- 21 hours ago
Tony travels to Cuba and tries everything from lobster in Santiago to Chinese dumplings in Havana, exploring the island's varied, fast-changing cultural landscape.
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00:01Good evening, my fellow citizens.
00:04This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba.
00:15This is the Cuba I grew up with.
00:18Mankind teeters precariously on the brink of a thermonuclear war.
00:22The missile crisis. Duck and cover.
00:24Hide under your desk, kids. Cover yourselves with wet newspaper, because we're all going to die.
00:29The flames of crisis burn far stronger, fed and fanned by the bitter tirades of Fidel Castro.
00:36And this guy, always in the fatigues, underlining with every appearance that we were two nations in a never-ending
00:43state of war.
00:52Today, the United States of America is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba.
00:57We will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.
01:06I took a walk through this beautiful world.
01:12Felt the cool rain on my shoulder.
01:18Dancing here in this beautiful world.
01:23Felt the cool rain on my shoulder.
01:25I felt the rain getting colder.
01:31Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la.
01:34Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
01:40Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
01:59You've been sitting here for, what, 55 years now?
02:02Half an hour away.
02:04Basically giving the biggest superpower in the world
02:06the stiff middle finger.
02:09Fifty-plus years of animosity, embargo, rationing,
02:14and Fidel Castro is still hanging on.
02:18But recently, there are powerful indications
02:21that everything is about to change.
02:27We are at Jaimanita, a little fishing town.
02:31This place is called Casa Santi, owned by two brothers
02:34that go out and fish every morning and bring fresh seafood.
02:38Okay, humble fishing village, traditional fishing family.
02:43Yes.
02:45We're about to eat sushi.
02:47What's going on in this country, man?
02:48Things are changing, Anthony. What can I say?
02:58My name is Hugo Cancio.
03:00I was born in Cuba.
03:01I was in one of Cuba's most prominent schools.
03:04When I made a joke about President Fidel Castro,
03:06I was a teenager, and the kid that slept on the bunk bed
03:10on top of me recorded that conversation,
03:12and I was expelled from school.
03:15My mom said the only choice is for us to leave Cuba.
03:18I'm a businessman.
03:20I've lived in Miami for 35 years.
03:21It's my home base.
03:22I come back and forth to Cuba.
03:23I've been coming to Cuba for over 20 years.
03:25I mean, Cuba is a communist country in economic transition.
03:31You know, since Raul Castro allowed Cubans to establish more businesses,
03:35there are people that are making money.
03:37There are people that have created a tremendous amount of wealth.
03:40People with family connections to the states,
03:42people tied to the exploding tourist industry,
03:45small business owners, taxi drivers,
03:48people operating in ever-changing gray areas of what is permissible.
03:53How does it work right now?
03:54If you're Cuban, you can sell your property to another Cuban from Cuba.
03:59And that's what's happening right now.
04:00A lot of Cuban Americans and a lot of Cubans leaving abroad
04:03are now coming back and through relatives are buying property.
04:08Obviously, somebody has touched this building with some kind of investment.
04:12It's renovated.
04:14It seems to be like a hotel.
04:15Somebody bought the building and turned it into a little hotel.
04:22However you feel about the government,
04:24however you feel about the last 55 years,
04:27there aren't many places in the world that look like this.
04:29I mean, it's utterly enchanting.
04:31It's very seductive.
04:32There is no doubt in my mind that somewhere in the offices
04:35of, like, the Four Seasons hotel chain,
04:37they're looking at the seafront and thinking, you know,
04:39one of these days, you know, and cruise ships, you know, what happens then?
04:44Well, look, is this an inevitable march of progress?
04:47Am I being a snob?
04:48No, no, you're being realistic.
04:51That's the concern of most Cubans.
04:53I wouldn't mind seeing one or two Starbucks around Havana.
04:55But I'm hoping that we don't go back to 1958,
04:59where the majority of Cuban companies were owned by American corporations.
05:03Right.
05:03I have got to believe that Cuba wanted to preserve some of the value
05:06that represents, you know, the hearts and souls of the Cuban people.
05:20Last time I was in Havana, a meal at a paladar would have been rice and beans.
