I returned to Cuba,

00:02:33.711 --> 00:02:35.590
and a lot of people
here thought I was crazy

00:02:35.590 --> 00:02:37.071
because I was coming back here.

00:02:37.071 --> 00:02:41.238
[singing in Spanish]

00:02:53.605 --> 00:02:57.350
- I was seeing past the
geopolitics and the propaganda.

00:02:57.350 --> 00:03:00.839
This was about people.
This was about violence.

00:03:00.839 --> 00:03:03.672
[waves lapping]

00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.850
- I was born in Bronx, New York.

00:03:11.850 --> 00:03:16.290
My first trip to Cuba was in 1989

00:03:16.290 --> 00:03:21.290
and I was getting re-certified
to teach social studies.

00:03:21.430 --> 00:03:25.840
And I was thinking, how do you
teach government, you know?

00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:29.460
And it was during Glasnost,

00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:32.960
and I said to my daughter
who had started college,

00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:34.310
"Socialism doesn't work."

00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:35.980
I'd been an activist all my life,

00:03:35.980 --> 00:03:37.340
and I said, "It's not working in

00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:39.080
"the Soviet Union, it doesn't work."

00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:40.900
And she said, "It works in Cuba."

00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.340
So I said, well, let me go
and see if I'm gonna teach it.

00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:45.725
And I fell in love with the country.

00:03:45.725 --> 00:03:48.475
[lively salsa music]

00:04:02.887 --> 00:04:04.812
[salsa music continues]

00:04:22.955 --> 00:04:25.210
And I went with a group of teachers.

00:04:25.210 --> 00:04:27.590
I had nightmares before I left,

00:04:27.590 --> 00:04:31.250
because this was at
the end of the Cold War

00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.400
so we were getting, you know,

00:04:33.400 --> 00:04:35.650
what it was like in the Soviet Union.

00:04:35.650 --> 00:04:39.790
And it was scary, people
following you around,

00:04:39.790 --> 00:04:42.610
and so that I imagined would be like Cuba.

00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:45.478
So it was so different.

00:04:45.478 --> 00:04:48.228
[kids shrieking]

00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:52.173
Very warm, very friendly.

00:04:53.840 --> 00:04:55.390
- [Man] The majority of people that visit,

00:04:55.390 --> 00:04:56.260
within a day or two

00:04:56.260 --> 00:04:58.130
they're in a Cuban's house for something,

00:04:58.130 --> 00:05:00.973
whether it's playing the
guitar or drinking a coffee.

00:05:02.510 --> 00:05:05.780
- The way everybody
lets themselves be free

00:05:05.780 --> 00:05:08.520
in their laughter, in their conduct,

00:05:08.520 --> 00:05:13.520
in their love of the music,
and they seem uninhibited.

00:05:15.490 --> 00:05:20.460
- There's a simplicity of
happiness and of enjoying life,

00:05:20.460 --> 00:05:22.000
and that's not to oversimplify.

00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.190
I think a lot of times
when folks read about Cuba

00:05:25.190 --> 00:05:28.680
or think about Cuba, you
know, Cubans are so happy.

00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:30.030
Cubans are just normal people.

00:05:30.030 --> 00:05:31.410
There's Cubans that are depressed.

00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:32.843
There's Cubans that are happy.

00:05:34.051 --> 00:05:36.801
[lively Latin pop music]

00:05:48.298 --> 00:05:50.281
[Latin pop music continues]

00:06:05.570 --> 00:06:09.170
- I'm going back to Cuba in a few weeks,

00:06:09.170 --> 00:06:12.490
and I've been studying about Santeria.

00:06:12.490 --> 00:06:17.490
Santeria is an Afro-Cuban spirit religion.

00:06:18.510 --> 00:06:23.510
It has roots in Nigerian Yoruba culture.

00:06:25.935 --> 00:06:28.285
[stately piano music]

00:06:49.130 --> 00:06:54.130
- The US relationship in
Cuba before the revolution

00:06:55.510 --> 00:06:58.440
is highly relevant even to this day.

00:06:58.440 --> 00:07:03.440
It's almost ingrained in
the psychology of Cubans

00:07:03.670 --> 00:07:06.310
in terms of foreign domination,

00:07:06.310 --> 00:07:07.560
and not only with the United States,

00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.450
Spain's role with Cuba as a colony.

00:07:10.450 --> 00:07:14.640
They've basically been
dominated by a foreign power,

00:07:14.640 --> 00:07:16.913
since the island was cultivated.

00:07:18.510 --> 00:07:22.660
- Back around the turn of the
century, Cuba, Puerto Rico,

00:07:22.660 --> 00:07:26.980
there was starvation, there
was poverty, there was unrest.

00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:30.863
Their governments simply
didn't take care of the people.

00:07:31.870 --> 00:07:33.663
There were revolutionary movements.

00:07:34.820 --> 00:07:37.740
So there grew up in the
United States a faction

00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:40.520
led by a rich American publisher

00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:43.093
named William Randolph Hurst.

00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:48.850
He created a propaganda machine
and built a mass movement

00:07:48.850 --> 00:07:51.270
over a period of about seven years

00:07:51.270 --> 00:07:54.873
that led directly to the
Spanish-American war.

00:07:54.873 --> 00:07:58.206
[stately piano music]

00:07:59.380 --> 00:08:01.830
Spain had stopped being a world power

00:08:01.830 --> 00:08:03.603
100 years before that war,

00:08:04.470 --> 00:08:08.130
but they still had control of Cuba,

00:08:08.130 --> 00:08:10.671
Puerto Rico, the Philippines.

00:08:10.671 --> 00:08:12.660
[waves crashing]

00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:15.280
And at that point
America had set its heart

00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:20.280
on becoming an international sea power.

00:08:20.330 --> 00:08:23.680
We looked at Britain and said,
"They built a great empire

00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.880
"and they did it with their Navy.

00:08:25.880 --> 00:08:27.267
"Let's do it too."

00:08:28.140 --> 00:08:31.760
Cuba was easily taken by
a small American force,

00:08:31.760 --> 00:08:35.180
backed up by a Navy that
was, in its technology,

00:08:35.180 --> 00:08:38.270
100 years ahead of the Spanish navy.

00:08:38.270 --> 00:08:42.651
- Once overthrowing the Spanish,

00:08:42.651 --> 00:08:44.725
Cuba was on a trajectory

00:08:44.725 --> 00:08:47.890
to be a revolutionary-type country,

00:08:47.890 --> 00:08:51.470
but then the United
States took Spain's place.

00:08:51.470 --> 00:08:56.095
And in a neo-colonial vein

00:08:56.095 --> 00:08:58.803
supported people like Batista.

00:08:58.803 --> 00:09:01.760
- We had a lot of money
in Batista's government.

00:09:01.760 --> 00:09:04.100
There wasn't anybody in high office

00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:06.093
that the United States was not paying.

00:09:07.090 --> 00:09:09.340
We also had some under-the-table deals

00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:12.810
with American gangsters, Mafia, mobsters.

00:09:12.810 --> 00:09:16.679
Those mobsters had many
millions of dollars in Cuba.

00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:20.173
They controlled high people
in Batista's government.

00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:23.700
- A lot of US businesses
were making money.

00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:25.250
Cuba was a playground.

00:09:25.250 --> 00:09:27.990
You went there, you spent
money, you gambled, you drank,

00:09:27.990 --> 00:09:30.540
you came back to the United
States and all was good.

00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:33.292
- And there were some
pretty awful things going on

00:09:33.292 --> 00:09:37.240
under the Batista regime before Castro,

00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:42.200
very pro-American, lots
of Mafia, developers.

00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:43.870
Americans were coming in

00:09:43.870 --> 00:09:46.830
and really raping and pillaging the land,

00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:50.290
as we have a tendency to
do in other countries.

00:09:50.290 --> 00:09:53.820
The Batista group was enriching themselves

00:09:53.820 --> 00:09:55.327
and allowing this to happen.

00:09:55.327 --> 00:09:58.510
[crowd noise]

00:09:58.510 --> 00:10:01.347
- So we're aware of the Batista regime

00:10:01.347 --> 00:10:04.200
and the human rights
violations that were alleged

00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:05.450
and probably did occur,

00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:07.690
probably didn't get as much publicity

00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:09.390
as it probably should have, 'cause, again,

00:10:09.390 --> 00:10:10.360
you're having a great time.

00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:12.560
You don't care that the server is living

00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:15.550
in a little hovel somewhere.

00:10:15.550 --> 00:10:18.080
All you're caring about is
you got lobster on your plate,

00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.033
your room's clean and the pool's warm.

00:10:21.872 --> 00:10:23.714
[ship horn blaring]

00:10:27.484 --> 00:10:29.580
[seagulls squawking]

00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:32.000
- And you look at US
dominance of the island

00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.820
in terms of proposing who
would be the governor,

00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:37.680
intervening militarily dozens of times,

00:10:37.680 --> 00:10:40.750
owning one of the best ports in Guantanamo

00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:42.850
and a swath of Cuban land,

00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:46.750
US companies and land
owners dominating ownership

00:10:46.750 --> 00:10:48.280
of land, factories.

00:10:48.280 --> 00:10:50.530
So political, economic, and social life

00:10:50.530 --> 00:10:52.700
was dominated by the United States.

00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:54.770
- There did need to be a change.

00:10:54.770 --> 00:10:57.290
It's too bad it has to be communist.

00:10:57.290 --> 00:10:59.820
- I would argue that the Cuban Revolution

00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:04.820
is much more about sovereignty
and finding independence

00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.100
than it is about communism.

00:11:08.309 --> 00:11:11.726
[Music - Nei Zigma, "Viração"]

00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:26.419
[gunshots and explosions]

00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:30.250
- I was born in Chicago.

00:11:30.250 --> 00:11:34.950
In 1958, March, my family,
we had a business in Cuba

00:11:34.950 --> 00:11:37.200
and I went down with
my mother and my father

00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:40.175
and moved to Havana, Cuba.

00:11:40.175 --> 00:11:43.400
[singing in Spanish]

00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:00.770
The main reason we came to
Cuba was because my father

00:12:00.770 --> 00:12:02.940
had already been negotiating
and starting a new business

00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:04.690
called Vidiguano.

00:12:04.690 --> 00:12:08.017
My father went down to
Cuba to pretty much gamble,

00:12:08.017 --> 00:12:10.970
and that's kind of how
would he ran into this guy

00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:14.187
by the name of Núñez Jimenez,
and Núñez was a spelunker

00:12:14.187 --> 00:12:17.800
and he said there was an
amazing amount of bat droppings

00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:18.850
in these caves.

00:12:18.850 --> 00:12:22.250
And we can take the bat
droppings and formulate them,

00:12:22.250 --> 00:12:24.283
make it into fertilizer for the homes.

00:12:25.930 --> 00:12:28.740
- I do have some revolution memories

00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:33.390
of having to hide under the
kitchen table with my mom.

00:12:33.390 --> 00:12:35.340
And there was fighting,

00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:40.010
there was shooting and
casings all over our porch.

00:12:40.010 --> 00:12:42.780
My father tells me he put, you know,

00:12:42.780 --> 00:12:44.840
they put sandbags against the window

00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:48.293
so that we wouldn't get shot at.

00:12:50.210 --> 00:12:54.650
Our small town was one of
the first towns that fell,

00:12:54.650 --> 00:12:57.868
so to speak, to the revolutionaries.

00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:05.980
There was the tale of my mom
shaking Che Guevara's hand,

00:13:07.270 --> 00:13:09.400
and I thought it was
that she had kissed him,

00:13:09.400 --> 00:13:10.287
and then she said,

00:13:10.287 --> 00:13:13.050
[laughs] "No, no, no, I never kissed him.

