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Now back in the USA, former Buffalo and Detroit
newspaper man, author, and Lockport
native, Frank Bedell provides this report, 12/15/02, to Lockport World Center.
All Photos By Frank Bedell
When people learned that we were going to Cuba they usually said,
"You can't go there." As it turned out, however, we could go there, and
did it without breaking any stupid American laws. I could say lots more about stupid
laws and may later.
Our tour was arranged by a company called Alumni Holidays, which has a license from the
U.S. government to sponsor carefully organized tours to Cuba, providing they are of an
educational nature, not just taking a bunch of beach whales to sit in the sand for a week.
On our tour were alumni of several universities.
Cuba is a long skinny island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean only about 90 miles south of Key West, Florida. While it is sometimes called a "third world" country it isn't. Life expectancy, death rates, infant mortality are about the same as in the U.S., nearly 96% of the people over the age of 15 can read and write, education and medical care are free and the country, I have read, has more doctors according to population than the United States has. Believe it or not, some of the best non-political information about Cuba is on the web site of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The Lonely Planet guidebook says, "There are enough churches, palaces, castles, revolutionary monuments and markets (in Havana) to sate the most ravenous culture vulture." That makes it sound like everything is pristine and elegant. It isn't. Many of the buildings are dilapidated, some are almost in ruins even though still occupied, and everywhere there are signs of decay. Yet, cheek by jowl with the crumbling buildings are others that have been gloriously restored.
Many of old Havana's buildings are so dilapidated that they must look like Dresden after it was bombed in World War II. There is little money to restore them, but unlike Lockport's former Main Street, they haven't fallen victim to urban "renewal." When there is money they will be restored, as some already have been. Those that have been worked on are splendid examples or a number of architectural styles, mostly Baroque with some Cuban flair.
Many of Havana's unrestored buildings are in sad shape.
A guidebook notes that in better days the central section of Havana was home not only to great commerce, but was a red light district where scores of prostitutes roamed such avenues as the Street of Virtues. (I'm not making up the name.) That kind of Havana vanished when Castro took over.
One of the great buildings to visit is the Museum of the Revolution. It wasn't intended to be a museum, but was built in 1913 to house the government of the province that includes Havana. Before being finished, however, it was grabbed to become the presidential palace. Tiffany's of New York was hired to design and decorate the interiors. The Hall of Mirrors was meant to be a replica of a room at Versailles. Over the years the palace was home to a bunch of corrupt dictators ending with Batista. The hidden door through which Batista escaped an assault by rebels is part of the building tour.
The Museum of the Revolution was built as a provincial capital, but wound up as the palace of Cuba's dictator, Batista.
The museum tells the history of Cuba with lots of uniforms, guns, maps of battlefields, etc. Across a closed street is the yacht, the Granma, that Castro used to launch his invasion from Mexico. Castro set out November 25, 1956, with 81 other heavily armed stalwarts in the 38-foot wooden yacht that was built for 25 passengers. The journey of a little over 1200 miles should have taken about five days, but because of storms, the failing of one of the two engines, and the overloading of the boat it took seven days. Food ran out, which was just as well because everyone was seasick.
The ship finally ran aground December 2 two kilometers from the proposed
landing site. Castro's aide, Che Guevara later said, "This wasn't a landing, it
was a shipwreck." The rebels had no food or water, only minimal equipment and
no contact with any help on shore. (The guys who were supposed to meet the landing
had given up and gone home when the boat was late.)
Three days after the landing the rebels were ambushed by Batista's troops and only 16 men
survived. From that beginning grew the revolution that overthrew Batista and
installed Castro and his socialist (at first) and later communist government. His
biography by Tad Szulc, a former New York Times reporter, is fascinating.
The Granma is preserved in a concrete building that looks like the tomb of some communist leader and is protected by soldiers. Pictures are forbidden. It would be a tough shot anyway, as the boat is protected inside the building by a glass wall and a heavy chain link fence. The best view is from a distance at night when the boat is lighted. A bullet-riddled delivery truck that was used in an attack on the presidential palace is parked on one side of the boat shrine and various other war relics and an immortal flame are on the other side.