05:26Now, sushi, a certain sign of impending apocalypse.
05:31Yeah, that's good.
05:32Ten years ago, this restaurant would have never been allowed,
05:36not only because private businesses were not allowed,
05:39but the external influence that you're seeing.
05:43Remember, this is a country where chewing gum or listening to the Beatles were prohibited.
05:48I don't think we all need to have Twitter every day.
05:51I mean, one of the things I love about coming to Cuba is the fact that I could put my
05:54iPhone away.
05:55Who cares?
05:55Look what we have around us.
05:57And I hope that Cubans, if they continue to have access to free information,
06:01they would still want to preserve these family times.
06:16Tourists have been coming to Cuba for some time.
06:19Predominantly Europeans, many of them men of a certain age looking for, how shall we say, company.
06:26But now it looks like Americans, looking to live out fantasies of Godfather II, will soon be able to do
06:32so.
06:36And it's all still here for them.
06:50But there's new stuff, too.
06:53This is certainly new.
06:56Fabrica de Arte, the hottest spot in Havana.
07:03A nightclub, performance space, art gallery.
07:06Highlighting artists, musicians and DJs from around the world.
07:10Questlove is scheduled to DJ here tomorrow night.
07:14It's like a big bag when all the art can fit inside.
07:19What is going on here?
07:21I ask Inti Herrera and ex-Alfonso, two of the young entrepreneurs behind the place.
07:27Nothing like this has ever existed before.
07:30Do the Government Bureau of Arts help you?
07:33We have, at the beginning, we have subsidies from the Ministry of Culture.
07:38Even the building, we asked for the building because it was abandoned for 30 years.
07:43The place is very popular.
07:45Right now, yes.
07:46Who comes here?
07:47These people that love art, but at the same time it's very diverse.
07:52It attracts a once unthinkable mix of foreigners and locals
07:56and enjoys the actual support of the government,
07:59without whom, of course, it couldn't exist.
08:02Our chef here, Lisette, is part of the art world, you know, here.
08:09A ceviche of dogfish with pickled vegetables.
08:16Moin of pork, pan seared with yucca,
08:19and a riff on a traditional orange sauce with garlic and coriander.
08:23Mmm, good.
08:24Very good.
08:28What do you think is going to happen when the door opens
08:30and you've got hundreds of thousands of Americans flooding here,
08:35looking desperately to spend money on anything Cuban?
08:38I don't know, man.
08:39We are a small country, no?
08:41What?
08:42We have to adapt to new things, but I think it's a good challenge.
08:46I guess I'm asking, how do you keep it real
08:48when you'll all probably be millionaires in a few years?
08:52Us?
08:52Yeah.
08:52You think so?
08:53Yeah.
08:57It's not our goal in life, but that's...
09:02It doesn't matter.
09:03Yeah, it doesn't matter.
09:04We're going to have to do more factories.
09:06More factories.
09:31Havana still looks like you want it to look.
09:34Or maybe, just how I want it to look.
09:44What was once one of the wealthiest cities in Latin America,
09:48left to the elements, left to collapse,
09:51were frozen gloriously in time.
10:03In fits and starts, Cuba is changing.
10:06But it's not sugar or rum or tobacco or casino gambling
10:11that is the new god.
10:13It's tourism.
10:22All right, so here we're at Chinatown, such as it is.
10:26But are there any Chinese left in Havana?
10:31No.
10:32There's a few new Chinese.
10:33Right.
10:34At one point, the Chinese community in Cuba was huge.
10:37But they pretty much cleared out after the revolution,
10:40as did most of the Russian Jewish emigres who were here.
10:44So the state has erected a few quintessentially Chinatown gates,
10:48mustered the 14 Chinese people left in the planet,
10:52summoned their relatives.
10:53For more than 35 years,
10:56John Lee Anderson has been reporting from conflict zones
10:58such as Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
11:03I lied about my age and traveled around Africa.
11:05When I was 13, I told people I was 26.
11:08In the early 1990s,
11:10while researching a biography of Che Guevara,
11:12he and his family moved to Cuba
11:13and ended up staying for three years.
