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From Cuba with Love
Hello,
My DC Trip story is special for many reasons, because it involves the rendezvous with my destiny, and the nation's destiny with the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
For 3.5 years I have gone to Cuba to study music in the Conservatory in Havana, where I met my fiancee, Yaremys Rodriguez. I was rehearsing with the popular trova group of Liuba Maria Hevia in the St. Francis Monastery in Old Havana when I had first met her sister, Yarnelis. Liuba is considered by the public and critics as the highest representatives of Cuban culture.
I chatted with Yarnelis for more than hour and was smitten before I realized she was the girlfriend of the group's bassist! How foolish I felt!
Two days later, on July 19, 2004, I was basking on the dilapidated brick rooftop, practicing the Allegro section of Augustin Barrios' 'Catedral' in the 100 degree heat of Havana when I looked before me and I saw Yarnelis' head appear around the doorway. She smiled, and immediately above her appeared her identical twin sister, Yaremys. I was awestruck, and dumbfounded. To see the identical twins appearing before me was such a surprise, it took my breath away. Yaremys had never left her small city of Santa Clara, a turning point in Che Guevara's attack against the army and railroad supply car of Batista, and was visiting Havana for the first time in her life.
We met that day, She told me that she only had one day in Havana before she had to return to Santa Clara, where she was an English teacher. I asked her to come out with us that night to Hotel National, where the bassist was playing. Cubans were not allowed to be in the hotel, and even though her sister's boyfriend was in a group performing there, we had difficulty gaining entrance.
We had a wonderful time, and I asked her to stay with me a few days, for I had only a month left in my stay.
She agreed, and she and her friend stayed that night in my ramshackle apartment, sleeping on a bed I had nicknamed, "El Camello, or The Camel" for the 2 humps situated in the middle, making it difficult for sleep.
I slept in the car, in a rusted, tin garage no bigger than the car that fit snugly into it. It was across the street, from the apartment. There was no room in the apartment for me, and leaving a car parked on the street was not an option, as the thieves would take everything from it.
The next day, I took Yaremys to the Malecon wall and as we watched the vibrant sunset together, we began to share our stories, and fell in love.
Over the next 3 years, I traveled many times to see her, and through email, we corresponded every day.
Her father is a PhD of Bio Chemistry and lectures all over the world, and is a professor in the Santa Clara University. Due to his job, he is one of the few people in the country that has access to email, but not internet, in his home. It is because of him, that we are able to communicate. WIthout email, the relationship between us would have failed.
Each time I visited Cuba, there were difficulties to overcome; our apartment being robbed on New Years Eve, being detained by police in the streets of Havana as they question the 'validity' of our relationship, being followed by the police, lack of transportation, lack of food, lack of electricity, lack of water, and consternation on behalf of my family as to my intentions for visiting Cuba.
I could fill pages with stories about the hardships suffered by the Cubans due to the US embargo and the repressive Castro regime, but this is a story about love, Barack Obama, and the realization of a dream.
Each time I visited, the Cubans would ask me, "Chris, what about the next President? Will the embargo end? When will Bush leave?" Under Bush the travel to Cuba for Cubans was restricted to once every 3 years, and money remittance was reduced as well. As the Presidential race began, there was hope in the hearts for a change, a softening of policy, and a change of parties.
I told my friends at the beginning of the race, that Obama would win, because the US was in a time of extreme crisis, that we had been led astray for 8 years by a president out of touch with the needs of the world and the Americans. America did not want another 8 years of the Clintons, and their campaign had such a negative style that many people were turned off by it, and began to see the calm, steady style of Barack Obama. Obama's vitality, the emerging youth vote, and McCain's seemingly tired rhetoric and mannerisms made it clear that there would be no chance for the aged Senator.
It was young versus old; with old represented the past 8 years and youth representing a new beginning full of hope and audacity to face problems they inherited.
I assured the Cubans that Obama would win, and that the world would be a better place for it. The US would regain the lost respect it squandered away with the failed policies of the Bush administration.
America would prove itself again, that we are a country of ideas, created from our beliefs, and not a product of history like our European forefathers.
Yaremys and I have talked extensively for our admiration of Obama, his story of success that clearly showed the American dream realized. However, we must conceal any political talk through carefully worded codes in our emails. Obama represents the change in our lives, for this generation, he stands on the shoulders of MLK, JFK, and has an enormous task in front of him. Obama has spoken on the campaign trail of enhancing the relation between Cuba and the US, for he has been the only US president (elect) in the past 50 years to agree upon conditional talks with Cuba. That is a giant step forward in the current defunct realtionship.
Yaremys and I have waited 3 and a half years for her K 1 visa to be processed and approved, and now, January, 18th , in time for the inauguration, she will arrive. Coincidentally, my family lives in Alexandria, VA, minutes from the Capitol.
Her arrival to the USA begins in NYC at Kennedy airport where she will land, and where she will be greeted first by the Statue of Liberty, then myself and my family. It is only befitting that our nuptials on January 19th coincide with Obama's inauguration. We will attend the inauguration ceremony and hopefully find tickets to it, and an inaugural ball. I have to admit she will have a difficult time finding a wedding dress and a inaugural gown in one day, but we will do it somehow!