00:13:13.050 --> 00:13:14.670
"I just shook his hand."

00:13:14.670 --> 00:13:16.063
'Cause it was a big deal, you know?

00:13:16.063 --> 00:13:18.920
They came in triumphantly
through the town.

00:13:20.153 --> 00:13:23.486
[Music - Patricio Manns, "Su
Nombre Ardio Como un Pajar]

00:13:38.385 --> 00:13:41.201
[singing in Spanish]

00:13:44.680 --> 00:13:47.600
- Our family started the
plant up in Matanzas.

00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.560
My father could create the company

00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:51.650
and be part of the new agrarian society

00:13:51.650 --> 00:13:54.644
that Fidel was trying to do, in exporting.

00:13:54.644 --> 00:13:57.290
[waves lapping]

00:13:57.290 --> 00:13:58.750
And it took off.

00:13:58.750 --> 00:14:00.140
After the government changed,

00:14:00.140 --> 00:14:02.449
we were doing very well for a while.

00:14:02.449 --> 00:14:05.449
[bright Spanish guitar music]

00:14:13.374 --> 00:14:15.210
Vidiguano was pretty much marketed

00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:18.200
for the European market
and the American market,

00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.260
so the ships would go out of
Havana and end up in Miami,

00:14:21.260 --> 00:14:23.880
and then from Miami things
were shipped to Europe

00:14:23.880 --> 00:14:25.680
and into the north and to New York

00:14:25.680 --> 00:14:29.113
and different grocery stores at that time.

00:14:29.113 --> 00:14:31.500
[waves lapping]

00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:36.140
- My mom was probably more
caught up in the excitement

00:14:36.140 --> 00:14:39.860
than my father, who had gone to university

00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:44.583
with Fidel Castro and never
liked him, never trusted him.

00:14:46.590 --> 00:14:49.323
But no, neither of them
were really sympathetic.

00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:55.820
- This whole Cuban thing
was always hush-hush,

00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:57.687
and every time I'd ask
about these pictures,

00:14:57.687 --> 00:14:59.842
"Oh no, no, no, no. We
don't talk about Cuba."

00:15:01.384 --> 00:15:05.551
[Music - Tomás Sanchez
Boizán, "Son Los Celos"]

00:15:21.780 --> 00:15:25.950
- The first trip was in January of 2017,

00:15:25.950 --> 00:15:29.930
and then I was in Cuba January
2018 for about two weeks.

00:15:29.930 --> 00:15:33.930
A lot of family and just it's
a beautiful place to visit,

00:15:33.930 --> 00:15:36.930
and that's where I'm
originally supposed to be at.

00:15:36.930 --> 00:15:38.839
if it wasn't for Castro.

00:15:39.772 --> 00:15:44.280
["Son Los Celos" continues]

00:15:47.510 --> 00:15:49.500
My last trip, I went to Baracoa,

00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:50.850
which is on the other side of Cuba,

00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:53.710
and got to meet my grandmother's family.

00:15:53.710 --> 00:15:56.670
It was really cool meeting
that side of the family.

00:15:56.670 --> 00:15:58.410
They're all farmers.

00:15:58.410 --> 00:16:00.480
There was one that lived in, like,

00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:02.530
his field and lived in a shack,

00:16:02.530 --> 00:16:06.330
and he had a horse that he
was taking care of in the back

00:16:06.330 --> 00:16:09.160
and he takes tourists
around on a carriage.

00:16:09.160 --> 00:16:11.260
So that's how he makes a living.

00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:14.160
They also live off the land a lot.

00:16:14.160 --> 00:16:17.383
They have a lot of coconuts, bananas.

00:16:19.790 --> 00:16:21.750
And my mother's never
really said much about it,

00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:25.260
and my dad was born and
raised on a mountain,

00:16:25.260 --> 00:16:27.770
and that's about as much as I know there.

00:16:27.770 --> 00:16:30.540
They were only there
until I think my dad was 5

00:16:30.540 --> 00:16:31.600
and my mom was 3.

00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:33.803
They moved because of the Castro regime.

00:16:35.877 --> 00:16:37.580
They're just not big fans of him

00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:40.520
because the Castros took everything away,

00:16:40.520 --> 00:16:43.770
like land, everything,
and made it centralized

00:16:43.770 --> 00:16:44.680
so everybody could have it.

00:16:44.680 --> 00:16:46.760
So basically the farmers,

00:16:46.760 --> 00:16:50.490
everybody that didn't
have money, supported him.

00:16:50.490 --> 00:16:54.070
But the people in Havana and
the cities who had money,

00:16:54.070 --> 00:16:56.120
that's why they evacuated when they could,

00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:57.690
because they knew what was coming.

00:16:57.690 --> 00:16:59.912
They were gonna lose
everything they owned.

00:16:59.912 --> 00:17:03.010
[stately piano music]

00:17:03.010 --> 00:17:07.570
- Primarily the wealthier
landowners in Cuba

00:17:07.570 --> 00:17:10.520
ran to America with whatever they had

00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:13.120
or whatever they could smuggle out,

00:17:13.120 --> 00:17:15.920
and they really haven't
been able to go back

00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:19.970
because their lands and their
homes now have been divvied up

00:17:19.970 --> 00:17:22.773
among the population of Cuba.

00:17:23.860 --> 00:17:28.390
- When wealthy people
left the island of Cuba

00:17:28.390 --> 00:17:32.530
during the revolution and left
their very beautiful homes,

00:17:32.530 --> 00:17:36.620
many of the homes were
taken over by the people

00:17:36.620 --> 00:17:40.520
who worked for the family,
whether it be maids

00:17:40.520 --> 00:17:44.750
or their gardeners, and
they still live there.

00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:48.130
- There certainly was
an anti-poverty campaign

00:17:48.130 --> 00:17:49.950
at the start of the revolution

00:17:49.950 --> 00:17:53.500
that guaranteed equal access
to healthcare, education.

00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:56.677
There was a housing program, land reform.

00:17:57.844 --> 00:18:00.761
[tractor engine puttering]

00:18:26.856 --> 00:18:30.023
[nimble piano music]

00:18:32.018 --> 00:18:36.185
- The United Fruit Company's
330,000 acre property

00:18:37.070 --> 00:18:41.530
under land reform
resulted in 10,000 parcels

00:18:41.530 --> 00:18:44.697
being distributed to the Cuban people.

00:19:05.370 --> 00:19:07.620
- I never considered myself a communist.

00:19:07.620 --> 00:19:10.100
What I would say was I'm a Fidelista.

00:19:10.100 --> 00:19:14.110
I think what Fidel did is magnificent

00:19:14.110 --> 00:19:15.960
for Cuba, for the world.

00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:20.633
- Castro wanted Cuba for the Cubans.

00:19:22.210 --> 00:19:24.570
- I think he definitely
wanted to take power

00:19:24.570 --> 00:19:26.500
away from landlords.

00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:28.960
I think he definitely wanted
to take power and wealth

00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:32.550
away from corporations--
not just Cuban corporations,

00:19:32.550 --> 00:19:35.560
but overseas corporations as well.

00:19:35.560 --> 00:19:38.200
- The United States and Batista

00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:43.160
were relying upon the idea
of private property rights.

00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:44.939
Castro fought to say,

00:19:44.939 --> 00:19:47.820
"No, there will be no
private property rights

00:19:47.820 --> 00:19:52.403
"because you are exploiting
our island and our people."

00:19:56.630 --> 00:19:59.430
- The United States never forgave Cuba

00:19:59.430 --> 00:20:03.250
for having a revolution
that nationalized the banks,

00:20:03.250 --> 00:20:06.190
nationalized imports and exports

00:20:06.190 --> 00:20:09.100
and closed all the
corporations that were there.

00:20:09.100 --> 00:20:13.110
- Those who lose a
revolution hate the winners.

00:20:13.110 --> 00:20:16.360
[staccato piano music]

00:20:26.007 --> 00:20:29.050
- Less than two years
after the revolution,

00:20:29.050 --> 00:20:31.450
the US imposed the embargo against Cuba.

00:20:31.450 --> 00:20:34.530
- The idea behind the embargo was always--

00:20:34.530 --> 00:20:37.590
and this is documented in US documents--

00:20:37.590 --> 00:20:39.639
to starve the Cuban people,

00:20:39.639 --> 00:20:42.780
to provide enough chaos and suffering

00:20:42.780 --> 00:20:45.760
that they would rise up and
overthrow the government.

00:20:45.760 --> 00:20:49.430
- We were trying to isolate
Cuba back in the '60s

00:20:49.430 --> 00:20:54.430
after the revolution,
and allow wealthy Cubans

00:20:55.130 --> 00:20:56.430
who had come to this country

00:20:56.430 --> 00:21:00.169
to go back to their lands and their homes.

00:21:00.169 --> 00:21:01.883
That just never happened.

00:21:02.820 --> 00:21:04.570
- [Man] In Cuba, they
don't call it an embargo.

00:21:04.570 --> 00:21:06.213
They call it a blockade.

00:21:07.050 --> 00:21:10.020
- We didn't wanna see any
American products going to Cuba

00:21:10.020 --> 00:21:15.020
or any products going to Cuba
that had parts or financing

00:21:15.690 --> 00:21:18.810
or brands that were American.

00:21:18.810 --> 00:21:20.840
So what are we stopping?

00:21:20.840 --> 00:21:25.230
Food, medicine, construction
materials, automobiles,

00:21:25.230 --> 00:21:29.720
electronics, appliances, clothes washers.

00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:32.370
It was meant to be
economically devastating

00:21:32.370 --> 00:21:35.100
to the entire population of Cuba.

00:21:35.100 --> 00:21:38.750
It's still economically extremely harmful

00:21:38.750 --> 00:21:42.120
to the people of Cuba,
not just the economy,

00:21:42.120 --> 00:21:45.152
not just to their ability
to defend themselves.

00:21:46.977 --> 00:21:50.977
[Music - Tomás Sanchez
Boizán, "Sublime Fantasia"]

00:21:58.485 --> 00:22:02.735
["Sublime Fantasia" continues]

00:22:07.290 --> 00:22:09.000
- One night I was with a cab driver

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:10.317
and he asked me, he goes,

00:22:10.317 --> 00:22:13.240
"Why do you Americans
always get rid of your cars?

00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:16.330
"Why don't you have one
car and keep that one car?"

00:22:16.330 --> 00:22:17.410
And it was a good point.

00:22:17.410 --> 00:22:19.310
I'm like, "Well, the car broke down."

00:22:19.310 --> 00:22:21.417
They go, "Well, why didn't you fix it?"

00:22:21.417 --> 00:22:22.360
"Well, I fixed it,

00:22:22.360 --> 00:22:25.017
"but then it started
rusting a little bit."

00:22:25.017 --> 00:22:26.400
"Why don't you fix the rust?"

00:22:27.650 --> 00:22:31.650
["Sublime Fantasia" continues]

00:22:44.841 --> 00:22:47.674
[engine sputtering]

00:22:55.971 --> 00:22:59.971
["Sublime Fantasia" continues]

00:23:06.040 --> 00:23:09.820
We lived in Cuba for four years
and were doing pretty good.

00:23:09.820 --> 00:23:13.010
We lived down by the Hotel
National, we had a nice house.

00:23:13.010 --> 00:23:16.420
We had a lot of people
working in our companies.

00:23:16.420 --> 00:23:17.900
The big reason we had to leave

00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:22.339
was because of the CIA went
ahead and invaded the country.

