{"id":1691,"date":"2011-07-03T04:17:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T04:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2017-12-27T14:34:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T14:34:53","slug":"whose-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/whose-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose History?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuba: July 3, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I write tonight, the hotel satellite station plays an A&E special on \u201cThe Kennedys,\u201d translated into Spanish.<\/p>\n

It is fitting, as I had planned on writing about our visit to the former Presidential Palace of Cuba, now the Museum of the Revolution, in Havana. Here the Castro government has assembled three floors of memorabilia surround the early year of the regime, from the late Batista reign to the 1970s. More exhibits are planned.<\/p>\n

The museum does not disappoint. It tells the story of Ernesto Che Guevera, of Raul and Fidel Castro, leading the popular revolution to end the suffering of all Cubans and affirming a vision of equality and prosperity for all. Maps, newspaper clippings, inspirational letters, grenades, and even a frying pan are displayed with pride. Outside the boat which carried them to the island, the \u201cGran Ma,\u201d is protectively sealed behind glass. The accounts reveal the presence of the Commander in Chief Fidel at nearly every noteworthy event, a fact confirmed by our guide.<\/p>\n

That the history is lop-sided is almost too obvious to report. Significant chapters of the Cuban Missile Crisis are absent, the role of the Soviet Union is oddly neglected, and the failures of the early (and later) steps of forming a government are minimized. The United States is habitually referred to as an imperial enemy, its Republican presidents since Reagan are parodied as \u201ccretins,\u201d and bits of fallen US aircraft are trophied, including a turbine from the U-2 spy plane recovered during \u201cthe so-called October Crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

That the stories are largely believed by the populace is made clear by the interpretations provided by our guide. And as I remarked to her and others at dinner this evening, one of the greatest challenges for educators is to help our students become critical examiners of the media we consume.<\/p>\n

To be sure, our own reporting of the Cuban Five arrested in Miami ten years ago is all but absent from our discourse. Even the adoption scandal of Elian Gonzales captured our attention for only a few brief weeks. And yet this recent chapter of US-Cuban relations remains a significant part of Cuban nationalism, symbolism. The museum has donated an entire gallery to art around the issue. I would suspect that fewer than 1% of our Michiganders could even tell us in general who they are.<\/p>\n

This, of course, is not an indictment of American knowledge of news events, but a fascinating anecdote\u2014or perhaps more than that\u2014about how perspective alters our worldviews. And it is this perspective shift that our visit to Cuba forces upon us in several ways.<\/p>\n

I am also not suggesting that there are merely two sides to any US-Cuban story or that all of Cuba is rallied around this particular cause. However, each anecdote is a thread of story that weaves itself into a mythology, a national identity.<\/p>\n

We were fortunate today, for instance, to travel to the outskirts of Havana to find the Community Project Muraleando, a neighborhood which has decided to elevate art for community identity, for growing children\u2019s expressive skills, and for global peace. It receives visitors from around the world, these three impoverished blocks, and is an inspiring example of the skills and hearts at work here.<\/p>\n

We walked the murals, touched the sculptures which may have seemed familiar with our own Heidelberg Project, and again danced to the music spontaneously created. A young boy explained to us how much the local teachers meant to him.<\/p>\n

This is where we met Mario, a former convict who has now immersed himself in this community and become a Cuban hip-hop artist. He lamented to me that artists like 50 Cent have fallen away from the music and now send twisted messages for money. However, he was grateful for Eminem whose songs have taught him a great deal of English.<\/p>\n

These people have little, yet their pride in their work and in their country is powerful. We did not hear much from them about the Cuban Missile Crisis, President George W. Bush\u2019s removal of the US dollar from Cuba, or even the embargo. The United States holds a key space amongst dozens of other countries on the Muraleando peace pole. There is celebration here, there is work, and there is hope.<\/p>\n

I do not know whether the turbine outside of the Museum of the Revolution came from our U-2 plane. I do not know how often the Cuban people are able to watch A&E, as I do now.<\/p>\n

I do know that I have yet to meet anyone who seems truly unhappy. We have walked the dark streets of Havana late at night without trepidation. We have met people with a humble yet unassailable pride.<\/p>\n

And nestled amongst the neighborhood sculptures for peace and happiness in Muraleando is one which remembers the Cuban Five.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, the Fourth of July, we begin our meetings with the Ministry of Education and Cuba\u2019s Pedagogy Association. Our introduction to Cuban culture ends, and our work begins in earnest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuba: July 3, 2011 As I write tonight, the hotel satellite station plays an A&E special on \u201cThe Kennedys,\u201d translated into Spanish. It is fitting, as I had planned on writing about our visit to the former Presidential Palace of Cuba, now the Museum of the Revolution, in Havana. Here the Castro government has assembled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,248,323,256],"tags":[305,346,308],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-culture-criticism","category-global-issues","category-politics-and-ethics","tag-cuba","tag-history","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/cuba1.jpg?fit=448%2C336&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1698,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/independence-day-education-and-cuba\/","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":0},"title":"Independence Day, Education, and Cuba","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jul 5","format":false,"excerpt":"Cuba: July 4, 2011 My US Independence Day amounted to five meetings on the education system of Cuba, four of them official. 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And while I have many memories of that trip, there are some parts of Cuba I worried about then, cracks in the communist walls against capitalist media and marketing that I feared might undermine some of the virtues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Culture Criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/culture-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/854.jpg?fit=800%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/854.jpg?fit=800%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/854.jpg?fit=800%2C475&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/854.jpg?fit=800%2C475&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":796,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/idealism-and-cuba-ghetto-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":3},"title":"Idealism and Cuba Ghetto Art","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jul 3","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I attempted an Afro-Cuban rumba dance on the streets of the Salvador art project in Havana, Cuba. 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And not just about differing economies, but the intersections\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/20160117_182613.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/20160117_182613.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/20160117_182613.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/01\/20160117_182613.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1703,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/cuba-socialism-and-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":5},"title":"Cuba: Socialism and Trust","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jul 11","format":false,"excerpt":"This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. . . . 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