Atlantis in Havana 2010: the Habana
Howlers Sevens
4: after the tourney (March 1-3)
emilito (Emil Signes)
last saved: May
15, 2010 -- 10:18
Atlantis in Havana 2010. 1: Background
& before team arrives (thru Mon Feb 22)
Atlantis in Havana 2010. 2: the
team prepares (Tues Feb 23 thru Fri Feb 26)
Atlantis in Havana 2010. 3: game
days (Fri & Sat Feb 27 & 28)
Atlantis
in
Havana
2010. 4: after the tourney (March 1-3)
Monday, March 1.
Some of the players departed at some ungodly morning hour
but I managed to get up in time to see off the rest. Josh
and I stayed till the 11 AM check-out time; I spent much of the
time making sure I could *really* get out of here on
Wednesday. José Díaz put me in contact with Havanatur who
told me to find "Bertica," and gave me a location for her.
Bertica was not at the first address I tried (a nearby hotel which
I walked to before I found she was not there). I got a cell number
for her and asked her if I could change my ticket to Nassau till
Wednesday. She said OK, no problem, be at the gate early and look
for me. "Don't you want to know my name?" I asked when she
seemed ready to hang up. "I know who you are," she said.
"And I'll be at the gate." "Whatever," I thought, and
crossed my fingers.
By then it was 11, and Josh and I headed into Central Havana where
we returned to the Hotel Lido.
From the
spectacular to the mundane ... Josh and I move from Miramar to
the Lido
About 400 yards
away, across the Prado to the right (and "right side" of the
Prado), is the luxury Hotel Sevilla
The camera looks north, towards the Malecón and the Straits of
Florida
A couple hundred
yards behind me and the camera is the house where my
grandfather lived in 1908/09
Josh spends much of the day at the Hotel Florida where José
Antonio helps him make arrangements in Trinidad, the eastern Cuba
city which will be his destination tomorrow.
I headed to the church where my great-grandmother's death was
registered, and finally get a copy of the certificate. On
the way home I walk back to town on Calle Concordia, one of the
less traveled cross-streets in Central Havana. It's a depressing
walk, and I'm not sure I can put into words why. Is it
because it's Havana, Cuba, or is it depressing because it's a
run-down part of a big city? We certainly have a lot of depressing
areas in our big cities. Areas that are a lot more dangerous
than Central Havana, which struck me as very safe.
I've walked nearly half an hour down Concordia when I realize only
one car has passed (it's 4:30 PM on a weekday). In that time
I've had several people say to me as I walked by, "Sir, my mother,
..." or "my wife, ..." or something similar. I just kept
walking, because I didn't want to be rude if they were asking me
for something. At one point an old woman standing in a
doorway put two fingers on her lips as if she were smoking a
cigarette and looked at me pleadingly.
I remember passing the address Concordia 418 on my left and seeing
a beautiful staircase within the main door of the house. It
was dark inside and I didn't really want to go to the door to
photograph it but I remain very curious of that house ... was the
staircase really that nice? What is the house like?
Concordia, 418: it's on my list of things to see the next time I
visit. I have so many questions about Havana ... I love it
and I feel for it at the same time.
That walk down Concordia will always be with me.
When I returned, Josh and I grabbed a cab and headed to the
Cornish family residence in Nuevo Vedado. Living there are Dick
and his wife Joanne, and their three children Julianna, Cyandra
and William. Also there for dinner was Howler board member
Terry Sinnett.
We had a great dinner, talking about all those things that rugby
people talk about of an evening -- rugby, and then more
rugby. Then we talked about rugby in Cuba, and then life in
Cuba for visiting Canadians. And finally miscellaneous
topics. For the Cornishes, it's the opportunity of a lifetime.
Dick and his family are renting the house they are staying in for
four months from the family that owns it; they in turn have moved
in with relatives. The Cornishes are paying a reasonable
rent from our perspective; from the Cubans' perspective, it could
end up being the equivalent of a lifetime of wages.
On the way there we discussed with the cab driver Josh's projected
trip to Trinidad the next day and I noted that Josh was thinking
of hitch-hiking. "Why would he want to do that?" the cabbie
asked. "He wants an adventure," I volunteered. "Yes,
an ugly adventure!" the cabbie exclaimed, shaking his head at
misguided youth.
Left: Josh Campbell, Cyandra
Cornish, Terry Sinnett of the Howlers, Julianna & Dick
Cornish, Emil Signes
Right: Joanne Cornish.
(Young William, child #3, appears to have gone missing. Or
maybe already in bed.)
On the way home, we walked from the Cornish's to a nearby gas
station where Dick said we could probably track down a cab.