00:23:22.339 --> 00:23:25.589
[dramatic piano music]

00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:50.450
After Bay of Pigs, Fidel
said everybody has to go.

00:23:50.450 --> 00:23:52.143
And we had to go...

00:23:54.050 --> 00:23:57.020
...along with a lot of other Americans.

00:23:57.020 --> 00:23:58.620
Or as Yankees, as we were called.

00:24:00.143 --> 00:24:02.893
[mournful horn blaring]

00:24:09.270 --> 00:24:12.160
- It wasn't until the Bay of Pigs

00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:14.940
that my father felt more at risk.

00:24:14.940 --> 00:24:17.920
They wanted to jail him
and they couldn't find him,

00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:20.430
so they jailed his father instead.

00:24:20.430 --> 00:24:24.077
And it was after that
experience that they said,

00:24:24.077 --> 00:24:26.340
"This isn't getting
better, this is a mess.

00:24:26.340 --> 00:24:27.450
"And we have to leave."

00:24:27.450 --> 00:24:30.380
- We had to leave. Everything was seized.

00:24:30.380 --> 00:24:32.810
The company was left behind.

00:24:32.810 --> 00:24:35.960
We came to United States
with barely nothing.

00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:38.890
We came to Miami and my
grandfather had a place down there,

00:24:38.890 --> 00:24:42.353
so we ended up moving
into the house in Miami.

00:24:48.704 --> 00:24:51.720
- I had two aunts that left Cuba in 1960,

00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:53.720
right after a triumph of the Revolution.

00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:55.570
They lived in this very building

00:24:55.570 --> 00:24:57.360
and they actually rented
the whole building,

00:24:57.360 --> 00:24:58.500
which was nationalized,

00:24:58.500 --> 00:25:00.260
and my dad was able to keep this apartment

00:25:00.260 --> 00:25:02.760
where I live now, and everything
remained frozen in time.

00:25:02.760 --> 00:25:07.010
All the furniture is from
that time, from the '50s.

00:25:43.582 --> 00:25:46.499
[waves lapping]

00:25:51.170 --> 00:25:54.670
- I did notice that the letters
that came from my cousins

00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:57.510
were beautiful and sort of old fashioned

00:25:57.510 --> 00:26:02.473
and a different style of
language that was remarkable.

00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:05.870
- After the Revolution,

00:26:05.870 --> 00:26:09.603
the young people went into
the mountains to teach people.

00:26:12.653 --> 00:26:15.250
They volunteered to teach people literacy

00:26:15.250 --> 00:26:16.954
at the risk of their lives.

00:26:16.954 --> 00:26:19.840
Some of these young people were killed

00:26:19.840 --> 00:26:21.700
by the counter-revolutionaries.

00:26:21.700 --> 00:26:25.780
- When you got a country
of millions of people,

00:26:25.780 --> 00:26:30.780
and everybody is literate,
that starts the conversation.

00:26:31.790 --> 00:26:35.130
- They have a very high literacy rate,

00:26:35.130 --> 00:26:37.470
probably comparable to the US,

00:26:37.470 --> 00:26:41.240
and the Cuban people by and
large are fairly well educated.

00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:43.610
It's a very competitive educational system

00:26:43.610 --> 00:26:48.610
in that children start
early in elementary school

00:26:48.610 --> 00:26:51.050
focusing on a particular interest.

00:26:51.050 --> 00:26:53.650
You can visit elementary
schools, which we do,

00:26:53.650 --> 00:26:56.610
that focus on dance,
or they focus on music.

00:26:56.610 --> 00:26:58.760
And then as they grow older,

00:26:58.760 --> 00:27:01.240
there's less and less spaces for kids

00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:04.790
to concentrate on music,
on art, or what have you.

00:27:04.790 --> 00:27:06.870
And then by the university level,

00:27:06.870 --> 00:27:08.653
it's very, very competitive.

00:27:09.820 --> 00:27:13.350
- I had been doing a great
deal of substitute teaching

00:27:13.350 --> 00:27:15.713
with disabled people.

00:27:16.570 --> 00:27:21.020
And so in the US, I remember
this one particular man,

00:27:21.020 --> 00:27:25.020
he was about 20 and he
was huge, he was very big.

00:27:25.020 --> 00:27:27.300
And I was in a classroom,

00:27:27.300 --> 00:27:31.080
and all I could have him
do was sit down and color.

00:27:31.080 --> 00:27:34.390
And we went to Cuba, and the school,

00:27:34.390 --> 00:27:37.670
they had men and women separately.

00:27:37.670 --> 00:27:39.610
The men were working on,

00:27:39.610 --> 00:27:41.410
I don't even know what you call them,

00:27:41.410 --> 00:27:44.150
lathes, but they were electric.

00:27:44.150 --> 00:27:47.190
So it was kind of dangerous stuff.

00:27:47.190 --> 00:27:49.390
These were all disabled men

00:27:49.390 --> 00:27:52.990
making ornate furniture, carpentry.

00:27:52.990 --> 00:27:55.910
When they learned how to do this,

00:27:55.910 --> 00:27:58.810
they would then work in factories

00:27:58.810 --> 00:28:01.790
in their home neighborhoods.

00:28:01.790 --> 00:28:03.390
And I cried,

00:28:03.390 --> 00:28:04.583
I'm getting teary now,

00:28:05.910 --> 00:28:08.174
'cause they were treated as adults.

00:28:08.174 --> 00:28:11.507
[energetic piano music]

00:28:25.150 --> 00:28:28.840
- My school opened up a
semester-long program.

00:28:28.840 --> 00:28:32.460
So in 2005 I spent a semester there,

00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.110
and that's when I really
fell in love with the country

00:28:35.110 --> 00:28:39.441
and decided that I wanted to
devote my life's work to Cuba.

00:28:39.441 --> 00:28:41.860
I'd say Cuba, I often tell students this,

00:28:41.860 --> 00:28:44.260
I think it's one of the
best countries in the world

00:28:44.260 --> 00:28:47.873
to study because of the
safety, that it is very safe,

00:28:47.873 --> 00:28:49.010
and because of the openness.

00:28:49.010 --> 00:28:51.260
Cubans will really take
you under their wing.

00:28:52.250 --> 00:28:55.280
[crying and sobbing]

00:28:55.280 --> 00:28:58.350
- The Latin American
School of Medicine in Cuba

00:28:58.350 --> 00:29:02.610
offers full medical school
education at no cost

00:29:02.610 --> 00:29:04.750
to students from around the world,

00:29:04.750 --> 00:29:06.610
including the United States.

00:29:06.610 --> 00:29:08.100
The only stipulation

00:29:08.100 --> 00:29:10.560
is that when they
complete their education,

00:29:10.560 --> 00:29:12.680
they must go back home to their country

00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:16.213
and practice medicine in
underserved communities.

00:29:17.450 --> 00:29:21.110
- People did express
gratitude for the fact

00:29:21.110 --> 00:29:24.193
that all education was free for them.

00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:55.340
- Very educated people, they read a lot.

00:29:55.340 --> 00:29:57.390
It's very interesting
on how they know a lot

00:29:57.390 --> 00:29:58.223
about world events

00:29:58.223 --> 00:30:01.080
even though they're pretty
much sequestered from,

00:30:01.080 --> 00:30:04.160
you know, YouTube and
a lot of other things.

00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:06.510
That's one of the bad
things of a dictatorship.

00:30:08.374 --> 00:30:11.690
[traffic noise]
[birds chirping]

00:30:20.190 --> 00:30:24.440
- I came to Guantanamo Bay
on a US Navy aircraft carrier

00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:28.150
called USS Lake Champlain.

00:30:28.150 --> 00:30:31.130
It had about 1,500 sailors on it,

00:30:31.130 --> 00:30:34.960
and at that point about 150 midshipmen.

00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:37.950
Most of the midshipmen were
not from the US Naval Academy.

00:30:37.950 --> 00:30:41.120
They were from ordinary colleges,

00:30:41.120 --> 00:30:43.920
and like me, they were
attending those colleges

00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:47.950
as Naval cadets and the
Navy paid for their college.

00:30:47.950 --> 00:30:51.360
That's why I was there. I
had grown up in the projects.

00:30:51.360 --> 00:30:53.510
There was no money for college.

00:30:53.510 --> 00:30:55.313
My brother went to college this way.

00:31:01.580 --> 00:31:03.190
So you spend four years in college,

00:31:03.190 --> 00:31:04.080
and when you graduated

00:31:04.080 --> 00:31:06.070
you would get a commission in the US Navy.

00:31:06.070 --> 00:31:07.273
That was the plan.

00:31:08.120 --> 00:31:10.420
So between my freshman
and sophomore years,

00:31:10.420 --> 00:31:11.440
I went on a cruise--

00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:13.998
that's what you did as a Naval cadet--

00:31:13.998 --> 00:31:15.489
with this carrier.

00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:22.150
I actually spent three days at Guantanamo.

00:31:22.150 --> 00:31:24.003
Guantanamo Bay, at that point,

00:31:25.310 --> 00:31:29.580
was a US Naval base on Cuban soil.

00:31:29.580 --> 00:31:32.013
Things were tense. We were
not allowed to go into Havana.

00:31:32.013 --> 00:31:35.340
We were not allowed to leave the base.

00:31:35.340 --> 00:31:37.370
I went with the first class petty officer

00:31:37.370 --> 00:31:40.160
and another midshipmen as crew on

00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:41.500
what was called a Liberty boat,

00:31:41.500 --> 00:31:44.510
and sailors and Marines
were wondering from the base

00:31:44.510 --> 00:31:48.323
out to this Liberty boat,
a day off was ending,

00:31:49.470 --> 00:31:51.217
and a couple of young Marines passed me.

00:31:51.217 --> 00:31:55.630
Now I've at this point reached
the ripe old age of 18,

00:31:55.630 --> 00:31:58.210
and this Marine that passed
me wasn't much older,

00:31:58.210 --> 00:31:59.840
maybe a year older.

00:31:59.840 --> 00:32:01.710
And he was a few yards past me

00:32:01.710 --> 00:32:04.190
and he shouted to some other Marines

00:32:04.190 --> 00:32:06.378
waiting in the Liberty boat,

00:32:06.378 --> 00:32:09.677
"Hey, I shot me a Cuban
on the fence last night,"

00:32:10.540 --> 00:32:13.020
exactly the way people used
to come into the high school

00:32:13.020 --> 00:32:14.227
on Monday morning and say,

00:32:14.227 --> 00:32:16.910
"Hey, I shot me a deer this weekend."

00:32:16.910 --> 00:32:17.810
And it was like...

00:32:18.820 --> 00:32:20.577
And in this ear a little voice said,

00:32:20.577 --> 00:32:22.002
"This life is not for you."

00:32:25.540 --> 00:32:28.403
The, quote, "Cuban
missile crisis" erupted.

00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:31.010
Everything was on high alert,

00:32:31.010 --> 00:32:33.280
and Naval forces, both ours and Russian,

00:32:33.280 --> 00:32:35.240
were moving everywhere.

00:32:35.240 --> 00:32:38.530
- It was high anxiety time.

00:32:38.530 --> 00:32:41.510
And I remember, you know, waiting out--

00:32:41.510 --> 00:32:46.510
there was a deadline for disarming Cuba

00:32:46.977 --> 00:32:47.868
by the Russians.

00:32:47.868 --> 00:32:50.250
[stately piano music]

00:32:51.500 --> 00:32:55.560
- I quite vividly remember
the Cuban missile crisis.

00:32:55.560 --> 00:33:00.230
As a child of nine years
old, I was on an ocean liner

00:33:00.230 --> 00:33:04.019
going across the Atlantic
to my new home in Sweden.

