That means “it’s not easy.” Second of two parts.

Welcome party family | © Tracy Gross

By TRACY GROSS

What is the status of Blacks in Cuba? What is Afro-Cuban culture? And why should African-Americans visit this island of time-capsule intrigue?

Currently, we can’t. Not as tourists, anyway. But that may change and soon. It is thought by Americans and Cubans alike that President Barack Obama will be the one to lift the embargo.

One of Obama’s first actions as President was re-allowing journalists, musicians, aide workers, students, political envoys and Cuban-Americans regulated visits. And the first contingent to visit the island was a diplomatic team of Congressional Black Caucus members. Their mission was to examine racism and human rights violations specifically targeting Afro-Cubans.

I was on a quest of my own to explore Afro-Cuba. I was a legally sanctioned visitor: A condition of my “voluntourism” was to provide humanitarian supplies and serve as an official “guest” of the Cuban people and the Castro regime.

Large portions of my visit were choreographed and escorted by government-assigned cultural guides and translators — but in the utmost Cuban tradition of “making a way,” I managed to talk to everyday people and see glimpses of non-Communist Manifesto-sanctioned life. I joined in on an impromptu workshop where used clothes are altered to measure.

BLACK, RELATIVELY SPEAKING
To engage with local women, I learned new terms for heartache. “Hombres son perros con dos piernas” – men are dogs with two legs — was a great conversation starter. We talked politics, family, love affairs, education, fashion and beauty tips while smoking cigars and drinking rum.

I found out that in Havana, Black is Brown and “American” is relative.

?Quien es? What are You?

Nooooo -estas morena y somos todos, no? (No -you are a brown girl and aren’t we all?)

Officially, racism in Cuba is illegal, declared so by Fidel Castro himself. When the revolution came, it was to overthrow Batista — who, though mulatto, was seen as the face of a white regime.

Fidel earned his Black American “pass” by professing pan-Africanism in addition to communism. He furthered that notion by providing sanctuary to Assata Shakur ( Angela Davis), providing troops for the Angolan war and supporting the end of apartheid, as well as the presidency of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

(Discussing the glories of the revolution and the hardships of the embargo are national pastimes, but discussing Castro in Cuba is a delicate matter. Many times, people will not speak his name, instead they refer to “him” or “he” while putting a hand to their chin and stroking an imaginary beard. Even then, these conversations are best held in private.)

CULTURE AND COLOR LINES
Havana boasts a strong pride in its status as the epicenter for Cuban heritage and culture. Much of it is Afro- Cuban culture. There is a vibrant arts and music scene above and beyond the traditional museum and tourist capacity. The music that you hear is backboned by African drums married with claves and Cuban tres guitars. The foods, like in much of the rest of the Caribbean, are a blend of cuisines – Creole, Asian, Spanish and African.

Yet color lines and barriers, as well as racial superstitions and beauty ideals, still plague this island nation. Cuba had slavery for a full sixty years after emancipation in the United States. Indentured servitude transitioning in the 1870′s to a sharecropper system that translated into the guajiro farming culture.

If you visit Cuba and have strong African features or coloring, you are more likely to be stopped by police or local authorities. Nowhere did I see persons of color darker than myself in management or “face “positions. The sole exception was our guide at the rum museum, who spoke of the the legacy of “esclavitud” — slavery — as the keystone in the formation of Afro-Cuban culture.

While visiting, I was mistaken for a Black Cuban woman. This acceptance was great — if it weren’t for the sad reality that an Afro-Cuban woman wouldn’t have had access to the things I was seeing or participating in, unless she was passing for American. Or if she had allied herself with a Caucasian male tourist, a practice called Jintera.

Jinteras are usually Black females, many times under-aged, seen with older white men, usually Europeans or Canadians. The title is derived from “jinete,” meaning to jockey. Jintero, the masculine term, means hustler. Usually there is no sexual connotation for males. They are not gigolos, more like facilitators for illegal goods and services. And the women are not technically prostitutes — although sadly, the arrangements made promote sex tourism.

Like some African-Americans’ proclamation of Native American ancestry, Cubans have a distinct fascination with tracing their lineage and physical characteristics directly back to Spain — in many instances deliberately avoiding any mention of African slave descendancy or indigenous Taino Indian bloodlines.

RACE AND “RHYTHM”
Casual racism is still practiced. Many times, los negros is used to refer to Haitian descendants or those with more African features or appearances. Africans are given a mystique, presented as magical in nature — draped in superstition, feared and thought to be thieves and tricksters.

African or dark skinned women are considered exotic and hyper-sexed. “La negrita tiene tambaou,” black girls have rhythm, is not necessarily a complement.

Negrito art is found on all levels of Cuban art, be it museums, galleries, craft shops or roadside rest stops. The mammy, the little black Sambo or happy darkie character — all affectionately displayed and promoted.

How do Afro-Cubans manage? “No es facil” — it’s not easy — is the national mantra. Black Cubans have made problem-solving in to an art form. “Se resolver” — to resolve — in Cuba means bartering or back-scratching, collecting and trading favors across society to function on a daily basis — all under the watchful eye of the Communist government.

Today, most Cuban-Americans, particularly those who fled in 1959, classify themselves as “white of Hispanic origins.” In Cuba, they’re called “gusanos.”

Worms.

Text and photos by T. Gross. All rights reserved.

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