- [Narrator] For me and for most people from the United States, Cuba has been an unknown place for a long time.

Cuban voices in Cuba and sights and scenes from Cuban cities and countryside have been off-limits to us until recently.

It's time for me to visit Cuba and see this place that has been a sort of forbidden country for me.

(upbeat Latin music) (suspenseful music) - [Announcer] Funding for "In the Americas" "with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(upbeat music) (birds chirping) (indistinct conversation) (upbeat Latin music) - This is Havana, Cuba, about 90 miles to the north lies the United States.

About 50 years ago, my country decided to impose an embargo upon Cuba, preventing anyone from importing or exporting anything into or out of the country.

About 20 years ago, Cubans decided to bring tourism into the country as a way of attracting foreign currency.

The changes that tourism has brought are making a great difference.

With the permission of my government, I may visit Cuba.

(upbeat Latin music) (car honking) (indistinct conversation) The perfect traveling companion for me is historian and Latin American expert, my friend, Bill Beezley.

He knows Cuba's history.

There's no better place to begin than overlooking one of the great harbors of the Americas, Havana.

It gives us the big picture.

- About 500 years ago, Diego Velázquez decided that this harbor was the place.

- This is the gateway to all of Spanish America.

In the 19th century, it was a place of imagination for Americans who believed Cuba, especially Havana, was gonna become part of the United States.

Four presidents tried to buy it.

They all failed.

So, who knows how the Maine blew up?

The Spanish-American-Cuban war took place and Americans occupied Havana for the next 32 years.

- Even since that time, the United States has decided that it pretty well can determine the political and economic future of Cuba by imposing that blockade.

That policy extends back a long time.

- The one thing that stands out besides U.S. efforts in Havana is the incredible resiliency of the people of Havana and how they've dealt with invasions, pirates, Brits, U.S. forces, Cuban revolutionaries, corrupt political officials, all kinds of things.

(upbeat Latin music) - I remember from the 60s and 70s these photographs or even images of tens of thousands of people here standing and listening to Fidel give a big talk.

He would be standing up there.

Hundreds of thousands of people there.

- The mass communications that Fidel used were incredible and mostly, they consisted of a microphone and him speaking to crowds.

- And for several hours too.

- For several hours.

People loved him.

(gentle orchestral music) - The nation of Cuba was one of the poorest in Latin America.

Havana was one of the richest places in the hemisphere.

Fidel wanted to take those resources in Havana and make those available to all Cubans.

In 1953, Fidel Castro launched a revolution to give all Cubans basic needs, access to resources, and opportunities.

Why did it happen?

Because of government corruption, U.S. policies, U.S. corporations, and the mafia.

Those were the challenges for Fidel.

It took six years, but he successfully did it and made this country accessible to all Cubans.

- [Narrator] The best way to find out what's going on is to conduct informal interviews with Habaneros, or residents of Havana.

This barber has watched developments in his homeland for over 70 years.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] In December 1958, the city was taken.

And the dictator, Batista, ran away.

He left the island on January 1st, 1959.

That is the day when he celebrate the triumph of the revolution.

Up until then, the poor, who were the majority, were born poor and died poor.

There were no options, no public health system, no education.

The first thing that happened after the triumph of the revolution were the literacy campaigns.

The whole country became literate.

My kids have it easy now.

They have been able to study.

- In the United States, we're accustomed to seeing unending billboards advertising Coca-Cola, Nike, hotels, dishwasher products.

In Cuba, there is no public advertising for commercial purposes.

There are billboards.

The government uses them for promoting ideas, political, social, or even public health as a way of educating the people or presenting ideas the government would like them to consider.

(upbeat Latin music) - [Narrator] Mayra is a professional record producer.

She can spend hours or days describing Cuban culture.

She is a Habanera, and proud of it.

(upbeat Latin music) - [Translator] I love Havana.

It is a magical city.

The architectural style changes from one house to the next.

