Interview Part II: Anara Frank on Changes

In the following segment of my interview with Anara Frank, she describes the main changes that have occurred over the course of time alongside the trips to Cuba she has organized and, in some cases, because of those trips.

Q: How have you seen aspects of Cuban life change since you've started these trips?

A: I guess I want to start by saying a lot of aspects of everyone's lives have changed since 2002. If we think about American life in 2002, it was really different than American life now. The world is changing so fast, particularly in the changes in technology that change the way we communicate, that change the way we do business, that change even the way we think, and the way we move around in the world. So first of all, I would say that there is there huge overarching change when you think about the number of years that we've been having programs (just the years that spans in human development). I mean, sometimes I think five years ago the United States didn't look the same.

I just want to start out with that overview that so many things have changed that it's hard to pick out just a few, but I thought of a few examples right off the top of my head. The first example I have is the difference that it makes to have access to internet and cell phones. So cell phone and internet use is still very expensive for every day Cubans. There are still a lot of challenges with connectivity. We go back the embargo. The majority of the fiber optic cables in the Caribbean surrounding Cuba are owned by the United States, which means that Cuba should not be using them for communication. I heard all sorts of different stories from different sources over the years about how Cuba has been able to access the internet and telecommunications, and they've ranged from satellites and ships in China, [also] Venezuela gave some fiber optic cable through some trade deal with Cuba. Little by little they've built the ability to have access. Under Obama, there were opportunities for US companies to get involved with Cuba being able to have access. But nothing can compare, in my memory, with the level of connectivity they have right now. Particularly in the big cities, but there has also been an effort in the country to bring more and more communication through cell phones and internet to rural areas as well.

For me personally, this type of difference has been specifically marked in the past few weeks. For most of my life, wherever I am between Cuba and the United States, I could only communicate with people there. It's been a challenge for me because there are times when I spent so much time communicating daily with them there and then I disappear when I leave the country. And it's been strange for people, especially here in the US, when they think we'll be able to stay connected through internet or telephone. But it has proven many times almost impossible from Cuba. When I think back, I remember I had a card that I wrote for my cousin when the laws changed in 2003 and people could no longer visit their families and no longer do the types of programs that had been happening previously. For me it had been visiting my family but also "People-to-People" programs in which professional research programs had been happening. And I wrote my cousin this very heartfelt letter about how I didn't know if we would ever see each other again. I didn't know if we would ever be able to be in touch. I wanted her to know how much I loved her. I think about it now, and I wasn't in touch with her for years! There were years that we really couldn't have communication! Then when the trips started, obviously things were better, but it was still a big black hole. When I was here I was here, and maybe there could be a few extremely expensive phone calls, maybe a few very challenging-to-get emails, but that's there when I was there. And then I was a black hole for the people who were here, so this has been an interesting feeling over the years.

Right now, it feels totally different, and it's building towards this place. But I am so thankful that at this start of what we have as a worldwide shutdown, where we're all in our houses, and we can't travel, and we can't be connected in so many ways, I've never felt more connected to my artists in Cuba. We are in a group chat where we can talk and share every day! Never has this been possible before! My cousin leaves me messages many times a day. It is almost like it's been working its way into reality. But because we didn't need it, and because we had the habit of not being in touch, we just weren't. But because we are working on a project together, it's just amazing! And the feeling that we have of connectedness, we're all still so surprised! We're surprised when a message shows up in our phone from the other person, so I feel that is a hugely dramatic change. Although, I know it didn't happen overnight. It has felt that way for me. I think it has had a longer existence. Had you traveled more, you probably would have felt it sooner. But when you only travel there once a year, you've used the communication systems so much and the ease has grown and grown and grown over the years that you've felt good probably about the past several years worth of communication. Whereas for me, since we were so in the habit, and I was going back and forth so much, I think we didn't lean into how much we could communicate until right now, and it's just been incredible.

