I MISS.....

[imperfect_cupcake]

Originally Posted by cathexis

Imperfect Cupcake, why did you leave Cuba? It sounds like a wonderful place to live.

1) Great food
2) Pretty beaches
3) Neat restored cars
4) Free healthcare
5) Affordable living
6) Representative government by committee

Why would you want to become an ex-pat, please don't use that exile
excuse to answer the question. Sorry, I don't buy it.

oh I only went for a holiday, I didn't grow up there.

I talked to a LOT of cubans there about growing up there, their history.. we hired a local guide - a kid about 25 who graduated Uni locally and was into history and poli-sci. So we asked so many questions from everyone we met. We wanted to know everything, how people lived, felt, grew up - how things have changed over time... how people were educated, got health care, the nations cuba traded with - *everything*.
What's this? this? and this over here??
I'm not a beach person. I want to know about the people, the culture, the history, their dance, art, food, ethos, politics - especially the politics.

I talked to everyone I could, I went to as many museums as I could, I hired the guide, I asked for reading recommendations from cubans about cuba - in *their* words from those who stayed and lived there.

It's a complicated answer - historically. But in the last 15 years, people don't want to leave, not permanently. They know they have a good thing - they just want to move around, see stuff, get away from the embargo a bit, and to do that they marry out. Usually Canadians. Then if they have kids, they come back to cuba for the kid to be born and spend its first 2-3 years.

Then the kid is Cuban. And entitled to all things Cuban. But with access to Canadian life and citizenship.

Personally I can't think of a luckier fuckin' kid.