Cuba, with a communist government, no longer considers itself a Catholic country, but the cathedral with its two unequal towers is a stunning example of Baroque architecture in the Cuban style. The cathedral was finished in 1777, almost 30 years after it was started by the Jesuits, who got expelled from Cuba during the building process. A bishop in the early 19th century didn't like parts of the design and had the interior redone. Give the bishop a D in art appreciation; the exterior of the church is much more interesting than the rather plain interior. One of Cuba's major novelists, Alejo Carpentier, said the exterior design is like "music turned to stone."
A short distance from the cathedral plaza is an ornate red brick building, Hotel Ambos Mundos, where Ernest Hemingway stayed off and on during the 1930s and in Room 511 hatched the plot of For Whom the Bell Tolls. The room is now a museum decorated with Hemingway memorabilia including a Spanish edition of Don Quixote on the night stand. The hotel was a perfect base for Hemingway's frequent strolls to El Floridita bar where he imbibed and publicized the daiquiri, a drink that was invented in a Cuban copper mining town where rum was mixed with water to kill the germs and then spiced up with a bit of lime and sugar. Or so the story goes. A bartender in the Foridita bar gave the daiquiri another improvement by adding shaved ice and Hemingway did the PR work for both the drink and the bar in Islands in the Stream. Now the Floridita is more or less a Hemingway shrine full of pictures of Papa and other famous guests.
Hemingway lived in Cuba for some 30 years, most of that time in a secluded house in a down-at-the-heels suburb. At the house there is no glass in the windows, so tourists can lean in and see the home just as Hemingway left it (well, perhaps a little neater than when he was there.) He left Cuba in 1960 when the American government ruled (more stupidity) that he could no longer live there as an American citizen.
While you can't enter Hemingway's house, the accommodating guides inside will take your camera and photograph everything in sight, including the writing on the bathroom wall where Hemingway recorded his daily weight.
Everyone expects to see old cars in Cuba and there are plenty of them, mostly Ford and Chevy's and even an occasional Studebaker from the 1950 and late 1940's. Many look just as shiny as when they left the dealer's, but sights of those antique cars with their hoods open and a pair of legs sticking out from underneath is a common sight. I never saw a tow truck, so I suppose people fix their own cars. If there is a junk yard for them we never saw it.
Our guide had an antique monster car from the 50's of which he was very proud. He couldn't find an air cleaner for it so it ran without one. Other parts were unobtainable, but some taken off old Russian cars seemed to work.
Many of the buses in Havana were huge hump-backed affairs, always crowded, pulled by tractor trailers. On the other extreme were tiny golf cart sized vehicles that posed as taxis for running around in the central city. They were fun to ride in after you got over being afraid of being pitched out in a collision.
Dec. 15, 2002
By Frank Bedell
FBredell@aol.com
In the 1950's, when Batista was in power in Cuba, the American Mafia played a large role
in the government, handing out bribes galore in exchange for the right to control gambling
and prostitution-two large industries. When it seemed likely that Castro's
revolution might succeed, the Mafia offered him the usual bribes but he turned them down
flat. Within a year after Batista's fall the U.S. began stopping trade with Cuba.
Does this look like our government might have had a strong hand in keeping
Batista's dictatorship in power?
Our tour group was given copies of a letter that outlined the current American policy in Cuba. It said, "The policy of the United States Government is to promote a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba through a combination of pressure on the Cuban government and outreach to the Cuban people." The letter was signed by James C. Cason, principal officer of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. His job is equivalent to an ambassador's in a country with normal diplomatic relations.
If our goal is to promote American-style democracy by outreach to the Cuban people,
pushing them further into poverty through cutting off markets for their goods is an odd
way to do it. A British organization called Cuba Solidarity Campaign, says, "At
a conservative estimate, the blockade (U.S. embargo) has cost the Cuban people in the
region of 40 billion dollars. It
extends to every conceivable item of clothing, raw material, manufactured goods, essential
foodstuffs and medicines."
Part of our pressure on the Cuban government is probably to make the people feel poor.
This doesn't quite work either since few Cubans ever get to see American movies or
television, don't see American magazines and don't know a lot about living standards in
the U.S. They do know, however, that Cubans are better off than folks in other parts
of Latin America. In Cuba
education (through college) and medical care are free. That's more than you can say
of the capitalist U.S. There were few child beggars on the streets of Cuba.
