Because there are some times and places we can never return to…
Here’s how a visit to the annual Cuba Nostalgia Fair in Miami, transported to us to a bygone era in Cuba.
I have just returned from my first trip to Cuba and I can confirm that the Cuba depicted at the Cuba Nostalgia Fair I attended last year, and in the stories I have heard while growing up with Cuban grandparents in Miami, very well existed many years ago — and there are remnants of it everywhere!
Although I’m Puerto Rican and now live in New Jersey, I grew up in Miami with a Cuban step-dad and a family that taught me about the only culture I am most familiar with. One ingrained in my Spanish accent, mannerisms, diet, and my two boisterous little brothers.
Dozens of old flight and land maps were displayed in an exhibit at the Cuba Nostalgia Fair.
Over the years, I have heard stories about this wonderful place that many people either can’t or won’t return to for various complex reasons. No one had a single bad thing to say about the island of Cuba, the place itself, although its government was a different story. The way they described Cuba and the old photos I saw, made it seem like paradise!
For me, however, since I was not Cuban and since American and Cuban relations were never ones of amistad during my lifetime, I never imagined that I would be able visit Cuba. (I did recently have the opportunity to visit and will tell you all about it in another post!) But I wanted to know more about this place that gifted me the only family I knew.
Last year, while visiting Miami, I came to the realization that all of my “Cuban Family'” were, in a sense, gone. Having passed on or moved away, I didn’t even have a single friend that remained from my old Cuban Family days. My visit felt a bit empty and unfamiliar. I yearned to reconnect with Miami and find new reasons to visit. It was the first time it didn’t really feel like home.
Then one night, while driving down the highway, I came across the Cuba Nostalgia billboard. I can spot the word Nostalgia a mile away! I’m attuned to find it, wherever it exists — speeding down the highway is no exception.
I decided to look it up and discovered that it was the name of the largest Cuban culture and heritage event in South Florida. The event was in its 20th year last year and advertised a taste of Cuban food, art, dance, sports, music and promised plenty of mojitos, cafecitos, and cigars to go around. Best of all it promised a trip back in time to Old Havana. It was just something I couldn’t turn down.
On the day we visit, it is raining and while there is no one milling around in the parking lot, there are plenty of cars.
The event was held at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Expo Center
We are not sure what to expect and worry whether we will immediately be pegged as the only non-Cubans in the mix. We buy our tickets and walk through the front door. Immediately we are transported.
Floors were laden with maps of Cuba which included all of its provinces and even outlined Havana’s streets.
It is hard to describe the exact era in Cuba that we are transported to, but we know it is a time remembered as a good one. There are smiles on everyone’s faces as they talk, laugh, dance, eat, and check out the various exhibits.
There are vendors showing off paintings (both modern and nostalgic representations of Cuba and its people), handmade crafts, books, memorabilia, and antiques.
Food stalls and replicas of famous old Cuban restaurants offer up traditional dishes and snack foods, while some exhibitions celebrate some of Cuba’s finest artists, musicians, and athletes.
Large scale models of iconic Cuban landmarks like the Malecón esplanade and seawall are up on display for nostalgic photo-ops (with an added touch of mock political graffiti) and giant floor maps help visitors walk upon their old cities and streets. The theme is “Celebrating all things Cuban.” Among them, it’s humor, it’s culture, and it’s baseball are featured.
Backdrop of Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro as seen from the Malécon seawall- Havana, Cuba
Backdrop of El Capitolio, or the National Capitol Building in Havana, Cuba
We chat up a particular vendor who sells old magazines, books, trading cards, games, buttons, pins, and obsolete currency. He has been collecting these for years and had a story to go with each item. He says people buy the items as keepsakes from a different time.
“Many people left Cuba with nothing. They left behind everything. They buy these things just to have something to remember a time and a place that is very special to them. A time and a place they can’t get back except in their memories. That’s what this event is about too.”
We look around at the crowd. There are people that remember a pre-Revolutionary Cuba and all that they were forced to leave behind when Fidel Castro settled into power. There are people who desperately and narrowly escaped during the Mariel Boatlift in the 1980s with nothing but the clothes on their backs and had to learn to navigate life in a new country. And there are those who risked it all on haphazardly-made rafts during the 1990s wet foot/dry foot exile.
All of them left Cuba seeking a better life and are here now to celebrate the memories and nostalgia of a place they still long for all these years later. They miss home. There is also another group of people here. Those Cubans who were born in America and who are far removed from the Cuba of the 1950s – 1990s. They only know Cuba from stories, the internet, and in the off-chance they get to video chat on Facebook or WhatsApp Messenger with distant Cuban relatives. They only know the Cuba that is represented in Miami. But at this event, they learn a bit more about their history and culture.
Even non-Cubans like me find plenty of lessons to learn here…lessons about life, struggle, determination, and hope. I had not been to Cuba yet at that time, but it was clear that people were remembering and celebrating an unforgettable place that they still had high hopes for.
Large artwork on display at Cuba Nostalgia Fair; Artist: “Carlitos”
Artist: “Carlitos”
Artists: “Carlitos”
I am thankful for that highway billboard. That is what brought me here at a time when I was missing my Cuban Family the most. I don’t know why I did not hear about the event before. But I’m here now and I wanted to share it with you.
The night ends with us feeling nostalgic for a place we have never known. A place that’s not even our own. As we sit and listen to the music, watch the people dance, and listen to the lively conversations we know now that nostalgia is universal and it transcends time. I stared at each of their faces intently, trying to memorize each one, young and old. More than ever, I wanted to someday visit Cuba and if no one here ever got the chance to return, when I set foot on their land, I wanted to recall their faces there and this day — if nothing more than for nostalgia’s sake.
Before heading out, I take a photo in front of this backdrop that is most likely a replica of a a building in Old Havana, never imagining that almost exactly one year later, I’d finally visit Cuba.
Stay Tuned…stories and videos of my visit to Cuba soon to come!
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