11:16You lived here during the special period,
11:18which was not so special.
11:20That was the bad times.
11:23That was the bad times.
11:24The Russians had pulled out,
11:25the Soviets, all done.
11:26The economy went like this.
11:27Completely.
11:2890%.
11:29It just tanked.
11:30Cuba lost 80% of its import goods,
11:33which led to widespread hunger, malnutrition,
11:36and a nosedive for the already difficult quality of life on the island.
11:40There was one place where we could buy food,
11:43which was a Soviet-style place with food that was flown in.
11:46Quite bad food.
11:47Under Fidel's rule, that's the way it was.
11:51That's it.
11:54It's like a cargo cult version of Chinese food here.
11:58Dumplings.
12:02A Szechuan chicken dish that's about as Szechuan as well.
12:06I am.
12:07What's going to happen?
12:09What's next?
12:09The uptick in tourism just after the December 17th announcement,
12:14the surprise announcement by Raul and Obama,
12:15in which they said,
12:16we've decided to make friends again.
12:17The surge in tourism and American interest in Cuba is like this.
12:23You now have an island where every room is for rent,
12:26because you can make $30 or $40 a day.
12:29That's more than a state employee makes in three months.
12:32There will be wealthy hipsters, women in tiny black dresses drinking ironic riffs on the mojito
12:37in the lobby of the spanking new W Hotel with oots, oots, oots in the background.
12:43Yeah.
12:44And that's within five years.
12:45Yeah, I would say so.
12:46Will every Cuban have an inalienable right to free medical care and education at that time?
12:51That's what they're worried about.
12:51The last time I was here, which was in 2013, I counted eight to ten homeless, garbage-eating people in
12:58the street.
12:59And I thought, wow, I've never seen that before in Cuba.
13:02That's something the old Cuba, the socialist Cuba that could look after all of its citizens,
13:06would never have allowed.
13:08It's allowing it now.
13:10This period we're here in, it's the lull before it all hits.
13:14The train is coming.
13:16It's either going to roar by and they're going to be able to jump on and go with it,
13:19or it's going to derail and it'll be a mess.
13:21All of it's possible.
13:45My mom is asking me if he would like to taste the rice.
13:51Oh, it's fantastic.
13:53Like a lot of Cubans, Yosemi Rodriguez lives in the same working-class neighborhood where she was born.
14:00I live with my mom, my sister, and my niece.
14:04Of course, I would like to have my own bedroom, but there are people who don't even have a house.
14:10You were a translator, is that correct? And you are now a journalist?
14:13Yeah, well, I've been writing for Habana Times, and then I write also for Diario de Cuba,
14:18which is another independent website.
14:22She struggles to eke out a living in an industry where the state firmly controls all media.
14:27What subjects in particular are of interest to you?
14:31The racial issue?
14:32Racial disparity.
14:33I think this is something that the revolution promised to address.
14:38Their main mistake was to state that they had eradicated racism, that just like it could be eradicated just like
14:46that.
14:47On the street, for instance, policemen, the first people they stop is black people.
14:52If you're black, you are a potential criminal.
15:00Her mom, Rosa, prepared a cabbage stew with carrots, tomatoes, and green beans for her,
15:05as Yosemi is a rare vegetarian on an island where pork is king.
15:09Oh, fantastic. Look at that.
15:13And for us, pork, marinated in garlic, onion, and sour orange.
15:21Please tell your mom, it's superb, really excellent.
15:23Mami, I know you're good.
15:25You're good, yes.
15:28You have a very highly educated public here, one of the most literate nations on earth.
15:32That's funny. We are highly educated, as you said, but we are behind concerning internet and all that stuff.
15:40Most of us have access to only the official media, the official newspaper.
15:46If internet comes, and I think the government is trying to delay it, if that comes, many things will change.
15:53People will have access to different points of view.
15:56And I don't think our government wants that.
16:00If everything goes well, what will Habana be like?
16:05What will this neighborhood be like in five years?
16:07You know, having a prosperous society doesn't guarantee that it is the same for everyone.
16:16You know, you see these people who have been able to use opportunities to open businesses, to open successful restaurants.
