The Conversations and Aspirations of Many Cuban Students

The Conversations and Aspirations of Many Cuban Students / Ivan Garcia
Posted on March 14, 2015

Ivan Garcia, 13 March 2015 — For a group of sixth grade students at the
elementary school named after Juan Oscar Alvarado — a 19-year-old
underground fighter, assassinated in 1958 in a house in the Sevillano
neighborhood where they hid arms — located in that peaceful Havana
neighborhood, their plans for the future are far from Cuba.

For them, the country is a disposable object to be thrown out when it is
no longer useful. During recess, at ten in the morning, several girls
gathered in the school's courtyard to have a snack.

While snacking, they chat idly about fashion, material aspirations and
what happened in the day's Brazilian soap opera. Although dressed in
their ugly uniforms with burgundy skirts and white shirts, designed by a
distasteful dressmaker, when you look at their feet you see Nikes,
Adidas, New Balance, Converse or Reebok.

They talk about their shoes, brands and prices. "My mom bought me a part
of Adidas tennies at a boutique in Miramar that cost 91 chavitos
(CUCs)," said one girl proudly. Another talked about where her family
was thinking of going in the symmer "We still haven't decided if we're
going to Cayo Coco or Varadero."

Another group, males and female, showed off their portable videogames
and talked about makes and computer systems. "Android is superior to
Windows. Apple is the best, neither HP nor ASUS can touch it in
quality," said a boy.

Under a tree, trying to shelter from the sun, several students discuss
the European football leagues. "Madrid has won ten European Cups,
Barcelona doesn't come close. CR7 is better than Messi, he makes header
goals, with and without both legs. Also he's faster and stronger," says one.

"You're wrong. Barça plays the best football in history. Messi has a
better goal average than Cristiano Ronaldo and four "Botas de Oro" to
Cristiano's three," ripostes another, upset. The controversy rises in
pitch and threatens to come to blows. A teacher intervenes and sends
them back to the classroom.

Melisa, a sixth-grader, says that "to emigrate or study abroad is a
fixed theme in my classroom. To dream of being a millionaire, pulling
out all the stops and having an Audi or a Ferrari. Few know the history
of Cuba, of Carlos Manuel Cespedes and the Revolutionary Party founded
by Marti. Their aspiration is to leave Cuba and reunite with their
relatives who live in Miami or Madrid.

The principal and a teacher at Juan Oscar Alvarado tries to stop the
differences. "We tell the parents to be careful that their children
don't bring flashy backpacks or shoes. This creates an inferiority
complex in other kids. Students whose parents have few resources and
bring bread with oil or a croquette for snack. They have cheap tennies
and sometimes they're made fun of."

The differences in the purchasing power of some families stimulate
privilege and fraud among the teachers. "There are students who bring
the teachers good snacks. Others, their parents take them lunch or give
them expensive gifts. It's a way to buy them, so they'll give their
children good grades on tests," says an Education official in the
municipality of 10 de Octubre.

One could think these student conversations are an isolate phenomenon
and usually happen in areas that are middle class and higher, like
Sevillano, Casino Deportivo, Víbora Park, Fontanar, Nuevo Vedado, Vedado
and Miramar.

But if you tour the elementary, junior high and high schools in the poor
neighborhoods of Centro Habana and Habana Vieja,the conversations and
aspirations are very similar.

"It's the fashion, talking about what we have. In the classrooms they
stuff us full of slogans and tell history in their way. But for us, it
goes in one ear and out the other. What it's about is a struggle for a
baro (money) to be able to go to a good nightclub or buy brand name
clothes. Almost everyone in my school wants to leave Cuba," says a high
school student in the colonial area of the city.

Something it going on. It's well-known that due to the quality slump in
education, especially because of the low teacher salaries, the level of
instruction has gaps. "We have students with deficiencies in math,
spelling and reading. Reading is no longer a pastime. They prefer
reggaeton, TV shows and talking about life in capitalism," says a high
school teacher.

Nor do university graduates escape the desire to emigrate. "Or at least
to get a scholarship to do a master's or doctorate in a first world
university. If you can't leave, because you don't have money or family
abroad, you fight for a job abroad," says Yasniel outside the Canadian
embassy, where he want to deliver a required document, with the hope of
being chosen for one of five thousand skilled jobs offered by that nation.

With that future in sight, parents contribute by paying monthly, in many
cases an amount that represents half their salary, so their children can
learn good English.

On 14 January 2013, migratory reform approved by Raul Castro went into
effect. The Cuban Department of Immigration and Foreigners still has not
reported the number of citizens who have left the country, temporarily
or permanently, in those two years.

The latest available data are from 2013, when 184,787 people traveled to
the United States, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama and
Ecuador, among other countries. As of November 30, 2013, 55.2% had not
returned and about 3,300 Cubans had requested to return to live in their
homeland. Unofficially it is known that most travelers are young and
professional.

Meanwhile, a line of hopeful teenagers is already forming in the rear.
It's like a Mariel Boatlift, but legal.

13 March 2015

Source: The Conversations and Aspirations of Many Cuban Students / Ivan
Garcia | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-conversations-and-aspirations-of-many-cuban-students-ivan-garcia/