Text and photos by Nester Nuñez (La Joven Cuba)
HAVANA TIMES – I recently posted something on Facebook, to stir people up a little. I told the story about the first time I climbed up the Escambray Mountains, back in the 1990s. I was studying in Santa Clara, where everything had collapsed just like in the rest of the country. They were selling grapefruit ice cream at Coppelia, you’d get a fish hamburger – with bones – per ID card; and trucks transporting sugar cane during the zafra (sugar harvest) would leave from the bus station.
It was with those images and experiences all around me that I arrived in Gavilanes one afternoon, after walking through the mountains for I don’t know how many hours. I remember the photograph of a stream with a large tide-pool in the foreground, with the town’s huts in the back. The water was super transparent, and children playing baseball were reflected in it. The “game” was the focus of all the locals’ attention. Families applauded from their doorways, they’d shout out names, make jokes… it was a proper Sunday party. The children were hitting the ball hard, and one of them covering the centerfield was an expert at throwing himself into the tide-pool and catching the ball in the air.
To provoke a reaction from readers, and because it’s somewhat of a real doubt, I wrote: “The picture was imprinted in my mind, and ever since then, I’ve wondered if Cuban guajiros are happy, if they are happier than city dwellers and what really is happiness.”
It’s worth looking at some of the comments I received:
AMH: Having known one or two guajiros, and even becoming friends with them, I can tell you that they have a different idea and understanding of happiness, they have a somewhat mystical connection to Nature at least. If their animals are healthy, they’re happy. If their crops grow, they’re happy. If they can substitute the palm leaf roof of their home or put lime down on the ground, they are
