Personal Narrative: Visiting Cuba

Personal Narrative: Visiting Cuba

Getting ready for landing was a new experience this time. Although I have flown to many places on many different size planes, this landing was different. I could see the houses and buildings below. The cars and people were like ants moving around. This is actually the typical site from the window seat of any plane that is about to land. To me it was very different. We were about to touch ground in Havana, Cuba. The place where my parents were born, raised and educated. This was also the place where my parents were married and had their first child, and also, the place they had to flee from in order to continue practicing their beliefs. I was arriving to my roots. A place that my family hadn't seen in forty years. I would be the first of my blood to set foot on that island since 1959.

It is important to understand why my family fled their country while many others stayed behind. My Grandfather was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during that time. His position and that of his family was in threat of political injustices from the Castro Regime. In order to avoid this from occurring, my Grandfather had my family fly out first (at the time it was still possible without too much questioning) and then he was given political asylum in the Argentinean Embassy.

Once the plane touched down I felt both excited and scared. In the passed I was told stories that if anyone of us ever visited Cuba, that there was danger of us being held prisoner because of who our parents and grandparents were. This obviously concerned me since my purpose for the travel was merely to have the opportunity to see where my roots were from. I was also concerned because I was traveling with my wife who is of Br...

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...he truth of what is going on in Cuba and understand that a salary with the equivalence of $ 9.50 per month is impossible for a man to take care of his family. That the reason there are young girls by the hundreds between the ages of thirteen and eighteen walking the streets and selling their bodies, is not because they lack moral values, what they lack is food, clothing, soap, toilet paper, medicines and the list goes on. The world needs to understand that the inhumanities and injustice & that is occurring in Cuba must not continue in o understand that the only way this will stop is if the world stops helping the problem rather than feed it. Tourism in Cuba is a scam created by the Cuban leaders who "lead" only for themselves and couldn't care less about their people aide to Cuba force a change in the government. It is time that Cuba was given back to the Cubans.