"1 May celebration in Havana" Havana Travelogue by Alain_Smeets

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

With the daybreak of day 5 of our trip, we know that there is a special feeling in the are. It’s the first of May, the labour day and we have to go to the Plaza de la Revolucion where the manifestation is hold. We left a bit later then planned and we see on the TV of our guest family that it’s already started. Walking to the plaza, we are getting greetings from the Cubans, because the guys of the group are wearing there Che T-shirts. We see reactions of happiness and recognition but also from disgust. He’s not everybody’s hero. We buy some bread and ham on route and eat a bit. In the mean time we see already a lot of people coming back from the Plaza, but the crowd that is going towards the plaza is twice as big. They hand us some colour pictures from Elian and his father, all to wave with to make propaganda.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

Walking on the street that takes us directly to the Plaza, we see lots of people moving forward to the Plaza. A Cuban puts some Cuban flags in Marijke, Wim my hands. They are passing them out on several places. We see a lot of people walking around with a picture of Elian. Marijke notices a stamp on her flag. It says, member on the 1 of May. I don’t see a stamp on my flag.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

We hear in the background a compelling voice coming out of the loudspeakers: a woman with a voice that can touch an audience. She’s talking about socialism, the imperialism and Elian. The crowd is waving their flags on regular times. I don’t understand a word she’s saying, but it gives me an overwhelming impression. Standing in the crowd, as a matter of speaking swallowed by the crowd, surrounded by Cubans and a few tourists. We try to make a way in this sea of people to get a better place closer to the stage. But at a certain moment we take a few steps back to get a better view, still far away from the stage, but we can’t go further due to the mass of people in front of us. This will be our standing place for the next two hours.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

This voice is still coming out of the speakers and she takes very enthusiastic about Elian and that he has to come back to his COUNTRY, not to his Father. At the end of her speech, the flags go up again and also I do like the Cubans. Waving the flag, every time the Cubans wave I wave with them. She leaves the stand and a small child, maybe 10 years old starts singing a song: “Give us Elian back”. She sings with a beautiful clear voice and the crowd and especially the children are singing out loud. Bring us Elian back. I get shivers when I hear the voice of this girl, when she stops for a moment, it seems that the crowd us holding their breath waiting to see what she’s going to do. She starts talking to the people and then she starts with singing the chorus a cappella: Bring us Elian back, and the people react clapping their hands and singing with her. De power coming from this song, could give Elian wings to fly back to his father.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

<b><font color=red>I hope that Elian will not become a play ball for the media, the anti-Castro lobby in Miami and the state of Cuba. He’s just a boy, who should be playing instead of being the toy of the conflicting interests en he should be playing on the place where he belongs, with his sadly widowed father. </b></font>

Now there is another speech, again with the same content, the socialism, the revolution, the imperialistic America and of course Elian. Also here is he lifted to propaganda or should I say lowered.
It’s a special feeling to be here on the 1 of May in one of the only strongholds of the Communism between all those people who are here because they believe and because they are obligated to be here. This last one, we shall hear later on from a friend Lazaro from Pinar Del Rio.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

At last Castro is coming to speak, but not after that we hard several other speakers and performers. He’s talking also about the same things, but he leashes out to the human smugglers, who are talking about a better life, but who only want to make money and profit from the Cubans. So also propaganda, but is this not the same on every political meeting, also in Belgium or in the States. All politicians make propaganda. After 15 minutes, we decide to walk away. Marinette asked a schoolgirl, when the parade starts and she said, that she doesn’t know, because if El Commandante talks, he can talk for hours, he keeps on talking our El Commandante. We walk outside the Plaza and after filling our water-bottles at a water truck, we sit down in the shade of the trees. When Castro finishes his speech, all hell breaks loose, everybody is clapping and cheering, all the flags are waving. This gives a sense of united we are strong. We walk behind the crowd of people towards the point that we agreed upon to meet each other again. Everywhere you look, you see people walking very slowly through the streets. They are walking to the Malecon, were the manifestation will end.

Havana: 1 may at the Plaza de la Revolucion

We let them pass us and walk back to the almost empty plaza, it feels empty and abandoned. We are walking up to the speakers stand where not longer then an half hour ago, Castro stood when he spook to the people. We also can have for a moment this feeling, although the plaza is empty. Some take their picture her and John has to make some jokes with a Cuban Woman. He gets some angry looks from a security guard for that. Yes, John is playing his role; he’s holding an imaginary speech. Like a mime player you see his mouth move and his face makes a lot of expressions. We walk a bit further to the concrete seats, where the delegates were seated and then it’s only a few steps to the statue of José Marti, with the 109 metre high column behind it. After standing here a while, we get a friendly military coming up to us, asking if we please can leave, because this area is off limit today. We walk then back towards the plaza, where the cleaning teams are heavily working to clean the plaza from the garbage of mankind. In a few hours, nobody can tell that here was a manifestation and nothing else then memories and pictures will prevail.