00:33:04.019 --> 00:33:07.530
[ominous orchestral newsreel music]

00:33:07.530 --> 00:33:09.620
- Within the past week,

00:33:09.620 --> 00:33:13.070
unmistakable evidence
has established the fact

00:33:13.070 --> 00:33:16.580
that a series of offensive missile sites

00:33:16.580 --> 00:33:19.953
is now in preparation on
that imprisoned island.

00:33:23.910 --> 00:33:26.720
- Well, I got back to college in the fall.

00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:30.970
The Cuban missile crisis, as
we call it, was in full roar.

00:33:30.970 --> 00:33:33.343
The US was blockading Cuba,

00:33:34.330 --> 00:33:36.670
and those of us who were
midshipmen were wondering

00:33:36.670 --> 00:33:38.720
if we were gonna get
called up and sent away.

00:33:42.970 --> 00:33:46.650
- We had been having
drills in our classroom

00:33:46.650 --> 00:33:48.243
to get under the desk,

00:33:49.450 --> 00:33:54.450
and we had heard the sirens
go off in our little town.

00:33:54.590 --> 00:33:56.633
This was a very scary noise.

00:33:57.480 --> 00:33:59.530
And here I was on a ship

00:34:00.420 --> 00:34:05.060
surrounded by nothing but cold water.

00:34:05.060 --> 00:34:08.050
We felt very vulnerable being on a ship.

00:34:08.050 --> 00:34:10.960
We were not inside the
borders of the United States.

00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:14.151
We were in international waters.

00:34:14.151 --> 00:34:17.484
[stately piano music]

00:34:19.070 --> 00:34:22.960
- The Soviet regime saw building
a relationship with Castro

00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:25.350
would make a really good place for them

00:34:25.350 --> 00:34:28.500
to have a launching
point for their missiles

00:34:28.500 --> 00:34:31.900
to come into America, to
retaliate for the fact

00:34:31.900 --> 00:34:36.410
that America, United States,
we had put Jupiter missiles

00:34:36.410 --> 00:34:39.050
in Turkey that was close
to the Soviet Union

00:34:39.050 --> 00:34:40.233
that we could launch.

00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:46.390
- We had a great many
missiles based in Germany.

00:34:46.390 --> 00:34:48.640
We also had missiles based in Turkey

00:34:48.640 --> 00:34:51.150
and some of the countries
of the Near East.

00:34:51.150 --> 00:34:56.150
- The Russians were aligned
with Cuba and communism,

00:34:56.280 --> 00:34:58.953
and they were made out
to be the worst enemies.

00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:04.840
- From when I grew up, you
know, a child of the '60s,

00:35:04.840 --> 00:35:07.523
Cuban missile crisis, JFK,

00:35:07.523 --> 00:35:09.673
doing that whole period, duck and cover.

00:35:09.673 --> 00:35:14.060
Obviously Cuba had a lot
of negative connotations,

00:35:14.060 --> 00:35:16.100
communism, the whole nine yards.

00:35:16.100 --> 00:35:19.580
But to me it's all about the people.

00:35:19.580 --> 00:35:24.150
And I think we Americans,
there were things that we heard

00:35:24.150 --> 00:35:25.600
that may or may not have been true.

00:35:25.600 --> 00:35:26.710
And I think it's a lot of things

00:35:26.710 --> 00:35:29.440
the Cuban people may or may not
have heard that'd been true.

00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.070
But I think people in
America and people in Cuba

00:35:32.070 --> 00:35:36.487
I think were probably a lot
more alike than not alike,

00:35:36.487 --> 00:35:38.440
and I think it's those
one-on-one relationships

00:35:38.440 --> 00:35:40.490
that you can meet and talk to people

00:35:40.490 --> 00:35:43.640
that really help define relationships

00:35:43.640 --> 00:35:45.243
and dispel a lot of myths.

00:35:47.092 --> 00:35:49.417
[stately piano music]

00:35:50.810 --> 00:35:52.350
- And the outcome wasn't really known

00:35:52.350 --> 00:35:53.980
until those missiles were packed up

00:35:53.980 --> 00:35:56.180
and shipped back to Russia.

00:35:56.180 --> 00:36:00.820
From that point on, anything
that America wanted to do

00:36:00.820 --> 00:36:05.820
to harm Cuba diplomatically,
economically, secretly,

00:36:06.910 --> 00:36:09.360
was just fine with the American people

00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:11.163
and with the American Congress.

00:36:12.105 --> 00:36:14.905
[waves crashing]

00:36:14.905 --> 00:36:18.071
[somber danzón music]

00:36:25.117 --> 00:36:27.127
- [Narrator] "The School for Assassins."

00:36:28.226 --> 00:36:30.876
- But how can it be that my
brother has gone to Cuba?

00:36:32.470 --> 00:36:34.480
Oh, poor Papa.

00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:37.420
He will see all his efforts
to make him a man wasted.

00:36:37.420 --> 00:36:39.600
- [Propaganda Narrator] Deep
in the mountains of Cuba,

00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:41.780
hundreds of youngsters
like Carlos and Oscar

00:36:41.780 --> 00:36:43.260
are being thoroughly trained

00:36:43.260 --> 00:36:45.720
to carry out the campaign of terror.

00:36:45.720 --> 00:36:48.002
- There's dozens and dozens of documented

00:36:48.002 --> 00:36:50.991
assassination attempts against Fidel.

00:36:50.991 --> 00:36:54.080
[danzón music continues]

00:36:54.080 --> 00:36:56.600
- I would say America was very scared.

00:36:56.600 --> 00:36:59.020
Basically, the Red Scare
was they were worried

00:36:59.020 --> 00:37:01.433
about other countries becoming communism.

00:37:03.510 --> 00:37:07.800
- You are all prepared to
return to your own countries

00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:12.410
and begin a wave of terror
and communist agitation.

00:37:12.410 --> 00:37:14.323
- The Red Scare began

00:37:14.323 --> 00:37:18.780
the moment the Russian
Revolution succeeded in 1917.

00:37:18.780 --> 00:37:23.780
- Red Scare, that communism is
going to take over the world

00:37:25.546 --> 00:37:29.747
and end democracy and economic freedom

00:37:31.330 --> 00:37:33.130
that comes from capitalism.

00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:37.070
That would be sort of the
caricature that I have in my mind.

00:37:37.070 --> 00:37:40.370
That rhetoric is certainly still alive.

00:37:40.370 --> 00:37:44.160
President Trump came to the
town where I go to school

00:37:44.160 --> 00:37:45.828
a couple months ago,

00:37:45.828 --> 00:37:50.790
and I went as part of a
peaceful counter-rally.

00:37:50.790 --> 00:37:54.120
And there were people
standing on the other side

00:37:54.120 --> 00:37:56.740
just shouting, like, "Go home, commies!"

00:37:56.740 --> 00:37:59.550
and, like, "Fuck socialism!"
and all of these things.

00:37:59.550 --> 00:38:04.510
Nobody there was explicitly
professing communism

00:38:04.510 --> 00:38:06.803
or socialism of any kind,

00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:12.330
but for some reason, it still--

00:38:12.330 --> 00:38:13.770
for so many people in our culture,

00:38:13.770 --> 00:38:16.988
still evokes this hatred or this fear.

00:38:18.530 --> 00:38:22.230
[Music - Tomás Sanchez
Boizán, "Sublime Fantasia"]

00:38:32.070 --> 00:38:37.070
- A lot of people feel like
the whole Cuba Renaissance,

00:38:37.072 --> 00:38:41.340
I call it, is a threat
to the United States.

00:38:41.340 --> 00:38:44.530
In fact, when I told people
I was coming to do this,

00:38:44.530 --> 00:38:45.807
this documentary, they were like,

00:38:45.807 --> 00:38:47.510
"Well, why would you wanna do that?"

00:38:47.510 --> 00:38:49.000
I don't look at it that way.

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:52.580
I just look at it that I think most people

00:38:52.580 --> 00:38:56.970
just genuinely want to be
friendly and have their beliefs,

00:38:56.970 --> 00:39:00.950
but also know that United
States is very powerful

00:39:00.950 --> 00:39:03.480
and a good country.

00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:05.060
- [Propaganda Narrator] With
the arrival of the elements

00:39:05.060 --> 00:39:09.720
that were trained in Cuba,
the secret meetings begin.

00:39:09.720 --> 00:39:12.950
- I really didn't know
much about Cuba at all.

00:39:12.950 --> 00:39:16.790
I associated it with
Watergate and the burglars,

00:39:16.790 --> 00:39:19.946
and I knew there were some crazy dudes

00:39:19.946 --> 00:39:22.987
who were Cubans who would stop at nothing

00:39:22.987 --> 00:39:25.745
to sink Castro

00:39:27.095 --> 00:39:31.495
and to prevent us from
having warmer relations

00:39:31.495 --> 00:39:34.190
with the country of Cuba.

00:39:34.190 --> 00:39:39.190
Nixon hired burglars to break
into the Watergate hotel.

00:39:41.040 --> 00:39:43.790
It was Cubans who answered the call.

00:39:43.790 --> 00:39:46.420
They did not consider
themselves to be criminals.

00:39:46.420 --> 00:39:49.130
They considered themselves to be working

00:39:49.130 --> 00:39:52.870
for the anti-Castro cause.

00:39:52.870 --> 00:39:55.230
- We in effect did with those Cubans

00:39:55.230 --> 00:39:57.060
who wanted to bring down Communism

00:39:58.492 --> 00:40:00.220
what Russia did with those Cubans

00:40:00.220 --> 00:40:02.513
who wanted to export Marxism.

00:40:03.350 --> 00:40:06.790
We put them to work in
our intelligence agencies

00:40:07.770 --> 00:40:12.193
and turned them into spies,
snipers and assassins.

00:40:13.394 --> 00:40:16.560
And that's the way the
American people saw the Cubans

00:40:16.560 --> 00:40:17.720
for quite a few years.

00:40:17.720 --> 00:40:21.335
And Watergate only made
that impression stronger.

00:41:28.293 --> 00:41:31.110
- I was born in Bradenton, Florida

00:41:31.110 --> 00:41:32.990
and raised in Palmetto, Florida.

00:41:32.990 --> 00:41:37.578
As I visited Cuba twice in 2017,

00:41:37.578 --> 00:41:39.111
I didn't get the feeling

00:41:39.111 --> 00:41:41.230
of being treated less than by anybody.

00:41:41.230 --> 00:41:43.500
- It was the most racially
integrated culture

00:41:43.500 --> 00:41:47.370
I've ever experienced in
terms of, from black to white.

00:41:47.370 --> 00:41:50.670
Every scene you look at had
a full spectrum of people.

00:41:50.670 --> 00:41:54.710
- When I am approached by
law enforcement in America,

00:41:54.710 --> 00:41:57.183
no matter where I go
in America, typically,

00:41:58.600 --> 00:42:00.770
I'm as polite as pie.

00:42:00.770 --> 00:42:02.387
That's how it always starts out.

00:42:02.387 --> 00:42:06.272
"How you doing, sir?
Did I do anything wrong?

00:42:06.272 --> 00:42:08.910
"How can I assist you?"

00:42:08.910 --> 00:42:12.490
That's how it always
starts out, very polite.

00:42:12.490 --> 00:42:15.197
And it usually goes downhill from there.

00:42:15.197 --> 00:42:16.660
"Get your ass over there.

00:42:16.660 --> 00:42:18.970
"Stand over there, shut the fuck up.

00:42:18.970 --> 00:42:20.380
"Put your hands...," you know.

00:42:20.380 --> 00:42:23.270
It just always deteriorates.

