Politics and new Friends

March 18 -

Bill and I decided after a breakfast sandwich with a German tourist at Cafe O'Reilly that we would head to the Museum of the Revolution.  We waited in line for a short while before paying our 8 CUC/ticket.  The museum was full of artifacts, ranging from bloody uniforms of heroes to to a life size "diorama" of the two leaders under Fidel, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara. The museum is in the former Presidential palace, an impressively majestic building.  In the back are tanks, the small boat Fidel used on his return from Mexican exile, and an eternal flame. The museum covered from the Wars of independence (1870's onward) to the Revolution of 1959 against Batista.

I am not sure why the Cuban people have such a worship of Che Guevara.  He, along with Fidel and Camilo were the revolutionary leaders, but Che seems to hold a definite primacy in the hearts of the Cuban peoples.  He certainly was the most telegenic, and if I were a more suspicious person, one who sees conspiracies all around ambitious men, I'd have to ask the question of Fidel, why is it that you are are the only survivor of the triumvirate of the leadership of the Revolution?  

I don't know why I am so suspicious of the Cuban State's version of the history of the Revolution.  Some of it may be due to the lack of corroboration of the artifacts that were presented at the Museum, some of it may be due to the propaganda that is necessary to a cause's survivorship.  But conveniently enough, 2 of the founding fathers of the Cuban Revolution have been killed. An ambitious leader who wished for power may have arranged such a "tragedy" easily.  This may or may not be the true story, but it has been raised in my mind.

Enough politics!  

We had dinner at Chef Ivan Justo.  Ivan Justo, according to a guide book, was the personal chef for Fidel for about 35 years.  We just had to try this and it was a great meal.  We began with their house smoked assortment of meats.  There was ham, and 2 different types of sausages.  Everything was excellent; gently smoked and delicious.  We split that, which would have been enough for dinner in itself, but we did order the Lechon, which is suckling pig.  The pig was also delicious!  We topped off the meal with mas cerverza and started to walk home.  

Arriving at the casa, we ran into Elvis and her mom who were just about the clean our room.  They had fallen behind that day.  I asked Bill to tell them that I had brought a bag of  cosmetics that they were free to go thru and take what they want.  They did not seem all that interested, but when we got back to the room, they were all gone.

We stopped for a nightcap and met Jerry and Bernardo who were sitting behind us at a cafe on the corner of San Ignacio and O'Reilly streets.  I turned around the talk to them when I heard that they were also having trouble getting the waiter to understand what they wanted. This led to a long discussion over more beers at their hotel, Hotel Ambos Mundo.  We spent a lovely evening talking and getting to know them.  Jerry is a teacher, soon to be math AP, and Bernardo is a hardware salesman, (computer hardware, but for industry).