Approaching the forbidden isle

seriously tiny tacos

We rang in the new year as quietly as possible--given our location--by occupying the outdoor corner of a beach-side restaurant in a place we visited in anticipation of our charter flight across the straight. [My apologies for the unwieldy sentence.] We enjoyed some of the tiniest tapas ever created by humankind and rosé. Upon reflection we noted that we were just on the periphery of the madness (and fireworks) making a study of a "destination" new years being undertaken by quite a variety of different people.


It was rather illuminating to see what tourism can look like in peak season. I often think about not acting as a tourist while being a tourist, and after witnessing a few days of a rather more intense tourist spot, I can affirm (for myself at least) that there is a broad spectrum of tourism. I well and truly hope that with this stop as an exception, we more often fall on the lower impact end of that spectrum. Because after being here for a couple days, one word sums it up for me: spectacle. Pure spectacle.

Also, perhaps somewhat snarkily, I began to wish I had put together a 'stereotypes' bingo card, because everything that I imagined this place could contain emerged over a short time period from thong bikinis (not pictured here) to hyper-surveillance (panopticon style). Bingo!

I'm likely supposed to say something about my commitments for 2016--such as I will try to make my desired 52 posts here (ha!) --however,  I think I hold the aspiration to improve in my heart and mind always. It was drilled into me early and often (see posts tagged PhD). So it goes...


...but I digress.

This larger trip served two purposes for me. First and foremost it was a research pilot for a new project that is tied to my other recent fieldwork trip. Second, it was about taking an opportunity for traveling together and visiting somewhere new.

Our trip was based around (you guessed it) food and agriculture. My research is about access and inequalities in the system and about knowledge exchange through tourism (see next post). As I mentioned in my previous post, this is an exceptionally interesting time to consider food and agriculture in (on?) the forbidden isle and we were not disappointed.

Getting there has gotten easier for U.S. citizens, but the charter flight system is the best example of the kind of relaxed approach to things that I have come to find in my travels in the region. So after a very long day of travel to go about 200 miles we were met with an unpleasant reminder of why things might be this way:

"Blockade: the longest genocide in history"

This picture says a lot. And it is not lost on me that in the state of the union speech this week, the embargo--which is about so much more than just exchange between the US and Cuba (it is well and truly a blockade)--was listed among the top items that need to be changed. I have seen this sign a few times now, most notably outside of Cuba (while in Basque Country in October) and most immediately on the drive from the airport into the city. The blockade is ever present and made to stand out to visitors.

So we've been sifting through the photos we took (across four devices--mwahahahahahahaha) a smaller selection can be seen on the album page (linked here and on the right hand sidebar). There are quite a number of photos of people on this trip and this is a huge departure for me as I am unaccustomed to documenting my research participants in such a way. But the new work is inclusive of how people are interacting in these spaces. More about "these spaces" in subsequent posts.

...beyond sifting through photos, upon our return I did my best to methodically triage and deal with the almost 300 emails I received while away. An (artificially) high number that astounded me, since we are still on holiday break for the next month...