00:42:23.270 --> 00:42:24.920
That's my typical experience

00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:28.710
with law enforcement
in America for decades.

00:42:28.710 --> 00:42:32.080
Well, I made a mistake when I
went to Cuba the second time

00:42:32.080 --> 00:42:34.590
by bringing thumb drives.

00:42:34.590 --> 00:42:35.888
They didn't have any,

00:42:35.888 --> 00:42:38.220
the people who were in my
circle that I met there.

00:42:38.220 --> 00:42:41.810
So I went somewhere and I bought packages

00:42:41.810 --> 00:42:45.010
of 15 thumb drives in a package.

00:42:45.010 --> 00:42:47.110
You can only bring three thumb drives.

00:42:47.110 --> 00:42:51.180
I was in that airport for at least

00:42:51.180 --> 00:42:55.433
two and a half to three hours
about these thumb drives,

00:42:56.615 --> 00:43:01.615
but the relationship between
the law enforcement and me

00:43:03.270 --> 00:43:07.110
was at no time intimidating
or disrespectful.

00:43:07.110 --> 00:43:10.870
They were more concerned about recording

00:43:10.870 --> 00:43:15.310
on the paperwork correctly
their confiscation

00:43:15.310 --> 00:43:17.970
of all my thumb drives except three,

00:43:17.970 --> 00:43:21.700
not in demeaning me or suspicioning me

00:43:21.700 --> 00:43:24.633
or threatening me or nothing like that.

00:43:25.590 --> 00:43:30.590
So my one experience
with law enforcement on,

00:43:31.850 --> 00:43:35.050
let's call it what I thought
was a dangerous level,

00:43:35.050 --> 00:43:37.000
was actually pretty pleasant.

00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.450
It inconvenienced me
for two or three hours,

00:43:39.450 --> 00:43:42.359
but it was pleasant, it was respectful.

00:43:42.359 --> 00:43:47.359
[Music - Bob Marley and the
Wailers, "Could You Be Loved"]

00:43:57.365 --> 00:43:59.680
- I'm coming from a Christian upbringing,

00:43:59.680 --> 00:44:02.710
and as an adult, I have committed my life

00:44:02.710 --> 00:44:06.820
to Christian practice and I'm
studying Christian theology

00:44:06.820 --> 00:44:08.770
and ethics and history.

00:44:08.770 --> 00:44:13.627
And being in Cuba felt to me

00:44:13.627 --> 00:44:16.780
like most people there have
what I would consider to be

00:44:16.780 --> 00:44:19.760
a very Christlike way of living,

00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:23.080
mostly expressed in how they see the world

00:44:23.080 --> 00:44:25.120
and how they see their community.

00:44:25.120 --> 00:44:30.080
And so to have these values
and this very strong culture

00:44:30.080 --> 00:44:33.990
and this very evident
love for place and people

00:44:33.990 --> 00:44:36.440
that has grown out of socialism

00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:39.050
and the Cuban social project,

00:44:39.050 --> 00:44:40.680
but somehow ends up looking like

00:44:40.680 --> 00:44:43.035
what I think Christianity
should look like.

00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:49.660
[percussive batá music and singing]

00:45:49.520 --> 00:45:51.687
- So the Special Period at Times of Peace,

00:45:51.687 --> 00:45:55.045
as it was labeled, was
essentially the Cuban government,

00:45:55.045 --> 00:45:56.900
Fidel Castro himself,

00:45:56.900 --> 00:45:59.890
letting Cubans know officially
that they'd be going

00:45:59.890 --> 00:46:04.660
into a severe economic depression
and kind of battle mode

00:46:04.660 --> 00:46:07.020
against the collapse of the Soviet Union

00:46:07.020 --> 00:46:09.210
and Cuba being left on its own.

00:46:09.210 --> 00:46:13.320
You know, 35% of GDP
disappeared almost overnight.

00:46:13.320 --> 00:46:17.290
And so it's a military term
of the people and the country

00:46:17.290 --> 00:46:19.870
getting ready to brace itself for war

00:46:19.870 --> 00:46:23.460
and kind of all the defensive
mechanisms that that entails.

00:46:23.460 --> 00:46:24.900
They weren't really going to war,

00:46:24.900 --> 00:46:27.890
but they were experiencing
war-like symptoms

00:46:27.890 --> 00:46:31.057
in terms of kind of economic disarray.

00:46:47.551 --> 00:46:50.260
- It's almost unthinkable
to imagine a country

00:46:50.260 --> 00:46:52.220
with 23-hour blackouts

00:46:52.220 --> 00:46:55.110
and people drinking
sugar water to survive,

00:46:55.110 --> 00:46:58.520
really no gasoline for
transportation or agriculture,

00:46:58.520 --> 00:47:01.660
people getting around
on bicycles or walking--

00:47:02.550 --> 00:47:05.933
really, really, really tough conditions.

00:47:09.847 --> 00:47:14.014
[conversing in Spanish]

00:47:16.780 --> 00:47:18.390
You know, if you look back at that time,

00:47:18.390 --> 00:47:21.350
the US really had an
opportunity to open up

00:47:21.350 --> 00:47:24.680
and engage Cuba, and decided
to tighten the screws

00:47:24.680 --> 00:47:28.330
and tighten the embargo
and try and really force

00:47:28.330 --> 00:47:33.163
more suffering on Cuba at a
time it was already suffering.

00:47:40.650 --> 00:47:43.460
- If a ship lands in Cuba,

00:47:43.460 --> 00:47:47.983
it cannot dock at a US
port for six months.

00:47:48.830 --> 00:47:50.450
If you were an exporter,

00:47:50.450 --> 00:47:53.350
where would you rather send your products?

00:47:53.350 --> 00:47:55.420
You'd rather send them
to the United States.

00:47:55.420 --> 00:47:56.607
They have more money.

00:47:57.881 --> 00:48:00.673
[triumphant orchestral music]

00:48:34.918 --> 00:48:37.351
- Stories of illegal doings,

00:48:37.351 --> 00:48:40.810
where my Cuban husband had a child

00:48:40.810 --> 00:48:44.190
and he would go out in the
country to look for meat,

00:48:44.190 --> 00:48:48.633
which was-- you are not
supposed to kill cows in Cuba.

00:48:49.560 --> 00:48:52.820
The cows were for children's milk,

00:48:52.820 --> 00:48:56.000
so they were not to be killed for meat.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:00.050
And he was on a train
with this mass of meat,

00:49:00.050 --> 00:49:03.340
and the train was stopped
and soldiers or police

00:49:03.340 --> 00:49:04.810
were investigating it.

00:49:04.810 --> 00:49:07.516
He had gone up to the top of the roof

00:49:07.516 --> 00:49:12.180
with this bloody pack of meat,
but he ended up losing it.

00:49:12.180 --> 00:49:13.763
He dumped the meat.

00:49:45.610 --> 00:49:48.918
[crowd noise and traffic sounds]

00:49:58.677 --> 00:50:00.960
[waves lapping]

00:50:10.435 --> 00:50:15.435
- The United States imposes the blockade

00:50:15.618 --> 00:50:17.920
on third countries.

00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:18.837
- Not just the United States,

00:50:18.837 --> 00:50:21.570
it's the United States
and its trading partners

00:50:21.570 --> 00:50:23.730
can pretty much crush any countries.

00:50:23.730 --> 00:50:26.467
The United States can easily
say to another country,

00:50:26.467 --> 00:50:29.000
"You do business with X country,

00:50:29.000 --> 00:50:30.720
"you can't do business
with the United States."

00:50:30.720 --> 00:50:34.140
So United States has influence
to basically shut down

00:50:34.140 --> 00:50:36.242
any other country they want to,

00:50:36.242 --> 00:50:37.870
or severely restrict the resources

00:50:37.870 --> 00:50:39.755
they have coming in and going out.

00:50:41.722 --> 00:50:45.222
[Music - Tomás Sanchez
Boizán, "Chivito Maniguero"]

00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:01.530
- I went to Cuba in 2000,

00:51:01.530 --> 00:51:04.470
which happened to be during
the Elian Gonzalez case,

00:51:04.470 --> 00:51:07.950
so it was fascinating watching, you know,

00:51:07.950 --> 00:51:11.542
half a million or more Cubans
march in front of the US--

00:51:11.542 --> 00:51:13.345
it wasn't the US embassy at the time,

00:51:13.345 --> 00:51:15.403
it was the US Interests Section--

00:51:15.403 --> 00:51:16.880
demanding his return.

00:51:16.880 --> 00:51:19.640
- That case was the little boy

00:51:19.640 --> 00:51:24.640
who escaped from Cuba to Miami by boat.

00:51:25.030 --> 00:51:29.710
He was taken by his mother.
The father remained in Cuba.

00:51:29.710 --> 00:51:32.150
The mother drowned on that journey,

00:51:32.150 --> 00:51:37.150
and the little boy was picked
up in an inner tube and saved.

00:51:37.467 --> 00:51:39.185
- And the dad and some of the other family

00:51:39.185 --> 00:51:40.270
were still in Cuba.

00:51:40.270 --> 00:51:43.565
- There was pull and shove,

00:51:43.565 --> 00:51:45.973
does he stay with the family in Florida

00:51:45.973 --> 00:51:48.014
or does he come back
to his father in Cuba?

00:51:48.014 --> 00:51:53.014
Cubans were angry, and
it was a combatant march.

00:51:53.400 --> 00:51:55.790
You felt militant.

00:51:55.790 --> 00:51:59.990
And people in the US Interests
Section felt threatened,

00:51:59.990 --> 00:52:01.950
and they complained to
the Cuban government

00:52:01.950 --> 00:52:04.340
that they were afraid that Cuban people

00:52:04.340 --> 00:52:06.400
were going to attack them.

00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:11.400
So Fidel said, "Okay," and
he got Cuban first graders

00:52:11.580 --> 00:52:16.580
and they encircled the US
Interests Section and sat down,

00:52:16.907 --> 00:52:20.710
and he said, "Nobody is
going to hurt you now."

00:52:20.710 --> 00:52:24.730
- And the American government
decided to give Elian

00:52:24.730 --> 00:52:26.370
back to the Cuban people,

00:52:26.370 --> 00:52:29.960
which caused a tremendous
split in American society.

00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:31.300
I think still today there's--

00:52:31.300 --> 00:52:34.040
I still occasionally
see a story about Elian

00:52:34.040 --> 00:52:36.040
who's now, I believe, an engineer.

00:52:36.040 --> 00:52:39.700
- The Al Gore election
is essentially determined

00:52:39.700 --> 00:52:42.670
by Cuban Americans in Miami

00:52:42.670 --> 00:52:45.650
who are upset over the Elian Gonzalez case

00:52:45.650 --> 00:52:48.363
and the Clinton-Gore handling of that.

00:52:48.363 --> 00:52:51.413
[Music - Patricio Manns, "Su
Nombre Ardió Como Un Pajar"]

00:52:51.413 --> 00:52:54.170
- In front of the American embassy,

00:52:54.170 --> 00:52:57.052
there is a sculpture of a man

00:52:57.052 --> 00:53:00.550
holding Elian Gonzalez on his shoulder

00:53:00.550 --> 00:53:04.698
and pointing to the
American embassy accusingly.

00:53:10.530 --> 00:53:15.072
[Su Nombre Ardió Como Un Pajar" continues]

00:53:41.380 --> 00:53:43.950
- I worked in Washington at a think tank,

00:53:43.950 --> 00:53:45.990
working on US policy towards Cuba,

00:53:45.990 --> 00:53:48.640
bringing a lot of members
of Congress to Cuba

00:53:48.640 --> 00:53:50.830
and doing all kinds of research.

