Submitted by Samantha Nowell on the 2017 winter session program in Cuba sponsored by the Department of Art…
This is one of the first words that I learned when arriving to Cuba and a week later, I am still discovering what it means. Our instructor, Andy, who has spent his whole life living in the suburbs of Havana, used words like inventive and compassionate to describe what Cubanidad meant. He explained that it meant always being happy with one’s circumstances and always looking out for other Cubans. I didn’t quite understand this at first, but as the week went on, the more I saw what he meant.
We went to a restaurant that was also an organic farm. The meals were made only using food and ingredients grown on the farm. Before we ate, we were given a tour of the farm and its processes by a man named Eduardo. Eduardo lived on the farm in a wooden shack that took up about five square feet. There were only a few belongings in the shack – a baseball cap, a bike and a few clothes that were hanging from a wire. Looking and listening to Eduardo, I would have never guessed he owned so little. He was clean, hardworking and most impressively, very happy. He gave everything he had to helping to run this farm. He expressed his concerns about Mother Nature yet had so much hope that his work and organic farming would change the world. Eduardo taught me not only the Cubanidad way of life, but also how I can live my life to be a better global citizen.