16:23Those opportunities are there, but I cannot use them because I don't have money.
16:29I don't think it is possible to have a perfect society, but I think it is possible to try how
16:38you like the food.
16:39Oh, it's delicious. Really good.
17:01All Cuba seems waiting for something, for whatever it is that happens next.
17:15Today, that's the roar of Detroit's finest, circa 1959 and before, of course.
17:25American dream machines tricked out, babyed, pampered, jury-rigged, or simply held together with duct tape and bail-in wire.
17:32All right.
17:36Woo-hoo!
17:58Nice.
18:01What's under the hood?
18:02Dore Americano V8, V8 Cylindra.
18:04V8 American engine.
18:06We buy spares, we bring spares from America.
18:14All we think about through the week is our machines,
18:19our V8 engines, you know.
18:20Car racing in Cuba, they love it here
18:22as much as I love baseball.
18:24Wow, that's serious.
18:28Los Amigos de Motor are die-hard gearheads.
18:31Drag racers who for more than 20 years
18:34have been defying the law and escaping the grind
18:36of daily life by pressing the pedal to the metal
18:39and hurtling down the highway faster, faster,
18:43fast as they can go.
18:44They just find the best part of the day
18:46when there is not so much traffic.
18:48They get hundreds and hundreds of people
18:49on both sides of the road.
18:51Now before, it was absolutely illegal.
18:54It's always been illegal.
18:55It's only the last couple of weeks
18:57that we are going to get sponsorship
18:59from the Ministry of Sports.
19:01Everything is changing.
19:03It's entirely possible that soon
19:05you'll be able to order any part, any car,
19:09any car in the world.
19:10You can have it tomorrow, what would it be?
19:12Corvette.
19:13Corvette.
19:13Corvette.
19:14Which year?
19:15What year?
19:16Good.
19:17How long has it been?
19:17Very good.
19:21Okay, let's start it.
19:23The footwork's inّ omit.
19:23The roadway and the car,
19:24of security for everyone's family.
19:27We know where people go further.
19:32It is all.
19:34It is all.
19:56This piece is a lunar picnic, it's only to be seen at night, the grills are painted
20:02with this floors and painting, it's very surrealistic. It's a weird sensation, it's like make you hungry somehow.
20:13Along with his creative partner Marco Castillo, Dago Rodriguez is half of Los Carpenteros,
20:19an artistic entity whose work is shown and collected all over the world.
20:24Every single project is a different thing, you have a different technology to fabricate and to develop.
20:30Los Carpenteros have managed to stay in the government's good graces by wryly using irony to make their points.
20:38In the brutally competitive and capricious contemporary art world outside of Cuba,
20:43they are stars. They make a lot of money, but they always return home to Havana.
20:52Looks like we'll be eating well.
21:07Tonight it's a party in Dago's backyard.
21:17Kelvis Ochoa has made his much-loved pig's head soup with pumpkin, corn, peppers and sweet potatoes,
21:22cassava and plantain.
21:30I saw somebody's house, it was just an ordinary home, but they created their own fast food franchise
21:37and made it look as if it was part of a chain. It was like, you know, Mr. Burger or
21:42something like this.
21:43This place can be a paradise for fast food.
21:45Fast food, huh?
21:46I hope they don't come here soon.
21:48Yeah, well, this is my biggest fear. It's that there will be a big glass box of a W Hotel
21:53and start seeing Starbucks and Victoria's Secret and, you know, all of the people who make every
21:59place look the same. It would be awful.
22:01Yeah, but we have a 50-year lack of money.
22:06Right.
22:06This is a big problem. The people will freak out with money when they have money here.
22:11Of course, yeah. But, I mean, I think if there's a $200 million hotel project that's sustainable,
22:17that preserves the facade of the city, that will get approved first before anything super American,
22:23per se, you know.
22:25Wow, whoa, what's he cooking over there?
22:27You can't forget the whole roasted pig.
22:29A few years back, a pretty unthinkable luxury for just about everybody.
22:34Oh, wow, soup.
22:36Wow.
22:37Everything is biological.
22:39They have no money, they have no money for chemistry.
22:41Yes, for, uh, yes.
