Pre-Castro Cuba comes back to life at annual fest (the good ol' days remembered/celebrated in Miami)

[Mika]

Pre-Castro Cuba comes back to life at annual fest
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1047482.html

There is no turning back the clock on Cuba, but for those who grew up on the island -- and those who grew up hearing stories about it -- there are always memories.

Cuba Nostalgia, a festival of Cuban culture concentrating on the pre-Castro era, begins Friday at the Miami-Dade Fair Expo Center.

Billed by its producers as ''a journey back in time for those who remember the island's glamorous times -- and for those who never experienced them,'' the three-day fair is a blowout of more than 100 vendors selling Cuban memorabilia, from guayaberas and café cups to books, cigars and music.

About 30 Miami art galleries will exhibit works by Cuban artists past and present, such as Wifredo Lam, René Portocarrero, Cundo Bermúdez, Humberto Calzada and Jose Mijares.

And what's a festival without food? Cuban fare, such as the ever-popular pan con lechon (pork sandwiches), croquetas and tamales, will be abundant.

What makes Cuba Nostalgia special, though, are the exhibits that harken back to the island's pre-Communist days.

Scale models of churches, archways and popular stores trigger memories for many exiles -- and provide illustrations for those who grew up hearing stories of Old Havana.

One highlight is a scale model of the fac¸ade of El Encanto, Havana's most famous department store, which burned to the ground in 1960.

Pantín says former employees of El Encanto curate the exhibit, sharing memories and dressing the display windows with original items from the store.

Leslie Pantín, president of Cuba Nostalgia, says he launched the event in 1999 to celebrate the birth of the Republic of Cuba on May 20, 1902.

''We wanted to do an event that would keep some of the Cuban heritage, culture, music, alive for different generations,'' Pantín says.

Pantín says Cuba Nostalgia is not a historic recreation of the island so much as a celebration of its culture. This year's theme is freedom.

''We're going to have one of the two original copies of the Cuban Constitution of 1902,'' he says. That document will be featured in an exhibition logging a people's plight ''all the way to where a lot of Cubans regained freedom at the Freedom Tower here in Miami,'' Pantín says.

Some of the more popular exhibits at past editions of Cuba Nostalgia have been large-scale, floor maps of the cities of Havana and Santiago.

'People say, `This is the town where I lived. This is my house in Havana.' ''

For Cuban exiles who grew up in the Castro era, Pantín says Cuba Nostalgia will show them what they missed.

''Some of this stuff is new to them,'' he says. ``Some of the people that have grown up in the Castro regime, they've heard of this stuff or maybe they've seen the ruins of it.''

(Not part of the Cuba Nostalgia exhibit)

[magbana]

1. gee, they are leaving out a whole segment of pre-Fidel Cuba

Batista goons cracking heads and killing people,large estates where workers were treated as slave labor, illiterate campesinos dying at an early age from overwork and lack of simple health care, and a time when black people knew their place. Actually, this could all be easily portrayed at the Miami fest, if they just showed the film, "Soy Cuba" or "I am Cuba." Of course the best scene in the film is when the campesino burns his master's sugar cane crop.

venceremos!

magbana

[Judi Lynn]

2. What a let-down they didn't see fit to commerate their death squads, either.

The head of one of the death squads, Rolando Masferrer, who used a death squad named "Masferrer's Tigers" was a senator and a newspaper publisher, and he fled to Miami immediately after the Revolution. (Did he imagine Cubans would have loved to get their hands on HIM, for a reverse death squad event?) Unfortunately, someone in South Florida felt a need to blow him up with a car bomb.

That's another subject altogether. Why didn't they remember to commerate their US and Cuban history of bombing their enemies?

Probably just slipped their minds.

[EFerrari]

3. Segregation, TB, child prostitution. Memories.

[Mika]

4. Homelessness, no schools, no clean water, no doctors for the poor. A republican dream.

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.