Day 3

Another night of tossing and turning. Regularly feeling completely overwhelmed and anxious and wonder if doing this makes any sense at all! But also is leading me to some important conversations and understandings about Miami and Cuba and immigration. Decided to move from the campground to a hotel in Little Havanna, to be more where the action is.

I went to the Bayside tourist place and poked around, measured the size of Boards in case I was able to put one up. Then I drove out to meet with the director (who asked to remain anonymous) at a community center in Little Haiti. The area seemed even poorer than Little Havana, but there was clearly a lot going on in the center. With different groups meeting and people dropping in, and articles and projects adorning the walls. I had a great meeting with G who started the center 9 years ago. He explained that the Cuba issue was the third rail in Miami for progressive organizations – touch it and you die. He said they had enough battles to fight on other fronts and worked primarily in the African American and Haitian communities. He responded well to the project. He said he thought they could openly get behind it, and thought there would be people interested in going, if I got a groundswell, enough momentum to provide them cover. He also said it would be more likely to get their support if I could get some hurricane Katrina survivors involved. I asked if I could video tape him and he said no. I asked if I could blog about what he said and he said he would rather not be identified publicly at this point. He pointed to some local important figures.
1) Jack Lieberman – important figure in Cuban Solidarity
2) Talk show host Rudy Alarcon who has had 3 assassination attempts.

He also told me about a demo in little Havana in support of Luis Posada Carriles, ( who was convicted of blowing up a Cuban civilian airliner, killing all 73 people) where counter demonstrators were attacked and beaten.

He also said that there was beginning to be a split in the Cuban community between those who thought it would be better to get rid of Fidel by lifting the embargo, and those who wanted to maintain it.

I asked him about places to stay and he thought Little Havanna was a good idea. Drove up and down the street for hours trying to find something - all that really exists is a couple of very sleazy places that rent by the hour, so I chose one , called El Nido, where they had a parking lot and I could pull my car in. The place has one window with a one way mirror pointing in, so that people from the outside can look in and there was porno playing on the TV when I walked into the room and it smelled of stale smoke. I was totally creeped out, and went back and forth for some time but I didn’t know where else to go, so I decided to roll with it. There’s no air circulation, and I woke up at 4 am unable to sleep. I switched places the next night.

Day 2

Didn't sleep too well, might have to find a hotel. Need to find an internet hook up.
e-mailed two of my contacts but haven’t heard anything back.
Triton (a classmate) called and took me all around Miami and gave me a lot of history. How the Cuban community has come to dominate the city, talked to someone with a boat who had gone to cuba several times – said that we just need to pretend that we went fishing, but he hasn’t gone recently, during the time of Bush’s more intense restrictions. Talked to several other Cubans, Maggie is the dean of Triton’s school who just went recently after not going since she was exiled at age 7, she talked about the poverty, and how things are getting worse, she was very convincing, and it made me question the project and she has traveled widely. She was against the embargo, but said she couldn’t imagine anyone going to Cuba to live a better life, because it simply wouldn’t be a better life, primarily because of the poverty and shortages. She told a story about how in order to get milk for her coffee, a family member had needed to bicycle to a farm outside of town. She mentioned that crime was on the rise, although no one had guns. She said people were more openly speaking out against the regime. Another Cuban friend of Triton said she would be disowned if she ever went. It seems like there’s an incredible story, just about the relationships among Cubans in Miami.
It’s an exiled community but one which has wealth and power, and who gets catered to by the presidency of the US. We weren’t able to get into the film archives, or to reach any leftist Cubans , and I haven’t gathered any video yet. I would like to go to the river today to see if I can talk anyone into going to Cuba. Maybe I will move to a hotel in Little Havana.

Miami Trip Day 1

My first step was to go to Miami to check out the city and see if I could learn more about US/Cuban Relations and develop a network that could help me implement the Boatlift. I also wanted to find out what I was up against in terms of the embargo, attacks from right wing Miamians, and finding a boat.

Left at 5 am, only slept for 3 hours, trying to get everything done. Got into Miami at noon. Am feeling nervous and wondering what the hell I am doing, as I haven't a clue about Miami, and don't know anyone here.

I have no funding yet for this project, and am in debt so decided to camp at the Thompson campground near the Miami metrozoo, $12 a night and free showers. The place is mostly an RV park, seems like mostly out of state retirees, but they have a field for tents. There was one other tent camper, who maybe lives here, on and off. He was friendly, maybe too much so, and had plenty to say about Cuban immigrants, and how he (a gringo) was practically raised cuban, he mentioned that “Cuba was really nice as long as you weren't Cuban.” He didn't think that there were any immigrants that would want to go back -- I showered and ran into him again ‘he said he’d give me a holler when he got in tonight and I started feeling uncomfortable. Headed into Old Havana, had dinner at a Cuban restaurant on Calle Ocho and walked around. Talked to Triton, who said he would take me around on Wednesday.