22:43Not the pesticides and the hormones yet.
22:48Oh, wow.
22:52And tamales steamed in the broth from the pig's head soup.
23:00Life is good.
23:01Yeah, it is.
23:03Yeah, it is.
23:06For your love, Marielena,
23:08dueña de mi corazón,
23:10yo te canto un suco, suco en luna llena.
23:15Oh, Marielena.
23:16Ay, ay, ay, mira como duele.
23:19Vamos a cantarle una gongada linda, bella Marielena.
23:23Y el y el lele.
23:26Por tu encanto, Marielena, dueña de mi corazón,
23:31Marielena, dime toda la verdad.
23:33Woo!
23:35Marielena,
23:36el es mi problema,
23:38en la tierra y en la eternidad.
23:43Marielena, la cosa está.
23:46Marielena, dime toda la verdad.
23:49Y dale voz, mamá, y dale voz.
23:51I think that our culture is so strong
23:53that it's going to take a lot of tourists
23:56and a lot of boats,
23:58how do you say?
23:59Cruise ships.
24:00Cruise ships.
24:00It's going to take a lot of cruise ships
24:02to dissolve these ingredients.
24:04We're always like this,
24:06with or without tourists.
24:08Marielena, la cosa está buena.
24:12Marielena, dime toda la verdad.
24:17What!
24:41This is a typical story of this neighborhood.
24:44Houses of wood, houses of concrete.
24:48The street is not in good condition.
24:52Here was the bus station.
24:54It's not a bus station anymore.
24:57Now it's a building, it's a monument of the past.
25:02Montilla is a suburb of Havana,
25:05home to one of Cuba's most celebrated writers.
25:16There are many lines in the Cuban reality
25:19that apparently cannot pass.
25:23But I think that they can pass,
25:26or at least they can push.
25:28Author of the internationally successful
25:30Mario Conde detective series,
25:32Padura has been able to portray the daily struggles,
25:35the absurdities of life in Cuba.
25:37It's a delicate dance,
25:39and few have been able to replicate it.
25:41You're a hero in the books.
25:43Does he live in this neighborhood?
25:44Or in another neighborhood?
25:46More or less.
25:47More or less.
25:48A happy place to grow up?
25:50I mean, this neighborhood.
25:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:52I was totally free.
25:56I notice a lot of people just hanging out.
26:00Who lives here?
26:01All kinds of people.
26:03Doctors, for example.
26:04Engineers, workers.
26:12And people who makes nothing.
26:15Like that guy.
26:16Right.
26:17He don't make nothing.
26:18How does he live?
26:20Trying to find something to do,
26:23or something to sell,
26:24making a small business.
26:29Cafeteria a la barbecue is only one example
26:32of a booming, do-it-yourself service industry.
26:43It's a place where you get a lot of bang for your money.
26:46Nothing fancy, just delicious.
26:50Fried pork, plantains,
26:52and the kind of silky, deeply satisfying beans
26:55that dreams are made of.
26:57This is good.
26:58Good beans.
26:58Yeah.
27:00You've never had a book blacklisted or banned in Cuba?
27:04Fortunately, no.
27:05Have you been able to say everything
27:06that you wanted to say?
27:08I try to be the most honest writer that I can be,
27:15and I think that I can say all that I can say.
27:19The problem is that we need, in Cuba, a lot of money,
27:23because it's a very beautiful city,
27:26but the people have many problems to live with the space,
27:31with the structure of the buildings.
27:36For dessert?
27:37Awesome.
27:38Flan, cooked in a cut-down beer can.
27:43You're a successful author.
27:45You've been around the world.
27:47You've traveled during difficult periods of Cuban history.
27:51I'm sure you had many opportunities to live in Miami
27:54or Barcelona or Los Angeles,
27:56and yet you stayed in the same house.
27:57Yeah.
27:58The same neighborhood.
27:59Yeah.
28:01Why?
28:02Because I like it.
28:04I need to live in Cuba,
28:07near to the Cuban people,
28:08near to the Cuban language.
28:10For me, it's very important.
28:18Yes, the future is here.
28:23But the past, too, is everywhere.