Another really interesting change that I've watched a lot over the years and has been very impactful for me is how family, friends and families of friends that have stayed with me, and just every-day Cubans' life and well-being has been. It's been so different in different eras, and experiencing those changes has been very impactful for me. It's been impactful for me to see the struggle to get through daily life right now compared to what daily life looked like five years ago. It was an era hope. People in Cuba were really inspired that Cubans and Americans could have relationships again, [and] there were a lot of positive changes in the opinions of people on both sides of the straits. It was an incredible time to be visiting back and forth and to feel like a cultural ambassador. Watching this evolution happen before my eyes of that people who had negative opinions of each other opened the door to the possibility of first a civil relationship and then a real friendship. Though, along with that, came the ability for every-day Cubans, at least some of them, to earn a little more, and usually in families, for example, in the city where more money was needed to live, there could be in many families someone who was able to do work in tourism, or a mixed venture (which would be a venture that involved another country along with Cuba), maybe it was a restaurant, maybe some kind of hotel, but it was some place where they had access to earning hard currency, and the the whole living situation was much better for many people. I won't ever say that there is a situation where you can see an entire population without challenges. Definitely, it was a marked difference from what I am experiencing now. It's so interesting for me to mark the difference at different times in my life and notice these ups and downs in the relationship to how the majority of the population is living. Now is a really, really, really hard time for Cubans every day. I am grateful that we can be in touch, I am thankful that we are finding ways that we can be of support, but it's really stressful and challenging to see how much struggle they have after you could see the positive results of what happened under our last president.

Q: Do you feel that travelers' perceptions of Cuba have changed from going on these trips?

A: I think any time you have an experience in a place you've only heard about, whether on the news, or in books, or from other people, I always think there is this moment of shift when you're starting to experience the real thing. I think it's been very interesting with Cuba over the years that there have been in the United States access to very negative opinions about Cuba and we have access to very positive opinions about Cuba. So travelers are often predisposed, depending on where they live and who they've been in touch with, to have one or the other side. Coming to Cuba with an impression of how horrible it is, I've heard things like everything's gray, everyone's depressed, everyone is starving. Lots of, kind of, absolutes on that end. I've also heard a lot of absolutes on the other end by people who have pictured what's been achieved in Cuba that's been hard to achieve in the US as part of being like a utopia. "They have the most amazing public health system, they have the most amazing free education system, the most amazing ability to access arts and culture." But then the picture is so high that it might miss some of the challenges that are really there.

Back to: they're living under an embargo. It's the most extreme economic sanctions over the longest period of time for anyone in the world. It's been interesting on both sides, and I feel like the real thing is that no place is perfect. Every place has some really special unique qualities, and every place has challenges and things they need to improve. I would say that about my own country. There are so many things I love about my country, so many things that make me so proud to be from this country, so many things that make me want to be here and living here in this country in this moment in time, but also so many things that hurt me to the core. So many things that I think in our country are really wrong and unjust. There are things that I find to be somewhere in the middle like this keeps changing and I'm kind of neutral about this or others that I think are silly, and I think it's going to be like that for other places as well. The situation between Cubans and Americans is so politicized that people come in strongly believing a caricature in some way, shape, or form. I would like to open a space for them where they can have enough information from whatever's different from what they think that they can let themselves have a real experience. So for people who think that Cuba is a living hell, I want them to see some of the positives so that they can have a real experience. For those that think it is living in heaven, I want them to see some of the negatives so that they can have a real experience. So my goal is that people can experience a lot for their own selves. It's just helping us get out of black and white. There are amazing things happening there that we need to learn from, and there are other amazing things happening here that they can learn from. That type of exchange is really going to help everybody in both countries. I've had many many travelers tell me how surprised, how shocked they are about something. There's always something! Because everyone comes with a preconceived notion about Cuba compared to almost anywhere else.

I actually would say that it has happened in the other direction as well. A lot of Cubans who have participated in our program have really changed their impressions of Americans as well. Now the difference is that most Cubans change their impressions within the first few experiences with us. Because it's so repeated, now that expectation is there. The expectation is that Americans do come in different shapes, sizes, colors, economic backgrounds, and ways of life. If you experience that several times, you start to believe it even though that's not what you thought. If you thought that people in America looked like people on a sitcom the way you saw on TV, and only certain sitcoms, and only certain movies, more like a soap opera, then of course the first few are clashing with your opinion and reality, but then it becomes normal. So I think that every artist or every person who worked in a restaurant or in a casa particular [Spanish for private house, which could be a homestay or bed and breakfast] that we built a relationship with that we continue to work with, every organization changed their perceptions of Americans within the first few trips. Because of the amazing exchange and contact that we had in each trip, it would then last and continue to others where each new trip, especially because there'd be repeating members, our hosts were already so ready to receive us because of the experience they had before. So I think it felt like more of a revelation on the part of each American because it was their one experience as opposed to Cuban people who were working with us, it was like they were having repeated experiences. I've had many American travelers who had come with us on multiple trips, three trips, four trips. And then the same type of thing starts to happen that this becomes real, this becomes the reality they know is there. Then there's not as many changes of opinion.

SEE PREVIOUS POST FOR PART I OF THIS INTERVIEW.
STAY TUNED FOR PARTS III AND IV.