It fills me with tremendous pride to finally bring my fiancee to our country, in a moment of celebration and hope for our future, and the future of this great country.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
My DC Trip story is special for many reasons, because it involves the rendezvous with my destiny, and the nation's destiny with the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
For 3.5 years I have gone to Cuba to study music in the Conservatory in Havana, where I met my fiancee, Yaremys Rodriguez. I was rehearsing with the popular trova group of Liuba Maria Hevia in the St. Francis Monastery in Old Havana when I had first met her sister, Yarnelis. Liuba is considered by the public and critics as the highest representatives of Cuban culture.
I chatted with Yarnelis for more than hour and was smitten before I realized she was the girlfriend of the group's bassist! How foolish I felt!
Two days later, on July 19, 2004, I was basking on the dilapidated brick rooftop, practicing the Allegro section of Augustin Barrios' 'Catedral' in the 100 degree heat of Havana when I looked before me and I saw Yarnelis' head appear around the doorway. She smiled, and immediately above her appeared her identical twin sister, Yaremys. I was awestruck, and dumbfounded. To see the identical twins appearing before me was such a surprise, it took my breath away. Yaremys had never left her small city of Santa Clara, a turning point in Che Guevara's attack against the army and railroad supply car of Batista, and was visiting Havana for the first time in her life.
We met that day, She told me that she only had one day in Havana before she had to return to Santa Clara, where she was an English teacher. I asked her to come out with us that night to Hotel National, where the bassist was playing. Cubans were not allowed to be in the hotel, and even though her sister's boyfriend was in a group performing there, we had difficulty gaining entrance.
We had a wonderful time, and I asked her to stay with me a few days, for I had only a month left in my stay.
She agreed, and she and her friend stayed that night in my ramshackle apartment, sleeping on a bed I had nicknamed, "El Camello, or The Camel" for the 2 humps situated in the middle, making it difficult for sleep.
I slept in the car, in a rusted, tin garage no bigger than the car that fit snugly into it. It was across the street, from the apartment. There was no room in the apartment for me, and leaving a car parked on the street was not an option, as the thieves would take everything from it.
The next day, I took Yaremys to the Malecon wall and as we watched the vibrant sunset together, we began to share our stories, and fell in love.
Over the next 3 years, I traveled many times to see her, and through email, we corresponded every day.
Her father is a PhD of Bio Chemistry and lectures all over the world, and is a professor in the Santa Clara University. Due to his job, he is one of the few people in the country that has access to email, but not internet, in his home. It is because of him, that we are able to communicate. WIthout email, the relationship between us would have failed.
Each time I visited Cuba, there were difficulties to overcome; our apartment being robbed on New Years Eve, being detained by police in the streets of Havana as they question the 'validity' of our relationship, being followed by the police, lack of transportation, lack of food, lack of electricity, lack of water, and consternation on behalf of my family as to my intentions for visiting Cuba.
I could fill pages with stories about the hardships suffered by the Cubans due to the US embargo and the repressive Castro regime, but this is a story about love, Barack Obama, and the realization of a dream.
Each time I visited, the Cubans would ask me, "Chris, what about the next President? Will the embargo end? When will Bush leave?" Under Bush the travel to Cuba for Cubans was restricted to once every 3 years, and money remittance was reduced as well. As the Presidential race began, there was hope in the hearts for a change, a softening of policy, and a change of parties.
I told my friends at the beginning of the race, that Obama would win, because the US was in a time of extreme crisis, that we had been led astray for 8 years by a president out of touch with the needs of the world and the Americans. America did not want another 8 years of the Clintons, and their campaign had such a negative style that many people were turned off by it, and began to see the calm, steady style of Barack Obama. Obama's vitality, the emerging youth vote, and McCain's seemingly tired rhetoric and mannerisms made it clear that there would be no chance for the aged Senator.
It was young versus old; with old represented the past 8 years and youth representing a new beginning full of hope and audacity to face problems they inherited.
I assured the Cubans that Obama would win, and that the world would be a better place for it. The US would regain the lost respect it squandered away with the failed policies of the Bush administration.
America would prove itself again, that we are a country of ideas, created from our beliefs, and not a product of history like our European forefathers.
Yaremys and I have talked extensively for our admiration of Obama, his story of success that clearly showed the American dream realized. However, we must conceal any political talk through carefully worded codes in our emails. Obama represents the change in our lives, for this generation, he stands on the shoulders of MLK, JFK, and has an enormous task in front of him. Obama has spoken on the campaign trail of enhancing the relation between Cuba and the US, for he has been the only US president (elect) in the past 50 years to agree upon conditional talks with Cuba. That is a giant step forward in the current defunct realtionship.
Yaremys and I have waited 3 and a half years for her K 1 visa to be processed and approved, and now, January, 18th , in time for the inauguration, she will arrive. Coincidentally, my family lives in Alexandria, VA, minutes from the Capitol.
Her arrival to the USA begins in NYC at Kennedy airport where she will land, and where she will be greeted first by the Statue of Liberty, then myself and my family. It is only befitting that our nuptials on January 19th coincide with Obama's inauguration. We will attend the inauguration ceremony and hopefully find tickets to it, and an inaugural ball. I have to admit she will have a difficult time finding a wedding dress and a inaugural gown in one day, but we will do it somehow!
It fills me with tremendous pride to finally bring my fiancee to our country, in a moment of celebration and hope for our future, and the future of this great country.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