28:30The buildings, the cars, the gears of the whole system
28:34are still largely stuck in time.
28:39Yeah.
28:43Yeah.
28:45Yeah.
28:46Yeah!
28:46Yeah!
28:48Yeah!
28:48Yeah!
28:49Yeah!
28:50Yeah!
28:52Yeah!
28:52My name is Juana Bacayau.
28:55Juana La Cobana.
28:57Go ahead, Juana!
28:5993-year-old Juana Bacayau
29:01is very much a part of that past.
29:09Long before the revolution, she was a shining star at Meyer Lansky's Tropicana, singing for Capone, Luciano, you know the
29:17names.
29:46I go to the stage every day at 12 o'clock with my orchestra.
30:04Baila como balada cubana, sigo teniendo un pueblo, mira quién llegó, los pepillos del malecón, mira quién llegó, esa negrita
30:16y la brava, mira quién llegó, pasa, pasa, pasa, pasa, pasa, pasa, pasa, mira quién llegó.
30:24¡Malo arriba!
30:35Cuba siempre ha sido divino, es una fuente maravillosa de amigos que me quieren todo el pueblo.
30:44Mientras que hay esa luz, se canta y es.
31:09Córdoba, lejana y sola.
31:16Cuba is not Havana.
31:18It's a bigger country than you might imagine.
31:21And the road to Santiago de Cuba, the country's second largest city, takes you 12 hours on their less than
31:27modern highway system.
31:30Along the way, you see agrarian Cuba, the country in which most Cubans lived pre-revolution.
31:53Santiago is a poorer city.
31:55It's blacker.
31:56And unlike Havana, the symbols and faces of the revolution still seem to mean something.
32:03These brutalist prefab workers' housing complexes are everywhere here.
32:08And at first glance, hell, at second glance, they look like something you'd house animals in.
32:13But for many, previously living even poorer, harsher lives in the countryside, these offered something new.
32:20Each group of buildings came with a doctor, a school.
32:24Still, they look about as grim as grim can be.
32:35Yet, Santiago is anything but grim.
32:41Saboni Beach is where locals go on the weekend to kick back with family, drink the best rum in Cuba,
32:47which means the best rum anywhere, swim, hang with family, and friends.
32:55All the gentlemen, we will be needing some basas.
32:59Ramel is our local fixer.
33:01Ruben is in the bar business.
33:03Sergio rents rooms to the occasional tourist.
33:06Everybody getting by, making the adjustment to private enterprise Cuba in their own way.
33:11Until a few years ago, you couldn't rent or sell, right?
33:14No, it's different.
33:16A long time ago, it was allowed to rent the house, but no sell and buy.
33:22What kind of fish is this?
33:24Dorado.
33:25Dorado.
33:25Dorado.
33:26Dorado.
33:26It's huge, isn't it?
33:27It's good.
33:28Fresh-caught dorado and lobster is on the menu.
33:32Do they think this is going to change?
33:34I mean, look, we've all been following the news.
33:37We're going to have a tourist that we've never had, a tourist North American.
33:42Right.
33:43Half an hour away.
33:44I mean, they can basically take a boat over for lunch.
33:48What do you think Americans want?
33:52They have no idea, because they never touched the American tourists before.
33:57It's looking good now, man.
33:58Good rum, cold beer, good fish, good lobster.
34:02You'll be needing a blender for pina coladas.
34:08If there's no machine, they're going to do it by hand.
34:12Don't put it this way, my friend.
34:14You're going to be making a lot of pina coladas.
34:16I think you're going to need the machine.
34:39Nighttime is party time.
34:42Where everybody, it appears, at least from when I was there, hit the streets.
34:46Mom, dad, sis, even grandma get, well, crazy.
34:54Used to be son and trova that ruled the streets.
34:57This was where those musical styles were born, after all.
35:00But now, it's reggaeton and, of course, hip-hop.
35:12Alain Garcia is the leader of the Santiago-based hip-hop trio TNT, La Resistencia.
35:18We've been making hip-hop for 15 years, which is quite difficult here in Cuba.
35:23We've been in jail three days once just for making hip-hop.