The kids were wearing uniforms and were in school. There were occasional adults
begging, but sometimes it was hard to tell whether the person who came up to us really
wanted a hand-out, was trying to sell a black market cigar, or merely wanted to talk to
that rare creature, an American.
The American anger over Cuba goes a long way back-more than 40 years. For a while you could explain it by fear of having a Soviet base so close to American shores, but that all ended during Kennedy's term of office and the subsequent collapse of Soviet power. About the only way you can explain it now is that the U.S. is afraid of having a socialist-communist government in this hemisphere and has launched a vendetta against Castro and once even set the CIA out to kill him. The boycott goes much farther than just barring most trade with Cuba. It also prevents any foreign ship that docks in Cuba from entering an American port.
The U.S. makes much of the fact that medicines have been exempt from the embargo since March 20, 1998. But that hasn't filled Cuban drugstores and hospitals with American drugs. Granted the U.S. drugs are probably too expensive for purchase by Cubans, but the same drugs are available from Mexico and Canada at lower prices, yet Castro doesn't buy from those sources.
A view from our room at the Parque Central Hotel.
The building with the dome is the Capitolio, the ballet theater is next on the right and
then another hotel at far right.
There is plenty of government stupidity in Cuba as well as in the U.S,
Here's another example of a misguided Cuban policy that seems to make no sense: There are food shortages in Cuba, yet lots of vacant farmland. The tobacco market worldwide is shrinking and the sugar market is depressed, so why not grow other needed crops? Communist countries should find it easier than capitalist nations to control farm production. After all, they own all the land. Yet the changes are very slow to take place in Cuba.
And why did Castro turn his back on co-ops and individual enterprise? It is one thing to nationalize vast sugar plantations, as he did, but it doesn't make a lot of sense not to let someone open a corner grocery store. In fact, Fidel once gave one of his notoriously long speeches denouncing the dangers that hot dog venders posed to the revolution. How ridiculous can you get?
Another bit of government stupidity, this time on the U.S. side: American visitors to Cuba can take home only $100 of merchandise, including Cuban cigars. (This is part of our official support for the Cuban people?) However, there are exemptions. There is no limit on the amount of books, music recordings, and art than may be taken to the U.S. How does the U.S. government think socialist ideas from Cuba spread, in the pockets of guayabera shirts? It seems more likely that they travel in the pages of anti-American books such as several I bought in Havana. It was perfectly all right to bring them into the U.S.
On the good side, despite all the problems the U.S. continues to cause in Cuba, the
Cuban people we met were very friendly to Americans. There was no throwing of
insults let alone bombs. Religion under Castro has been downplayed, but it seems
that the ordinary Cuban people have more compassion than the self-righteous officials in
Washington.
1-1-03
Forgotten In Florida Lockport's Kenan Written Out Of History
Palm Beach, FL 3/12/01---
Some of the things I wouldn't have known, if I hadn't gone there to see myself:
The State of Florida has chosen not to remember the part Lockport's William Rand Kenan Jr. played in the operation of the Florida East Coast Railroad and the numerous luxury hotels that dominated the state's east coast economy in the early 20th century. The rail and hotel empire, built by Henry M. Flagler (a native New Yorker who spent some early years in Medina), was run by Lockport's William Kenan after Flagler's death. Kenan, whose sister had been Flagler's surviving wife, had served as Flagler's right-hand man and eventually assumed the Presidency of the rail and hotel properties.
The
"Backyard At Whitehall" Hereabouts Lockport's William R. Kenan
and Florida's Henry W. Flagler discussed plans for hotels and railways in the early 20th
century. The view looks out on the Intercoastal Waterway. In the distance is
West Palm Beach.Perhaps because the Flagler empire began its slow decline after the oil, rail, and hotel magnate's death, William R. Kenan Jr. is being left out of most historical accounts of the Flagler empire here. The Flagler Museum, housed in the former mansion of Flagler at Palm Beach chronicles all of Flagler's life and fortunes but does not mention Mr. Kenan. The mansion at Palm Beach was one of the two prime spots Mr. Kenan stayed when spending winters away from Lockport. The other was the Flagler hotel in St. Augustine, The Ponce de Leon. St. Augustine was (and still is today) the headquarters of the Flagler Florida East Coast Railway.
