Chronicling poverty in Cuba — before Castro

[Mika]

Chronicling poverty in Cuba — before Castro
http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/25EB3DCCBEADE7EF0525742500527EAE?Opendocument

When Joe Goldstein visited Cuba, it was a different time and different place.

Cuban President Fidel Castro's Feb. 19 announcement that he wouldn't seek or accept a new term marked the end of nearly 50 years in power, a stretch long enough that memories of the country beforehand are hard to come by.

But before an armed revolution overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista and began Castro's reign in 1959, Goldstein was a photographer seeking to chronicle the country in a way that travel brochures — which focused on lavish casinos and high living — didn't capture.

"I remember taking somewhat of a cruise boat, not like the ones we have today," said Goldstein, now 90 years old and living at The Highlands in Topsham. "I imagine it was owned by the Mafia, because they owned all the casinos there, and naturally Batista took his cut. I spent the night in old Havana, and the following day I went out to photoshoot."

The original prints of the photographs Goldstein took in the summer of 1953 are on display at Henry and Marty Restaurant in Brunswick. The pictures were hung last week during the town's Cuba Week festivities, which celebrate Brunswick's sister-city relationship with Trinidad.

Goldstein did his own developing and printing, and 55 years later, his original prints are still striking. He shot the images with an old-fashioned twin-lens reflex camera called a Rolleiflex, which gave him a larger negative and allowed for bigger prints.

"I was amazed at how many beggers there were in old Havana," Goldstein recalled during an interview last week. "As I was shooting, I was surrounded by a group of young Cuban people who wanted to know why I was shooting those pictures, and they threatened me. I guess they didn't want me to see beggars or take pictures of the beggars and expose the way of life they were living."

It was a stark difference to more internationally promoted sides of Cuba at the time — like Havana's Tropicana Club, where famous performers like Nat King Cole took the stage and, according to Goldstein, "for about $5 you could go down there and see a show."

But the beggars and threats were what Goldstein was interested in documenting, part of what he described as "a way of life that many Cuban people were living under the totalitarian regime."

"Before long, three young Cuban women approached me and asked if they could show me a good time," he said. "After doing some research, I found that 12,000 women of Cuba earned their living by prostitution.

"I did feel safe, regardless of what time I was out, either late at night or early in the morning," he continued. "Batista had 'touriste police' which would make sure things were safe for tourists."

The pictures on display at Henry & Marty, said Goldstein, are of early 1950s Cubans in their most honest appearances.

"I only spent the week there, but I tried to get as many photos as I could," he said. "In all the shots, the people didn't know we were taking the pictures. Some of them may look posed, but they're not. I still have a lot of negatives that haven't even been printed."

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.



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[magbana]

1. And one of the first things that happened after the Revolution, the . . .

government got the prostitutes off the street and rather than putting them in jail, they were given special medical care along with training for another career or educational opportunities.

Mika, thanks for sharing this. As it says in the article that provides the stats, peasants joined the rebel forces because they had
nothing left to lose.

[Judi Lynn]

2. They were so screwed for doctors, too, after the revolution, as the doctors who had been serving the

wealthier, European descended Cubans went, in large part, along with them when they fled from the government to come, so Cuba was left with almost no doctors at all. Now they have more physicians per capita than almost any other country, right? Nice work.

[Mika]

3. Just love to hear the gusanos talk about how great Cuba was (B.C.)...

.. like, Cuba had a lot of TVs and, of course, lots of Casinos and high-end hotels.

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[Judi Lynn]

4. So delusional! I've seen that for years, the claims that Cuba had the highest standard of living in

all "Latin America," etc., and claims that the average income was higher than anywhere else, etc.

Apparently they imagine no one's going to be able to prove differently because ordinary Americans can't get in and out of Cuba, to speak to any Cuban citizens to learn the difference, and to indifferent to even start trying to do any research.

Life WAS sweet for those elite living at the expense of the vast majority of Cubans. Cheap labor, a captive work force too poor to get up and relocate, which had to live from seasonal work harvesting and planting sugar cane, etc. had no political power whatsoever. The only people who had any "say" were the landowners, business owners, politicians, professional class, a tiny sector of the population. Everyone else was screwn.

They're really lucky they made it out of the country without being lynched, themselves!

I'll bet those stories of how they all stood up to the revolutionary government and had to flee get wilder and more unbelievable each passing year. I've heard so many of them myself, and I don't even live there! It appears every single older first wave Cuban claims he was a threat to the revolutionary Cuban government, he was so outspoken, he wrote anti-government signs on buildings, he told off Cuban officials, he, as in Jorge Mas Canosa's pathetic yarn, had such towering gifts of oratory that he made an eloquent speech which had Cuban government people stunned, shaking their heads in wonder, and they let him go after he was arrested. It would just drive a sane man wild hearing this crappola day after day after day!

It could be they all became embarrassed and overwrought as time went by and they realized that the U.S. government was not going to go overthrow the Cuban revolution for them and put them right back in charge of the country, and they started feeling awkward facing the idea they might have to stay here, after all. It could be those whoppers they tell are efforts to cover up their inability to simply refocus and meet life here day by day without the fantasy of returning to an island which has no place for them now as the big fish in a small pond, as Cuba has progressed from the feudal system there in the 1950's which only allowed the elite any shelter, any comfort.