No matter how many times I walk down a street, I'm always surprised by something new.

It is a city always in motion, a musical city with sounds that reverberate from the different neighborhoods.

Whether you are in Centro Havana, en Cerro, Vedado, Playa, or La Lisa, we have pride in our barrios.

(child shouting) - Cubans often have a great sense of irony and love to have a chance to just shake their finger at the United States.

This, in the near future, will be the capital building in Havana.

Now, it is about to be restored and it is one meter taller than the U.S. Capital Building in Washington, D.C.

In the mid-1960s, many urban centers in the United States undertook a program called Urban Renewal, where they tore down old buildings, kicked out people who lived there, and replaced them with more modern buildings and government buildings.

In other places in the world where there were old, dilapidated city centers but with valuable buildings, governments re-established them and refurbished them, but mostly for tourists.

Havana is different.

The government is pouring in millions and millions to rebuild and reconstruct downtown parts of Havana because it is a fine place and the people who live here will continue to live here.

It is a project benefiting not tourists simply, but also Cubans and enable them to live in a prettier and better place.

(indistinct radio conversation) - [Narrator] The director of reconstruction for downtown Havana is concerned not just for buildings, but for memories of how the city flourished and how its inhabitants can continue to be part of that tradition.

- This is very old.

- What is the place where we celebrate the foundation of Havana City?

- The founding of Havana, right here?

- The found of Havana, yes, right here.

- Tell me more about the School of Reconstruction.

That's an unusual concept.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] Basically, it is to try to save the historical memory.

In other words, restore, save, and conserve but keep living within the city.

The city of Havana was founded in the 16th century.

From then on, the buildings were built surrounding the main square, which was the first plaza that was founded.

In the 17th century, they established the buildings for the military captains, generals, and the Segundo Cabo, which is where we are now.

There were fortifications in the 16th and 17th centuries.

From there, the city kept growing until the 20th century.

In fact, the degree of preservation of Havana's plazas and its system of fortifications is one of the reasons why the UNESCO declared Havana a World Heritage Site.

(speaking foreign language) - I have never before seen a street made out of wooden blocks.

What do we have here?

- That building was the principle Spanish government in Havana.

The bedrooms are in front to the street.

All the cars who cross the street, the noise was very, very high.

They decide to do it in wood.

- So it dampens the sound?

- Yes.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] There is a master plan that prioritizes the buildings to be restored.

It is created by an interdisciplinary group of architects, engineers, sociologists, and archeologists that make a study of the buildings that will be restored.

They try to save all the buildings with historic or architectural value and later, if it is possible, to use them for the same purpose for which they were built, or to adapt them for a new use related to the development of the historic center.

(speaking foreign language) Whenever possible, they try to conserve and maintain the original style design and if possible, to restore the building with the original materials and the original techniques.

(speaking foreign language) - This is the national cathedral?

- Yes, the Havana's cathedral.

This is the square which was used in religious services.

- So you had the local market.

You had the international market in the harbor.

You had the religious and the military.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] The whole project of restoration is important for us because it is the way we can keep our history, traditions, and the unique Cuban way of life.

Havana is part of the idiosyncrasy of Cubans.

I think, by protecting Havana, we protect what it means to be Cuban for the whole world.

(upbeat Latin music) (speaking foreign language) Music is the combination of Cuban identity and nationality.

It is the mother of all our arts.

There are many genres of music we do love, but the most important one of all has transcended Cuba.

The one with the most influence is soul.

(speaking foreign language) Soul, for its fusion with the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America and for its path across the world, has generated what is known as "salsa".

(speaking foreign language) (upbeat Latin music) (speaking foreign language) For many years, Cuba has been a musical world power in cha-cha-chá, danzón, danzonete, el mambo, el songo, el changüí, el bolero, la rumba, el guaguancó, la jiribilla.

They have all come out of Cuba.