After Flagler's death, Kenan had de facto control of the Flagler empire for over thirty years. That empire went into steep decline during The Depression of the 1930's, recovered some during the war years, but was the subject of unfavorable government intervention that finally saw it broken up in the 1950's.
The Flagler Museum at Palm Beach is one of the major "must-see" museums in Florida. Not only does it contain the history of the man himself but details of his huge empire and a representation of a style of living that Flagler, his family, and the Kenan family became accustomed to. We'll be telling you more about Flagler and the Kenan presence in Florida throughout the months ahead on our soon to be revised, William R. Kenan Page.
Bob Rooney, Lockport Page Editor
Traveling In Florida.
3-12-01
Kenan Influence At St. Ausgustine Overshawdowed By Bikers & Air Crash
St. Augustine, FL--- 3/4/01:
The influence and connections of the late William Rand Kenan Jr. here in the oldest city in America are still substantial but, at least this weekend, have been overshadowed by breaking events of the day. Your Lockport Home Page Editor drove into this small, historic old east-coast city Friday evening, 3/2, on a long route to Lockport Day at Fort Myers over on Florida's west coast. The goal here was to record on photographs the influence of Lockport's William Rand Kenan Jr. on this community and St. Augustine's impact on the Lockport multi-millionaire of wintering here back in the 40's and 50's. Material for that pictorial will mostly appear later because the events of the weekend here are producing news of national significance.
Only about 45 minutes south of here, down Route 1 or Interstate 95 is the biggest biker gathering in the world at Daytona Beach. About 500,000 are expected. Lone riders, couples, and huge motorcycle gangs have been roaring into and through St. Augustine for several days and the old town is braced to endure the best or the worst---either or both---whatever it may be. Already two are reported dead this year at Daytona Beach in motorcycle road and/or rider violence. One biker died when his cycle flipped Friday night and one pedestrian was killed after being run down by one of the many rampaging gangs on bikes. More deaths, injuries, and violence are expected as the ten-day rally proceeds. Last year 15 died. St. Augustine hopes to avoid the violence and just reap the revenue of a booming tourist traffic for local motels, bars, and eateries.
The good news as of Sunday morning in St. Augustine was that the biker boys were mostly well-behaved while in town. The sad news was of an air crash north of here that claimed 21 lives. All 21 on board a National Guard plane flying near Unadilla in Georgia were killed when the C-23 transport crashed Saturday. Victims were members of the Virginia and Florida National Guard. The State Headquarters for the Florida National Guard is here at St. Augustine and not far from the picture above a press conference was being held by Guard officials detailing the air tragedy earlier in the morning.
St. Augustine can trace its roots back to Columbus in
1493 but the city of 15,000 as it is known today is primarily the result of development
efforts of Henry Flagler who built the Florida East Coast Railroad. Flagler then
established three luxury hotels in this town and spearheaded a major development.
When Flagler died, the railroad, the hotels, his other extensive land and business
holdings and his fortune was largely inherited by the Kenan Family. Lockport's
William R. Kenan was the de facto head of this huge expanse of riches (and
financial problems) until the time of his death. Kenan spent many winters here
before and after the death of Flagler.
One of the luxury hotels, The Ponce de Leon, built by Flagler in 1888 was eventually closed as a hotel in the mid-20th century and later re-opened as today's "Flagler College." The college operation is subsidized by the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and its main academic building, seen in the frame below, carries the name, Kenan Hall. A student at the college, who described the use of the hall to me, could not tell me anything about the man or family it was named after. She had never heard of William R. Kenan Jr. However, she was quite aware of Flagler (who was born in New York State and spent quite a bit of time in Medina).
The Florida East Coast Railroad is still in operation albeit without Kenan control. It is still headquartered here in St. Augustine in a complex of three attractive high-rise office buildings. Another of the huge Flagler-Kenan luxury hotels has been converted to a museum that also functions as City Hall and yet a third has just gone through a renovation and has been returned to its former glory by a businessman who founded the Days Inn chain. Room rates start at several hundred dollars a night. (3/4/01)
Bob Rooney
Traveling In Florida
3-4-01
More Photos From Lockportians At Large