35:26We've been in jail three days.
35:33Definitely, it's a change in Cuba.
35:38But I don't think it's because the relations with the United States are getting better.
35:43It's because the people just realize we need to change.
35:46We still want a kind of society where everyone participates,
35:50everyone determining the future in a society.
35:52I don't mean change.
36:01So, born and bred Santiago, where the good Rome comes from.
36:05Exactly.
36:07So, tell me, music business in Santiago.
36:10What are you doing?
36:11Music here is more important than a plate of food.
36:14When it's carnival, sometimes the people doesn't have money for proper food.
36:18But they got money for like a jar of beer and just enjoying that beer in a place with music.
36:24How much American hip-hop do you get here?
36:26We get actually quite a lot.
36:28These are my friends.
36:29Someone came from outside.
36:30That one passed to me and I passed to my friends.
36:32That's it.
36:33It's hand by hand.
36:34Right.
36:35In the beginnings, in the 90s, we start to make hip-hop here.
36:38And we get a lot of thrums.
36:40Hip-hop came from the States.
36:42They're like the everlasting enemy of the revolution.
36:45Right.
36:46So, you're making music.
36:48A protest music.
36:50Right.
36:51So, we've been a couple times in jail just for songs.
36:54So, now you can make money performing?
36:57Yeah.
36:58You can maybe make money selling...
37:00Cities in the streets.
37:02But, actually right now, more possibilities are coming.
37:06When the opportunity to like to promote the music.
37:08When the opportunity to have access to internet.
37:11Free access, I mean.
37:12That's going to be the biggest thing.
37:14Yeah.
37:14If you want to spend your holidays properly in Cuba, just come down to Santiago.
37:19Alright.
37:19We've got a couple to show to the world.
37:21Cheers, man.
37:22Cheers, man.
37:23Go, Santiago.
37:24Go.
37:42Yeah, I want to spend it all.
37:52Yeah.
38:01Let's do it.
38:07Hi, I'm Tony.
38:08My name is George.
38:10How long have you been driving a taxi?
38:12For more than 20 years.
38:14Mostly Cubans or tourists?
38:16No, tourists.
38:16Most of them Spanish, Italy, even people from Canada.
38:20A lot of Canadian people.
38:24You're from Santiago?
38:26Yes, I was born in Santiago.
38:27I was standing in Spanish, Santiago.
38:29I used to live in Russia for six years.
38:32I studied there.
38:33Really?
38:34Yeah, I was really young.
38:36And I really enjoyed it.
38:37Oh yeah, because it must be cold there.
38:40Could you imagine the difference?
38:41Cuba, Russia, snow.
38:43The first time I saw snow, I sent to my mom a lot of pictures.
38:48Yeah, yeah.
38:48Cold in snow, throwing snow.
38:51So what were you studying in Russia?
38:54Mechanic engineer.
38:56So you went from engineering to taxi driving?
38:59Yes, yes, yes.
39:00In 1990, Russia left us alone.
39:03We got in trouble with the economy.
39:05So I have to change my job.
39:10So it looks like the embargo might end.
39:12You know, a lot of money going to start coming to Cuba.
39:15Oh.
39:15You think it's going to change?
39:17I think that the American businessmen will invest in Cuba,
39:20and that will be good for everyone.
39:23How about going back to engineering?
39:26Uh, you know, that will depend on how much they will pay.
39:29Right, OK.
39:46What next for Cuba?
39:50Something is coming.
39:54It will come.
39:56From out there, but also from within Cuba.
39:59It's already happening.
40:01But what is it?
40:03Everybody knows.
40:05Everybody can feel it.
40:07It smells like freedom.
40:08But will it be victory?
40:54It's better to be victory right now,
40:55So there you go.
40:58Lot of people may not be really,
40:58he's been king and he went to Nigeria.
40:58He's also charged with a place where he went to Italy.
40:58He's a strong man,
40:58So he was king.
40:58He's a strong man.
40:58And he's a guy on the island.
40:58And he's a strong man.
40:59He's a strong man.
41:00And he's a strong man.
41:01So he's a strong man.
41:02And he's a strong man.
41:04You know,
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