So Cuba has exported many musical genres to the world.

I think the birthplace of this music is in Cuba.

It is in this island.

There are many Cuban artists with a lot of talent and many artists whose work has left a mark in the history of world music.

I think that in Cuba, when a child is born, when the child is about four or five years old, they are already dancing.

Cuba is a dancing nation.

Cubans are dancers.

That tradition exists as much in folkloric ballet as in all those dancers related to Yoruba deity, which are very appreciated by everyone, not just by black people.

In terms of ballet, this is a country that has a tremendous tradition and one of the best ballet companies in the world, which is of course related to the preparation that Cubans have in terms of culture and the arts.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] In spite of scarcities of nearly all commodities, Cuba has managed to maintain an internationally respected level of cultural presentation.

Furthermore, Cuba, in spite of its lack of economic resources, is world-renowned for training doctors from all countries, including my own.

You might say Cuba exports highly-trained technical personnel, people who come here to study medicine, engineering, and agriculture.

Part of what they learn about farming is demonstrated in one well-known farm near the outskirts of the city.

- I'm walking through a part of a gigantic farming area known as Alamar.

I'm hoping, if I'm lucky, to find the founder of it, who knows more about organic farming I'm told, than anybody else, perhaps in the Caribbean, or maybe even in the world.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] The first thing when we started the organic farm, we understood it to be production for survival.

It was because we didn't have another alternative and it turned out to be nothing like that.

We have been learning that we could produce four times more organically than with chemicals.

(birds chirping) (metal clattering) (speaking foreign language) For a program that has 350,000 people in the whole country, here we have 160 workers.

We could say that there's an issue with life expentancy in Cuba, which nears 80 years.

The increase in population is negative.

What I'm saying is this creates another opportunity for work.

(speaking foreign language) - [Male Translator] I've been working here what seems to be a lifetime.

I am already 76 years old.

I've been working since I was six.

- [Female Translator] Many of the things we're doing, we can't fully achieve them because we lack the resources.

When I say resources, I mean rubber boots, a hose, whatever small thing you can think of.

- When the U.S. imposed the economic blockade on Cuba in the early 1960s, the Cubans turned to the Soviet Bloc for assistance.

The Soviet Union didn't care to obey the U.S. rules and so Cuba became dependent upon supplies for oil, agricultural chemicals, and many other things from the Soviet Bloc.

When the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s, it produced a huge crisis here in Cuba.

They refer to that as "the special period".

Cuba could no longer get fertilizers or insecticides or any agricultural chemicals.

They had to rely on a completely new form of agriculture.

That was organic farming.

(speaking foreign language) - [Female Translator] In spite of that, we've had the opportunity to practice different alternatives.

We have been able to do more with less, which is why I talk about the blockade.

If we had Home Depot, we'd be better off than we are today.

- Here, they raise worms, believe it or not.

This soil then becomes extremely fertile.

They move it to another place with the worms.

The worms just keep working away.

In a natural setting in a forest, it would take 100 years to produce the amount of soil that they have here that they can get in one year.

That's using nature to help nature.

(speaking foreign language) - [Female Translator] Since there's no place to spend money and no money to spend, we have been able to solve problems using beneficial insects, microbiology, and efficient microorganisms.

Instead of using chemical pesticides, we use soil amendments such as ground up nitrogen-rich rock, blood, bone, and stones.

We have an astounding amount of resources right here.

I think there has been a transformation in Cuba, a wake-up call.

I think that there has been a growing level of understanding within the general population.

Due to information from public health, there is a growing level of awareness for the uninformed to use organic products.

- This might be called an outdoor pharmacy because many of these herbs, for instance, the aloe here, are used to cure various infirmities to mix with others to have a natural remedy.

Because there's a shortage of pharmaceutical goods, this is extremely important for them.

These kinds of herbs, in many cases, are used religiously or spiritually in ceremonies.

People will rub themselves with them.