Getting a cab is always an adventure in Havana because often they
are just private cars being driven by sometimes scary people who
want to make a buck. Two young kids came up to us and,
glancing furtively around, ask us if we'd like a taxi. Yes,
we say, we'd like to go to Central Havana. As Dick had said he
normally paid 6 pesos for a ride to Old Havana, and wanting to
avoid hassle, I said "6 pesos" and they said yes.
The whole trip was kind of mysterious, as they constantly
discussed where to go (they also both seemed pretty young to
drive, though I have no idea how old they were nor what the
regulations are); finally in the end we were able to direct them
the final few blocks to the hotel. When I paid them, they
made every effort to keep the transaction from being seen by
others.
That's just the way some cab rides are in Havana. I've never
liked it, but often a trip like that is the only option. I've been told by many people on many occasions that
just about everything in Cuba is illegal. We just have to deal
with it. More importantly, the Cubans have to deal with it.
Tuesday, March 2.
Josh leaves for what will surely be an interesting and exciting
trip to the east; he has decided to take the bus to
Trinidad. With Josh's departure my rugby connections on this
trip are done. I do, however, make amazing progress in the
area of family research: I get more done today than any day yet
with respect to determining where the old family residences
were/are.
After a lot of run-around during my last two visits, José Antonio
finally finds where I can track down the changes in house
numbering that I've long suspected have made it difficult for me
to find the location of my ancestors' early residences in
Havana. He provides me with an introduction to a gentleman
who tracks down current house numbers of houses for which I had
only early 20th century numbers.
Left: Checking
old records... there seems to have been a global house
numbering change in 1938.
Right: per this old document, our earliest family residence,
Inquisidor street, number 14, is now number 406.
It is a beautiful old house,
pictured below.
Following these discoveries, I spent the rest of the day walking
the streets of Central and Old Havana finding the original
buildings. I've documented the
whole process and results in a report
on early family addresses in Havana.
By the evening I was exhausted and slept well
after visits from my relatives Arturito and José Antonio and his
wife Magda.
Arturito and I
at the Lido bar.
Wednesday, March 3.
The trip home for me is uneventful, once I confirm that Bertica is
there and has no problem changing my ticket. I visit the
area where our whole team was briefly stopped in 2001 under
suspicion of taking too many cigars home. At the time it was
a pretty scary experience. I have no cigars, nor any other
Cuban products with me this time. I spend a few hours in the
Nassau airport where the recently played Scotland - Italy rugby
game is on the bar TV. The plane arrives in Charlotte at
sunset and I'm back at ABE airport just before midnight.
Heide picks me up and - thanks to having a local airport - it's a
7-minute ride home.
Within a week I'll be heading back to Miami Beach with the
Princeton women's rugby team on their Spring Break tour... I'll be
so near to Cuba, and yet so distant - in oh so many ways.
3/3/2010: Sunset over
Charlotte as we begin our descent.
My second 2010 trip to Cuba is over. I have mixed feelings every
time I go to Cuba, but ... I always want to go back.
Women's rugby in Cuba?
I have promised Chukin that, if the Cubans want to institute
women's rugby - remembering that there's an Olympics coming up in
2016 - I can bring a team of a dozen experienced US women to
participate together with the Cubans in some kind of venue.
Of course, we'd have to do a lot of up-front work to make sure we
had an event that was permissible per OFAC regulations, but where
there's a will there's a way. I'm assuming that - if the
Cubans come through (they've got the macho factor to deal with) -
I can actually assemble enough US women sevens players to do this
on their own nickel. In fact the first person I asked about her
interest - thinking she'd be enthusiastic - expected to be
subsidized (how little you understand, I thought).
Nevertheless, I think I can make this happen: it would be an
amazing opportunity.
the end
The
four parts of this tour report:
Atlantis in Havana 2010. 1:
Background & before team arrives (thru Mon Feb 22)
Atlantis in
Havana 2010. 2: the team prepares (Tues Feb 23 thru Fri Feb 26)
Atlantis in Havana
2010. 3: game days (Fri & Sat Feb 27 & 28)
Atlantis
in
Havana
2010. 4: after the tourney (March 1-3)
Cuba
trip
reports by emilito:
Family trip to Havana April 1999 - first trip to Cuba since
the Revolution
Rugby trip to Havana September 2000 - Atlantis initiated and
participated in first-ever rugby sevens in Cuba (PDF only)
Family
trip to Havana January 2010 - seven family members travel to
Havana for 100th anniversary of their grandfather's marriage
Rugby trip to
Havana February 2010 - Atlantis rugby trip to Habana Howlers
Sevens 2010
Special reports:
Cubans
on Cuba 2010 - conversations with some Cubans about the
politics of Cuba
Emilito's
family:
early
addresses
in Cuba - early addresses of emilito's ancestors
and family