00:53:50.830 --> 00:53:53.500
And then when I was in graduate school

00:53:53.500 --> 00:53:55.340
was when I met my wife.

00:53:55.340 --> 00:53:57.740
I was at the University
of California San Diego

00:53:57.740 --> 00:54:00.700
and we set up a program with
the University of Havana,

00:54:00.700 --> 00:54:02.840
and she was a student of economics.

00:54:02.840 --> 00:54:04.430
And so we met that way.

00:54:04.430 --> 00:54:09.070
You know, meeting your
girlfriend at the time's parents,

00:54:09.070 --> 00:54:09.970
especially the father,

00:54:09.970 --> 00:54:12.790
is always nerve-wracking in any situation,

00:54:12.790 --> 00:54:15.000
and then certainly when it's, you know,

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:17.030
a different country and
a different culture.

00:54:17.030 --> 00:54:19.960
But they were incredibly gracious and open

00:54:19.960 --> 00:54:21.253
and we really hit it off.

00:54:22.960 --> 00:54:25.520
I've been working on Cuba,
spent a lot of time there.

00:54:25.520 --> 00:54:27.840
For the last six years
I've been living there

00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:30.120
permanently in Havana,

00:54:30.120 --> 00:54:33.860
and I often say that I find
Havana one of the most fun,

00:54:33.860 --> 00:54:36.756
hip and fascinating cities
in the world right now.

00:54:37.923 --> 00:54:41.590
[rhythmic electronic music]

00:55:06.217 --> 00:55:08.170
[camera shutter clicking]

00:55:08.170 --> 00:55:11.390
- I came back in September,
I came back in December.

00:55:11.390 --> 00:55:13.270
That was my fourth trip.

00:55:13.270 --> 00:55:17.700
And then I was there
again on a tourist visa,

00:55:17.700 --> 00:55:21.083
wanting to stay, but I
didn't have legal status.

00:55:22.290 --> 00:55:24.613
- I was born in Springfield, Ohio.

00:55:26.160 --> 00:55:28.580
The reason I went to
Cuba in the first place

00:55:28.580 --> 00:55:32.980
is that back then, around 2002 or so,

00:55:32.980 --> 00:55:36.630
Conde Nast had graded
Havana as the number one

00:55:36.630 --> 00:55:40.053
most romantic city in the world.

00:55:42.003 --> 00:55:45.336
[rhythmic carnival music]

00:56:20.390 --> 00:56:25.390
- The same week that I got my
job, I met my husband to-be.

00:56:25.720 --> 00:56:29.430
It wasn't long before we
were dating seriously,

00:56:29.430 --> 00:56:32.339
and then he moved into my apartment.

00:56:33.381 --> 00:56:36.631
[lively salsa music]

00:56:39.824 --> 00:56:44.824
[waves lapping]
[traffic noise]

00:56:56.657 --> 00:56:58.750
- A large part of the blockade

00:56:58.750 --> 00:57:01.961
extends into international banking.

00:57:01.961 --> 00:57:04.990
- 2002, 2003, the Bush administration

00:57:04.990 --> 00:57:07.390
really starts to crack
down on foreign banks

00:57:07.390 --> 00:57:11.610
that are dealing with helping
Cuba trade its US dollars.

00:57:11.610 --> 00:57:15.260
European banks get hundred
million dollar fines

00:57:15.260 --> 00:57:17.580
for doing business with Cuba,

00:57:17.580 --> 00:57:20.590
so that's when Cuba
de-dollarizes its economy.

00:57:20.590 --> 00:57:23.290
The idea behind that was
to get their reserves

00:57:23.290 --> 00:57:26.770
away from dollars, euros,
Canadian dollars, et cetera,

00:57:26.770 --> 00:57:29.803
because they couldn't use them
on the international market.

00:57:30.930 --> 00:57:34.053
- All countries in the
world deal with credit.

00:57:35.300 --> 00:57:37.633
So you're buying rice,

00:57:38.490 --> 00:57:40.780
you buy on credit.

00:57:40.780 --> 00:57:44.220
The US does not permit Cuba to do that.

00:57:44.220 --> 00:57:46.360
Cuba must pay cash.

00:57:46.360 --> 00:57:48.710
- This was 2003.

00:57:48.710 --> 00:57:53.240
We actually, we were met by
placards at the airport in Miami

00:57:53.240 --> 00:57:58.240
saying that if we left we were
supporting a violent regime,

00:57:58.270 --> 00:58:01.100
and that there were
people who were being held

00:58:01.100 --> 00:58:04.780
in dark Cuban prisons,
political prisoners,

00:58:04.780 --> 00:58:07.640
and that we were paying for that.

00:58:07.640 --> 00:58:11.313
This happened to be under
the George W. Bush era.

00:58:12.720 --> 00:58:15.170
I was there with an official tour.

00:58:15.170 --> 00:58:19.020
My passport had to be sent away in advance

00:58:19.020 --> 00:58:20.970
to the State Department

00:58:20.970 --> 00:58:24.590
so that my background could be
checked before I was allowed

00:58:24.590 --> 00:58:29.323
to go on an eight-day bus tour of Cuba.

00:58:30.330 --> 00:58:35.093
We had to stay within our
boundaries as part of a tour.

00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:39.520
Well, for us, the American
government was restricting

00:58:39.520 --> 00:58:40.770
where we could go.

00:58:40.770 --> 00:58:43.650
We noticed that there were other bus tours

00:58:43.650 --> 00:58:46.520
and lots of vacationers, honeymooners

00:58:46.520 --> 00:58:48.120
from all over the world,

00:58:48.120 --> 00:58:52.150
and they were allowed to stay at resorts

00:58:52.150 --> 00:58:56.730
and hang out at the beaches
and go on fishing trips.

00:58:56.730 --> 00:58:58.380
We were not.

00:58:58.380 --> 00:59:00.221
We were watched day and night.

00:59:00.221 --> 00:59:03.030
They said goodnight to us
every night in the lobby

00:59:03.030 --> 00:59:05.493
and expected us to go
straight to our rooms,

00:59:07.260 --> 00:59:09.890
and we were not allowed to go to a beach.

00:59:09.890 --> 00:59:13.850
And we were the last
group at that time allowed

00:59:13.850 --> 00:59:16.410
under the cultural exchange.

00:59:16.410 --> 00:59:20.180
After that, it had to
be a religious purpose

00:59:20.180 --> 00:59:23.810
when George Bush made the policy

00:59:23.810 --> 00:59:26.860
even more severe for Americans.

00:59:26.860 --> 00:59:31.814
We felt that we were the ones
under the communist rule.

00:59:31.814 --> 00:59:36.352
It was our lives that
were being so regulated.

00:59:38.094 --> 00:59:41.261
[tense instrumental music]

00:59:53.540 --> 00:59:58.540
- Guantanamo Bay naval complex
is on the island of Cuba.

00:59:58.770 --> 01:00:01.790
I know some people seem
to be quite surprised

01:00:01.790 --> 01:00:04.923
that there is United
States property on Cuba.

01:00:09.170 --> 01:00:12.257
- [Brian] Guantanamo
Bay was occupying Cuba.

01:00:12.257 --> 01:00:14.900
It was an occupational force,

01:00:14.900 --> 01:00:17.300
because we needed a naval
base in the Caribbean.

01:00:19.040 --> 01:00:22.620
- We maintained territories
in a lot of places

01:00:22.620 --> 01:00:25.060
along the Caribbean and the Gulf

01:00:25.060 --> 01:00:26.290
and around the world generally,

01:00:26.290 --> 01:00:29.450
so us having property in
Cuba is not very surprising.

01:00:29.450 --> 01:00:33.350
Anywhere from the
Philippines, Puerto Rico,

01:00:33.350 --> 01:00:35.650
a number of islands that we had occupied,

01:00:35.650 --> 01:00:37.626
we maintained a presence
in those locations.

01:00:37.626 --> 01:00:39.501
[rapid gunfire]

01:00:42.521 --> 01:00:44.771
[rapid gunfire]
[explosions]

01:01:00.960 --> 01:01:03.920
[tense instrumental music]

01:01:03.920 --> 01:01:06.390
- For the last decade or so,

01:01:06.390 --> 01:01:10.290
that facility has been
primarily used as a containment

01:01:10.290 --> 01:01:13.970
for ISIS fighters and for other people

01:01:13.970 --> 01:01:16.810
that are deemed for whatever
reason probably too dangerous

01:01:16.810 --> 01:01:18.120
to bring back to the United States

01:01:18.120 --> 01:01:19.960
and put in the criminal justice system.

01:01:19.960 --> 01:01:22.130
- There's human rights violation in Cuba

01:01:22.130 --> 01:01:24.400
by the Cuban government
and by the United States

01:01:24.400 --> 01:01:26.690
in the Guantanamo base.

01:01:26.690 --> 01:01:28.100
- [Mara] Well, I think
if the United States

01:01:28.100 --> 01:01:31.120
wants to point fingers
about human rights abuse

01:01:31.120 --> 01:01:34.520
in Cuba, in particular,
that's a little bit ironic

01:01:34.520 --> 01:01:37.300
considering where
Guantanamo Bay is located

01:01:37.300 --> 01:01:38.810
and who's in control there

01:01:38.810 --> 01:01:41.173
and what methods they're exercising.

01:01:42.230 --> 01:01:45.927
- It doesn't seem legal to have
a prison in another country

01:01:45.927 --> 01:01:47.893
when its prisoners that
are affecting your country.

01:01:47.893 --> 01:01:50.250
That's something you should
deal with it yourself.

01:01:50.250 --> 01:01:53.913
It's just not fair that
that prison exists.

01:01:54.783 --> 01:01:59.783
- I don't think the US has
much ground to stand on

01:02:01.110 --> 01:02:04.030
in terms of using human rights abuses

01:02:04.030 --> 01:02:08.530
as the excuse for not
normalizing relations with Cuba.

01:02:08.530 --> 01:02:11.524
I would hope that there
could be collaboration

01:02:11.524 --> 01:02:15.408
and work to address human
rights abuses on both sides.

01:02:18.560 --> 01:02:21.420
- Guantanamo Bay is an
area that could be used

01:02:21.420 --> 01:02:24.080
as a port of entry to Cuba.

01:02:24.080 --> 01:02:26.260
Hopefully sometime in the
future it can be used that way.

01:02:26.260 --> 01:02:30.170
It's deep water enough that
probably some large ships

01:02:30.170 --> 01:02:32.311
could come into that area.

01:02:32.311 --> 01:02:35.104
[waves lapping]

01:02:37.212 --> 01:02:42.212
[singing Santeria invocation]

01:02:58.080 --> 01:03:01.623
- For decades, it was very,
very hard to travel to Cuba.

01:03:02.460 --> 01:03:06.380
- My father, who was
very political, [laughs]

01:03:06.380 --> 01:03:10.250
had said that that was something
that we could not go to,

01:03:10.250 --> 01:03:13.809
so that's probably why I
really wanted to go. [laughs]

01:03:15.242 --> 01:03:18.063
- It's our government that
doesn't want us to go there.

01:03:25.110 --> 01:03:28.210
- When travel opened up
during the final years

01:03:28.210 --> 01:03:30.270
of the Obama administration,

01:03:30.270 --> 01:03:31.900
I was really interested in going.

01:03:31.900 --> 01:03:34.820
Legally, I knew it couldn't be
a beach vacation-type thing,

01:03:34.820 --> 01:03:37.860
so I decided to sort of do
more educational activities

01:03:37.860 --> 01:03:40.040
to still operate within the law,

01:03:40.040 --> 01:03:42.540
because there were still
some travel restrictions.