They will brush themselves with them.

They will burn them, all as a part of the intense African-Cuban spirituality.

(upbeat African music) The heritage of slavery is powerful and recognized in Cuba.

Most of the slaves came from the Yoruba cultural area in Africa.

They now have their own cultural center here.

(speaking foreign language) - [Translator] The importance for this place is that it unites all the lovers of Yoruba culture and the cultures that came with the enslaved people, the Arará, the Bantu, the Carabalí.

So, we've created a sisterhood from which Cubans come to a certain extent.

Every Orisha has a specific color.

For example, La Ochún, the patron saint of Cuba, is in yellow.

Yemayá is in blue, Shangó in red, Ogún in green and black.

The dress tells us a little about who the Orisha is.

(yelling) (speaking foreign language) Being religious is a life-long discipline.

I used to commit myself to my religion and culture and to pass on the different messages that the African religions provide.

For example, be a good child, parent, sibling, friend, and to say it generally, to be a good Cuban.

(upbeat Latin music) - [Narrator] I had believed that religion was suppressed in Cuba, so I was surprised to see that manifestations of spirituality are not confined to the interior of buildings.

Initiates into Santería, who are symbolically reborn through ceremonies performed all over the country, dress all in white for the first year of their initiation as a public testimony and they must follow a rigorous series of obligations and prohibitions during that time.

The colored beads indicate the crowning Orisha, sort of like a saint.

(upbeat Latin music) - This neighborhood, they call it Cojímar, was Hemingway's hangout and everybody knew him.

My understanding is that he would take a boat out, paddle out, and fish.

He got to know all the fishermen here.

When he committed suicide, I guess 1963, they took up a collection, these poor fishermen, and put together money and made a bust of him and it's located over here in that old, that ancient lighthouse area.

That is a tribute to a guy and these were poor fishermen.

- You think this is the one they did of him?

- Yeah, that's the word in the neighborhood.

- Because this is kind of a heroic upper-class view of him.

- Well, remember this is after the revolution so heroic sculpture was in him.

- Well, that's true, but he was a man of the people.

- He was.

(guitar strumming) (indistinct conversation) - "The Old Man and the Sea" is a pretty old representation of an alibi, a fairly well-known author, who came to this bar, La Terraza, frequently, downtown Havana.

- He would sail from Key West over here to go fishing.

He became a great friend of Castro and Ernest Hemingway, this was his spot.

There are pictures.

He's right up there on that boat.

There are other pictures of him on the wall.

There's a little book here showing Hemingway fishing.

"The Old Man and the Sea" was written right here.

- He was a good friend and confidant of Fidel Castro.

- Exactly.

- Well, you can't come to La Terraza, even though there's a thousand tourists here, without drinking a daiquiri.

(glasses clink) - Hemingway spent all day drinking these as he was writing.

Some people say they have no rum in 'em.

I believe Hemingway put rum in all of 'em.

(upbeat Latin music) - Havana is alive with restoration and construction.

Still, economic privations continue under the ongoing blockade by the United States.

Somehow, Cubans have managed to endure and even prevail over the last six decades.

We have no reason to believe they will not persevere on their own terms.

(upbeat Latin music) - [Narrator] Join us next time "In the Americas" with me, David Yetman.

Volcanoes are the source of life.

In Ecuador, they play multiple roles.

On one hand, they created the Galápagos, the odd island chain with its charismatic wildlife.

On the other, they produced peaks four miles high that capture moisture and release it, providing water for Ecuador's teeming population.

(peaceful flute music) (triumphant orchestral music) (suspenseful music) - [Announcer] Funding for "In the Americas" "with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

Copies of this and other episodes of "In the Americas" "with David Yetman" are available from the Southwest Center.

To order, call 1-800-937-8632.

Please mention the episode number and program title.

Please be sure to visit us at InTheAmericas.com, or InTheAmericas.org.

(upbeat chime)