Story and photos by Lewis McCool
Cortez Journal Managing Editor

For most Americans living outside the Miami area, Cuba is but a tiny blip on the radar screen. For most Cubans, however, the United States is the nasty behemoth of the north that influences every aspect of their lives.

For more than 40 years, the United States has employed a variety of tactics in an effort to force a regime change and an end to Fidel Castro's communist vision. None has worked.

"Let Cuba be Cuba" is the mantra of high-ranking government officials in Havana as they plead for an end to the U.S. economic embargo and travel ban.

On the streets of Havana and throughout the culturally rich and economically poor island, citizens express frustration that Americans, by and large, are ignorant of their plight.

Cuba is a totalitarian state - no doubt about it. Many freedoms that Americans take for granted are absent in Cuba (in spite of language in the Cuban Constitution), among them: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the freedom to travel.

Ironically, by U.S. government mandate, most Americans are not free to travel to Cuba.

Cubans quickly point to that restriction as an example that freedom is subjective.

"In this country, I am free," said Renier Rodriguez, tour guide for the government-owned Havanatur. "I know that you have more freedom than we have, but it is not 100 percent in your country."

 He watched 14 American journalists, including this writer, on a recent tour of the island. He was our guide and translator.

Rodriguez, like most Cubans, has accepted the exchange of freedoms for security, at least at a subsistence level. Cubans have free health care and education.

There is little crime in Cuba. Evidence of violent crime - even police sirens - is rare.

Masses of poor people live in dilapidated housing, but there seems to be little abject poverty. Homelessness and starvation are not evident. By and large, the people appear healthy. The schoolchildren are smartly dressed and well-behaved.

Gracila Ortiz, whose Santiago de Cuba home I visited, had recently recovered from major surgery that cost her nothing. Her daughter is in medical school and pays the equivalent of 20 cents for transportation to school. That is the only cost of her education.

The medical profession is an honorable one in Cuba, but doctors receive no special status or pay.

Employment is guaranteed and mandatory, although a substantial number of people can be seen at any given time loitering or waiting - and waiting and waiting - for public transportation. Aptitudes (and attitudes) are evaluated as students advance, and jobs are assigned based largely on those evaluations. Opportunities are limited, and incentives are few.

The average Cuban monthly salary is equal to $20 to $30, plus a ration card for basic food, not enough for proper nutrition. Families must find other ways to supplement their diet and provide for any nonessential items.

Many look to tap into the tourist industry, where dollars are plentiful. The government, too, looks to tourism for dollars to enhance its options for international trade.

The United States allows Cuba to buy grain, other food products, certain medicines and related supplies - for cash. No credit is extended.

Likewise, Americans traveling in Cuba (legally or illegally) must use cash. The U.S. government blocks transactions with credit cards and travelers checks issued by U.S. banks.

Other foreign visitors to the island, primarily Europeans and Canadians, face no such restrictions. Nearly 2 million foreign tourists visited Cuba last year. If the U.S travel ban were lifted, another million, perhaps two, would stream into the country. The Cubans are working hard to upgrade facilities to cope with that - should it come.

Although tourism has become the country's No. 1 industry, it has created problems. Beggars, prostitutes and black marketeers hang out near popular hotels and attractions. As long as no violence occurs (and it rarely does), police tend to look the other way.

Bootleg cigars, rum and compact discs are rarely what they seem, but they separate dollars from tourists.

Stores that accept dollars have real goods, commodity items, even quality appliances (at U.S. prices). Stores that accept Cuban pesos rarely have much in the way of useful items, though prices for whatever is there are low.

Capitalism is creeping into the society, but not in an orderly fashion.

The crystal ball that might foretell Cuba's future is cloudy. Will Castro's death bring change? Certainly. Will it be for the better? Time will tell.