Voices of Cuba: Life Under a Dictatorship - Part 1

Could you imagine if you weren’t allowed to leave your own country?

Would you pay $12/hour for supervised/censured internet if your monthly salary was $25?

What if you could be thrown in jail for hanging out with tourists without permission?

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live underneath a dictatorship?

As of 2015, Cuba still remains under the world’s longest ruling dictatorship, and although things look to change, many hardships persist.  With so much controversy between Cuba and my own country (USA), I made it a goal while planning my trip to Cuba that I was going to talk to as many Cubans as possible about the history between our two countries.  I wanted to learn as much as I could about how Cuba is, and why Cuba is, and I figured there was no better way to try to understand La Revolución Cubana (The Cuban Revolution) than straight from the mouth of a Cubano. 

Uncle Sam catching a big, right hook from Fidel

So on a warm April night in Santa Clara, Cuba, I sat down to briefly interview a Cuban man whom I’d met the day before. What resulted was a lengthy, passionate, and eye-opening discussion in which my friend voiced not only his frustration with the system, but the hardships of the average Cuban citizen as they continue to battle discriminations that exist only in theory in most of the world.

Don’t get me wrong – Cuba is an amazing country, without a doubt one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. It’s rich with culture, incredibly photogenic, and filled with beautiful people.  But the reality of visiting Cuba as foreigner is completely different than the reality of living there as a national.

This is Cuba from an insider’s perspective.

This is the Cuba that the Cuban government has done their best to cover up from the rest of the world.

This is Cuba as told by a proud, but exasperated Cuban who risked imprisonment to tell me his version.

I hope you will take advantage of listening & following along with the transcript below, not only to improve your Spanish abilities, but also to improve your understanding of a very misunderstood country.

Note: I don’t “know” Spanish, I’m learning Spanish and always will be.  This means I make errors when I speak (and plenty of them at that).  These spoken errors will be identified in the transcript with a line and the correct word will be immediately highlighted in bold.  (i.e. Hola, yo  soy Ford).  If I left a word out that I shouldn’t have, it will be included in (parenthesis).  If there are simply question marks in the middle of a sentence, it’s because I couldn’t, even after listening to it 20 times, figure out what he said (lol).  The Cuban accent is hard, so don’t feel discouraged if you get lost!  Much thanks to Giovanna for the help.

Spanish/English Transcript

– Hola, y bienvenidos otra vez al podcast de Where’s the Gringo?.  Yo soy el gringo, Ford, y estamos aquí en Cuba.  ¡Por fin! Por fin estoy haciendo un podcast en Cuba.  Es mi primer podcast después de llegar a este país maravilloso.  He estado viajando por Cuba ahora por un poquito más de dos semanas, y me ha encantado la cultura, el país, la gente, la música, todo es muy muy rico, muy distinto, y yo voy a escribir unos artículos sobre Cuba, y a lo mejor yo voy a hacer más podcasts.  Y estoy aquí con mi amigo, quien es un Cubano, nació en Cuba, es su pátria.  Pero quiere participar de una forma anónima por varias razones.  Le voy a hacer unas preguntas par