01:03:42.540 --> 01:03:46.750
- Our groups have to have
an eight-hour-a-day schedule

01:03:46.750 --> 01:03:48.290
that we adhere to.

01:03:48.290 --> 01:03:52.220
We have to keep a journal
every day of what we did.

01:03:52.220 --> 01:03:56.010
All paperwork has to
be kept for five years.

01:03:56.010 --> 01:03:59.090
- The first time I went
to Cuba was in 2012,

01:03:59.090 --> 01:04:02.280
I went with an organization
called Witness for Peace.

01:04:02.280 --> 01:04:05.030
I'd been wanting to go
to Cuba for many years,

01:04:05.030 --> 01:04:08.230
and that was my first opportunity to go.

01:04:08.230 --> 01:04:11.280
- Before we left, we
were told to make sure

01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:14.490
that we had our pepper spray with us.

01:04:14.490 --> 01:04:17.950
When I got to Cuba, I
actually felt very safe.

01:04:17.950 --> 01:04:19.183
I actually really did.

01:04:20.030 --> 01:04:23.370
Every place we went, I felt comfortable

01:04:23.370 --> 01:04:27.813
and I didn't feel like
safety was an issue at all.

01:04:29.380 --> 01:04:32.700
- I ended up with a lot
deeper feelings for that place

01:04:32.700 --> 01:04:34.350
and those people than I would've imagined

01:04:34.350 --> 01:04:35.860
would be possible in a week.

01:04:38.100 --> 01:04:41.433
[relaxed bolero music]

01:05:02.008 --> 01:05:05.516
[bolero music continues]

01:05:08.901 --> 01:05:11.110
- And then, like, traveling through Cuba,

01:05:11.110 --> 01:05:13.520
we took a horseback ride into the woods.

01:05:13.520 --> 01:05:15.460
We even went to this deep water spring,

01:05:15.460 --> 01:05:18.440
so we were hiking maybe
for at least a half hour,

01:05:18.440 --> 01:05:20.340
you know, following this trail.

01:05:20.340 --> 01:05:22.750
And then there's this little stand

01:05:22.750 --> 01:05:24.910
and they're selling mojitos in the woods.

01:05:24.910 --> 01:05:28.940
And then there's this older
and nice-looking gentleman

01:05:28.940 --> 01:05:30.790
just strumming away playing,

01:05:30.790 --> 01:05:33.851
♪ Guantanamera ♪

01:05:33.851 --> 01:05:36.847
[singing "Guantanamera"]

01:05:36.847 --> 01:05:38.523
- And we visited this farmer.

01:05:40.365 --> 01:05:42.865
[man humming softly]

01:05:44.567 --> 01:05:47.040
And then the guy we
bought the coffee from,

01:05:47.040 --> 01:05:48.790
you know, he was gonna make the coffee,

01:05:48.790 --> 01:05:52.599
so he started grinding
the coffee with this beat.

01:05:54.024 --> 01:05:56.774
[pestle tapping rhythmically]

01:05:59.617 --> 01:06:03.617
[singing in Spanish]

01:06:39.877 --> 01:06:43.145
And there's music,
there's music everywhere.

01:06:43.145 --> 01:06:45.700
[ominous orchestral music]

01:06:45.700 --> 01:06:50.700
- Shortly after I went, Trump
reinstated the travel ban.

01:06:51.096 --> 01:06:53.763
[ominous music continues]

01:07:01.988 --> 01:07:03.690
- I was born here in Havana

01:07:03.690 --> 01:07:06.340
and I'm an independent filmmaker.

01:07:06.340 --> 01:07:10.290
My most recent film "Nadie"
tells a story of a Cuban poet

01:07:10.290 --> 01:07:11.820
who once believed in the Revolution,

01:07:11.820 --> 01:07:15.130
participated in building
the power structures

01:07:15.130 --> 01:07:18.030
of the Revolution, who
later became disappointed

01:07:18.030 --> 01:07:19.160
and became a dissident.

01:07:19.160 --> 01:07:23.490
Through him we see the story
of Cuba in the last 60 years.

01:07:23.490 --> 01:07:25.170
Through him we see all the contradictions

01:07:25.170 --> 01:07:26.940
and why he fell in love
with the Revolution

01:07:26.940 --> 01:07:29.190
and then grew disappointed.

01:07:37.830 --> 01:07:39.110
- Even sugar.

01:07:39.110 --> 01:07:40.697
We used to have a lot of sugar mills

01:07:40.697 --> 01:07:42.320
and most of them are closed down now.

01:07:42.320 --> 01:07:45.770
We are importing even
sugar, which is insane.

01:07:45.770 --> 01:07:47.950
Cubans, I think, are great entrepreneurs,

01:07:47.950 --> 01:07:50.210
there are great examples
of that all over the city.

01:07:50.210 --> 01:07:52.560
But they don't have the
possibility to prosper.

01:07:55.200 --> 01:07:57.220
- [Collin] So if you were
to ask the Cuban people

01:07:57.220 --> 01:07:59.850
whether they feel that
the Cuban government

01:07:59.850 --> 01:08:01.740
restricts them too much,

01:08:01.740 --> 01:08:05.083
I think hands down the majority
of Cubans would say yes.

01:08:06.500 --> 01:08:09.960
Right now, for example,
there's a freeze on licenses

01:08:09.960 --> 01:08:11.573
for private businesses.

01:08:14.920 --> 01:08:19.040
- I think a small growth of
small business entrepreneurs,

01:08:19.040 --> 01:08:21.160
gradually, is not gonna
happen overnight, of course,

01:08:21.160 --> 01:08:22.860
but it's gonna make the economy grow.

01:08:22.860 --> 01:08:26.200
And I think that's the way to
go, because a radical change,

01:08:26.200 --> 01:08:28.800
I think it will be
dangerous for this country.

01:08:28.800 --> 01:08:30.390
If somebody makes a lot of money,

01:08:30.390 --> 01:08:33.350
then they have to pay
high taxes, of course,

01:08:33.350 --> 01:08:34.300
which is the way it works

01:08:34.300 --> 01:08:36.810
in the Nordic countries, in Scandinavia.

01:08:36.810 --> 01:08:38.760
And that's the way I
would see for the future.

01:08:38.760 --> 01:08:40.010
That's what I would like.

01:08:42.750 --> 01:08:45.800
The system in Cuba is-- they
say it's a communist regime,

01:08:45.800 --> 01:08:47.660
but what we are living right now,

01:08:47.660 --> 01:08:49.430
it's a low budget capitalism,

01:08:49.430 --> 01:08:52.600
because even the greatest
conquests of the Revolution,

01:08:52.600 --> 01:08:54.930
which were free
healthcare, free education,

01:08:54.930 --> 01:08:57.720
and worked great during my childhood.

01:08:57.720 --> 01:09:00.650
After the collapse of the Soviet Union,

01:09:00.650 --> 01:09:02.530
the economy being in shambles,

01:09:02.530 --> 01:09:05.863
corruption started to emerge everywhere.

01:09:47.419 --> 01:09:50.586
[gentle piano music]

01:09:59.030 --> 01:10:00.900
- [Miguel] The social
classes started to emerge

01:10:00.900 --> 01:10:03.650
even more and more to
the point we are now,

01:10:03.650 --> 01:10:06.130
which is pretty obscene
that we have a hotel

01:10:06.130 --> 01:10:07.470
like the Kempinski Hotel

01:10:07.470 --> 01:10:10.190
where they sell underwear for $100,

01:10:10.190 --> 01:10:12.630
and just two blocks away in old Havana

01:10:12.630 --> 01:10:15.920
there are people living six
family members in a small room.

01:10:15.920 --> 01:10:19.210
It has nothing to do with
the ideals of social justice

01:10:19.210 --> 01:10:21.543
that the Revolution created.

01:10:32.998 --> 01:10:35.831
[dramatic orchestral music]

01:10:47.059 --> 01:10:52.059
- When there are 38 million poor children,

01:10:52.130 --> 01:10:55.170
and 60% of African Americans are poor,

01:10:55.170 --> 01:10:57.813
when 65% of LatinX are poor,

01:10:57.813 --> 01:11:00.730
when 40% of Asians are poor,

01:11:00.730 --> 01:11:05.060
when there are 67 million
poor white people,

01:11:05.060 --> 01:11:10.060
we must say, "This is not right."

01:11:12.553 --> 01:11:14.961
[crowd cheering]

01:11:19.130 --> 01:11:21.115
- My film "Memories of Overdevelopment"

01:11:21.115 --> 01:11:24.420
tells a story of a Cuban
writer, a Cuban intellectual,

01:11:24.420 --> 01:11:28.110
who lives for a while in
Cuba, then gets censored,

01:11:28.110 --> 01:11:29.970
goes into exile in New York.

01:11:29.970 --> 01:11:34.870
And through him, we see what's
wrong with the two societies.

01:11:34.870 --> 01:11:37.260
Through him we see a man that doesn't fit

01:11:37.260 --> 01:11:39.333
neither in communism or in capitalism.

01:11:41.120 --> 01:11:43.770
The film played in Cuba only a year after

01:11:43.770 --> 01:11:46.430
it was playing at other film festivals,

01:11:46.430 --> 01:11:48.010
and it played at the Havana Film Festival

01:11:48.010 --> 01:11:49.428
outside of competition

01:11:49.428 --> 01:11:52.650
at noon, so that almost
nobody would see it.

01:11:52.650 --> 01:11:54.477
It's a way of censorship saying,

01:11:54.477 --> 01:11:56.070
"We did not censor the film."

01:11:56.070 --> 01:11:57.850
Putting the film in
competition, for example,

01:11:57.850 --> 01:12:00.240
allows the director to
have a press conference,

01:12:00.240 --> 01:12:03.195
which gives more publicity to the film.

01:12:03.195 --> 01:12:06.620
[rhythmic salsa music]

01:12:06.620 --> 01:12:11.620
- I visited with Arturo
Montoto in his studio,

01:12:12.180 --> 01:12:17.120
and his work is about the delicious fruit,

01:12:17.120 --> 01:12:19.710
meaning the people of Cuba,

01:12:19.710 --> 01:12:24.710
and the people are
earthy and just fabulous.

01:12:25.050 --> 01:12:30.050
And this was his work that
we saw in the Cuban biennale.

01:12:31.210 --> 01:12:33.397
It's called "Invisible Gardens."

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.580
Each of them was a close up of the fruit,

01:12:39.580 --> 01:12:42.640
but each of the fruits were constrained,

01:12:42.640 --> 01:12:45.020
just like the Cuban people.

01:12:45.020 --> 01:12:47.790
The fruit almost became an abstraction,

01:12:47.790 --> 01:12:52.790
and what you saw first was
the barrier to those people,

01:12:53.550 --> 01:12:55.217
or for those people.

01:13:33.450 --> 01:13:35.320
- My most recent film, "Nadie,"

01:13:35.320 --> 01:13:37.170
we tried to do a screening in Havana

01:13:37.170 --> 01:13:38.580
just three blocks from here.

01:13:38.580 --> 01:13:39.690
There was a police raid

01:13:39.690 --> 01:13:41.230
blocking the two sides of the streets

01:13:41.230 --> 01:13:44.020
so that none of the guests we
invited were able to arrive.

01:13:44.020 --> 01:13:46.590
When we were turning the
block, they stopped us

01:13:46.590 --> 01:13:48.510
and they said, "You can't go through."

01:13:48.510 --> 01:13:50.957
Not only "Nadie" is not
being shown in Cuba,

01:13:50.957 --> 01:13:53.210
but if I had had a mild censorship

01:13:53.210 --> 01:13:56.410
with "Memories of Overdevelopment"
after making "Nadie,"

01:13:56.410 --> 01:13:59.610
that's it, all possibilities
of work in Cuba ended for me.

01:13:59.610 --> 01:14:03.860
I could no longer work in
any field of the country.

01:14:08.360 --> 01:14:11.680
But I move forward, I say,
this is my reason to leave.

01:14:11.680 --> 01:14:15.664
If I cannot make films, I'm
ready for jail or for anything.

01:14:19.590 --> 01:14:22.330
Cubans have lost the ability
to actually be honest

01:14:22.330 --> 01:14:23.440
in front of a camera.

01:14:23.440 --> 01:14:27.210
They're really concerned about
how their words might impact

01:14:27.210 --> 01:14:29.790
their work or the work of their relatives,

01:14:29.790 --> 01:14:32.000
so they have this inner
police inside of them

01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:34.693
that watches every move.

01:14:38.250 --> 01:14:41.620
Today we were gonna
interview a Cuban doctor

01:14:41.620 --> 01:14:44.240
and her husband, who's a lawyer.

01:14:44.240 --> 01:14:47.050
And yesterday they said
they were gonna do it,

01:14:47.050 --> 01:14:51.637
but today they said they
had an epiphany, [laughs]

01:14:51.637 --> 01:14:54.610
and they decided that
they were not gonna do it

01:14:54.610 --> 01:14:57.680
because she says that doctors

01:14:57.680 --> 01:14:59.810
are pretty much owned by the government.

01:14:59.810 --> 01:15:01.010
She doesn't wanna get in trouble.

01:15:01.010 --> 01:15:04.430
And her husband-- who had
agreed to be on camera

01:15:04.430 --> 01:15:06.900
and was even more willing than she was,

01:15:06.900 --> 01:15:08.070
because he had cancer

01:15:08.070 --> 01:15:10.550
and he felt he had very
little time to live

01:15:10.550 --> 01:15:13.770
and didn't care about
saying whatever he felt--

01:15:13.770 --> 01:15:16.010
decided also that it was not gonna be good

01:15:16.010 --> 01:15:19.593
because it was gonna
affect his wife's job.

01:15:43.450 --> 01:15:46.250
We had great patriots and a lot of heroes

01:15:46.250 --> 01:15:48.070
in the independence war and the revolution

01:15:48.070 --> 01:15:49.920
against Batista, against Machado,

01:15:50.820 --> 01:15:54.700
and I would just like for
Cubans to regain that courage

01:15:54.700 --> 01:15:55.760
that they lost.

01:15:55.760 --> 01:15:57.290
It's the people that make this change.

01:15:57.290 --> 01:16:01.110
I think that right now we
deserve the government we have,

01:16:01.110 --> 01:16:04.110
because majority of the
population is not willing

01:16:04.110 --> 01:16:07.593
to put anything in danger for a change.

01:16:35.828 --> 01:16:38.745
[waves lapping]

01:16:42.400 --> 01:16:47.400
- Cuba somehow has stood up
against the USA's embargo

01:16:48.620 --> 01:16:51.110
for so long, which is an amazing feet.

01:16:51.110 --> 01:16:53.020
- We've had this embargo for years.

01:16:53.020 --> 01:16:55.870
- ...to force the Cubans, through pain,

01:16:55.870 --> 01:16:58.970
to basically adapt to what the US wants.

01:16:58.970 --> 01:17:00.560
- We're such a huge country

01:17:00.560 --> 01:17:02.870
and the number one economic power

01:17:02.870 --> 01:17:05.910
just targeting this little tiny island

01:17:05.910 --> 01:17:08.410
with very limited resources...

01:17:27.378 --> 01:17:29.961
[Music - Mezclarte, "Soñaba Yo"]

01:17:39.309 --> 01:17:42.150
- It didn't work, and it never has worked

01:17:42.150 --> 01:17:44.240
and clearly it won't work.

01:17:44.240 --> 01:17:45.870
So, you know, you need to get onto

01:17:45.870 --> 01:17:48.669
a different kind of policy after awhile.

01:17:55.840 --> 01:17:59.780
- If you're not familiar with
IFCO / Pastors for Peace,

01:17:59.780 --> 01:18:01.560
they challenge the blockade.

01:18:01.560 --> 01:18:04.960
- [Bruce] They go around
the US in an old school bus.

01:18:04.960 --> 01:18:06.830
- We try to educate people in these cities

01:18:06.830 --> 01:18:08.600
about what's going on in Cuba

01:18:08.600 --> 01:18:10.830
and how we can end this
embargo against the country

01:18:10.830 --> 01:18:12.813
that's never done anything to us.

01:18:14.184 --> 01:18:17.890
- Research shows 75% of the US population

01:18:17.890 --> 01:18:21.060
wants to end the US embargo against Cuba.

01:18:21.060 --> 01:18:22.730
- [George] It's common
sense to lift the embargo.

01:18:22.730 --> 01:18:25.857
I think the UN has
voted 20 something years

01:18:25.857 --> 01:18:27.446
in a row now to do it.

01:18:28.280 --> 01:18:31.120
- We should move on, we
should lift it, but...

01:18:33.050 --> 01:18:36.610
- Those Cubans who fled
after Castro came to power

01:18:36.610 --> 01:18:38.280
gained a great deal of power

01:18:38.280 --> 01:18:40.273
in the American Republican party.

01:18:41.160 --> 01:18:45.510
They were people who had a
stake in colonialist profits.

01:18:45.510 --> 01:18:47.530
- Especially in Miami,

01:18:47.530 --> 01:18:49.120
and there are a few other
areas in the United States,

01:18:49.120 --> 01:18:52.090
you know, Hudson County,
New Jersey, is another area

01:18:52.090 --> 01:18:54.797
where Cuban Americans basically dominate

01:18:54.797 --> 01:18:55.960
the political scene.

01:18:55.960 --> 01:19:00.250
And we see prominent national
figures like Marco Rubio,

01:19:00.250 --> 01:19:02.900
who sort of came up as a Cuban American

01:19:02.900 --> 01:19:05.420
through Republican politics in Miami.

01:19:05.420 --> 01:19:07.530
You also see Senator
Menendez from New Jersey,

01:19:07.530 --> 01:19:08.980
who's a Democrat.

01:19:08.980 --> 01:19:13.120
Senator Menendez's parents
escaped Batista, not Castro,

01:19:13.120 --> 01:19:16.860
but he still is against
normalizing relations with Cuba

01:19:16.860 --> 01:19:19.490
and has held that politically hostage

01:19:19.490 --> 01:19:21.800
when he was chair of the
foreign relations committee

01:19:21.800 --> 01:19:24.220
in the Senate, when President Obama

01:19:24.220 --> 01:19:26.786
was trying to re-establish
relations with Cuba.

01:19:58.063 --> 01:20:00.553
- Lifting the embargo
will be the best thing.

01:20:00.553 --> 01:20:02.950
Regardless of the problems
that we have here,

01:20:02.950 --> 01:20:05.020
I think those problems is something

01:20:05.020 --> 01:20:07.160
that we have to solve ourselves.

01:20:07.160 --> 01:20:09.560
There shouldn't be a pressure
from any other country,

01:20:09.560 --> 01:20:10.460
especially the US,

01:20:10.460 --> 01:20:13.320
which sometimes acts as
the policeman of the world,

01:20:13.320 --> 01:20:15.340
trying to put their hands into everything.

01:20:15.340 --> 01:20:18.833
It's just mandatory that
a country has sovereignty.

01:20:24.731 --> 01:20:27.370
- When I look at Cuba, I see families

01:20:27.370 --> 01:20:30.233
not a bit different from
mine, only superficially,

01:20:31.130 --> 01:20:35.073
struggling, because they're
being oppressed by my country

01:20:35.073 --> 01:20:36.770
deliberately by a policy

01:20:36.770 --> 01:20:39.990
and with huge resources to keep it up.

01:20:39.990 --> 01:20:40.953
It's just wrong.

01:20:42.030 --> 01:20:43.478
- It's like, we're not stopping.

01:20:43.478 --> 01:20:46.169
When we used to go to the Mexican border

01:20:46.169 --> 01:20:50.120
with these vehicles, we tell
people they don't have reverse.

01:20:50.120 --> 01:20:52.191
We're not backing up, we're going forward.

01:20:53.433 --> 01:20:57.443
[Music - Mezclarte, "Soñaba Yo"]

01:21:09.589 --> 01:21:12.705
["Soñaba Yo" continues]

01:21:47.556 --> 01:21:51.723
[Music - Nei Zigma, "Tocororo"]

01:21:57.784 --> 01:22:00.017
- Feels like home.

01:22:00.017 --> 01:22:00.850
When I was there,

01:22:01.890 --> 01:22:03.113
everybody there is me.

01:22:04.100 --> 01:22:06.950
Like, not me specifically,
not the same thoughts,

01:22:06.950 --> 01:22:09.780
but they're Cuban, I'm Cuban.

01:22:09.780 --> 01:22:10.613
Felt home.

01:22:11.771 --> 01:22:15.858
["Tocororo" continues]

01:22:21.700 --> 01:22:24.197
- It's one of the safest
countries in the world.

01:22:24.197 --> 01:22:25.610
If you look at incidents in Cuba,

01:22:25.610 --> 01:22:29.769
in terms of crime against
tourists, terrorism,

01:22:29.769 --> 01:22:32.530
violent crime or any of those things,

01:22:32.530 --> 01:22:33.973
there's really none of that.

01:22:35.908 --> 01:22:40.075
["Tocororo" continues]

01:22:42.150 --> 01:22:45.617
- There was a huge
billboard in Cuba that said,

01:22:45.617 --> 01:22:47.277
"There are...," I forget how many.

01:22:47.277 --> 01:22:49.222
"3 billion children in the world

01:22:49.222 --> 01:22:51.791
"are going to sleep on the street tonight.

01:22:51.791 --> 01:22:53.827
"Not one of them is Cuban."

01:22:57.108 --> 01:22:58.813
You give up a lot for that.

01:23:02.606 --> 01:23:06.331
["Tocororo" continues]

01:23:08.050 --> 01:23:11.010
- If there are shortcomings
in the Cuban model,

01:23:11.010 --> 01:23:13.543
that is up to the Cuban
people to correct those.

01:23:22.070 --> 01:23:23.720
- The majority of Americans,

01:23:23.720 --> 01:23:26.150
certainly the majority of Cubans,

01:23:26.150 --> 01:23:27.850
the majority of Cuban Americans,

01:23:27.850 --> 01:23:30.123
they all want better relations.

01:23:31.694 --> 01:23:35.486
["Tocororo" continues]

01:23:39.040 --> 01:23:42.970
- I am a member of the human community.

01:23:42.970 --> 01:23:44.370
That's how I look at it.

01:23:44.370 --> 01:23:46.298
And so is Cuba for that matter.

01:23:49.489 --> 01:23:53.189
["Tocororo" continues]

01:23:57.646 --> 01:24:00.160
- We need to have
discussions with countries.

01:24:00.160 --> 01:24:02.360
We have to go out and create peace.

01:24:02.360 --> 01:24:04.803
- We can all get along.

01:24:07.593 --> 01:24:11.202
["Tocororo" continues]

01:24:32.457 --> 01:24:35.290
[waves lapping]

01:24:39.249 --> 01:24:42.874
[Music - Big Night Out, "Guantanamera"]

01:25:35.316 --> 01:25:40.316
["Guantanamera" continues]

01:26:40.796 --> 01:26:44.771
["Guantanamera" continues]