ht sae €conomy is not Alla ae independent May i, . »t8 Paying their anding prance and de- Vv oa alue for ) taj ene can deny that in IS were run Pi Cieng parts: The Jagua mati are0s and the In- Were j al at Varradero Bice of mainten- tha, . ">" made parts, fticg, °, ibute to the lockade, not Cuban inade- The Voth in ood Was first class Via Reeeuly and quanti- OUnd ince which an eight 7s al, “Tease in the wri- n testify. ample paunch Th . § oon i € of morning, af- | Poo} evening dips like ea @nd_ briny deep in members had i €Mselves to miss a ‘ peter in order Pate) cce Ptle oF the Pie the ig , West; the tion always asked tourier’. Which doubts ag ability to wan- n Cony Te and engage fea “sation with the dog er ace. My know- Buag, Dr € Spanish lan- Aen Of ¢ €sented no prob- e Cie Unication with a 4M man in the & true appraisal Uban mood. The oO Cubans seem t mM every way wan they were BC 8Stro) . e of © following the €ast resistance t ae Workers _al- S tourist crade— ‘ Stav. ants, night pe Oe the oldest » €tc.. where h in rere not uncom- f , © 800d old days. ‘ir tho wrists came in Bampie ends to He vana yer ®, misbehave in mj al and ré.urn to Sometimes without 4 sober breath. Win Under Communist na- tionalization, there is no room for any small private business enterprise, not even a teeny weeny travel agency such as Trueman’s in Brentwood. So if your friendly travel writer doesn’t get first prize from all quarters for truthful, fair-minded reporting, there definitely is no justice. * What is good for General Bullmoose is certainly not good for Fidel Fincero and the sooner this simple fact is realized the better for all. SIMPLE _ generaliza- tion of the complex Cuban-American situ- ation is obviously quite impossible, but from chance conversations with the ordinary Jose (Joe), it appears the situation would shave been a lot nearer normal if it were -not for one or two “sna- fus” of Texan magnitude on the part of our friendly southern neighbors. The wreckage of a U-2 reconnaissance plane is on display in the impressive Revolutionary Museum, the film of the Bay of Pigs gentleman’s_ invasion is shown continuously in the theatre at the same loca- tion and always lurking on the horizon off Havana lies the USS Oxford on station, an electronic mar- vel displacing 7,330 tons to remind the self designated free territory of America that Uncle Sam, like big brother, is watching. The vicious embargo on U.S. spare parts toward an economy built entirely to U.S. standards does nothing to mend the widening rift between erstwhile bed- fellows. This student of Latin businessman's Ourist-eye view American affairs might have agreed that once the Americans could have re- taken Cuba in 24 hours by strategic Chiclet bomb- ing, but the above men- tioned nuisance program has welded the Cuban peo- ple into a united nation as never before. This is evident from their exciting nationalistic slogans common to all so- cialist regimes: ‘‘Vencere- mos” (We Shall Win), “Patria o Muerte’ (My Country or Death), “Paz Con Dignidad’ (Peace with Dignity) and many other posters containing - excerpts from speeches by Fidel Castro and Camillo Cienfuegos. The Party, the Army and the militia are ready, as this writer can bear wit- ness. At 1:30 am. Novem- ber 18, while meandering slowly along the moonlit beach at Varradero, your friendly travel agent was commanded by a _ voice from the shadows of the palm trees to “Arriba las manos” (stick ’em up). Never have two tremb- ling hands shot skyward so fast since Dick Turpin robbed all the men and kissed all the women. Yours truly had wandered into a military zone and two efficient looking “hom- bres” appeared with burp guns at the ready to per- suade our nocturnal wan- derer to return to his hotel and retire immediately. Labor in the nationalized Cuban catering industry smacked heavily of that in- tense equality — Russian style. In a bar in Cienfue- gos, an experienced bar- tender with relatives in Canada chatted freely with this reporter for some time in the polite, friendly lan- guage of the Central Re- publics about this and that, when a waitress, obviously not so experienced, reques- ted something from the bar. In a slip of uncommun- istic camaraderie the bar- tender addressed the Cu- ban girl as “chica” (little girl) and was immediately reminded to address a fel- low worker as “compa- nera” or comrade. This, of course, is alien to the La- tin American way of life in which the church, the military, politics, class and color have played such an indelible part for so long. It is this observer’s view that a concentrated cam- paign of coercion, plus self induced communist discipline, will have to be initiated to eradicate com- pletely the mixed effects of a Spanish colonial heri- tage. The truth of the matter is, the black Cubans are on the white beaches, the working class Cubans are in the best clubs, and they will die before being rele- gated lowly status. The manager of the In- ternational Hotel used to park cars at George Raft’s Riviera Hotel and Gamb- ling Casino in the good old: days and he didn’t seem particularly anxious to resumz his old position. The Russians are there, of course, to fill the gap left by the departed Ameri- cans and to keep the es- sential cogs operating. AST Germans and Cze- choslovaks are also in evidence, not to mention the odd Britisher whose main job seems to be the maintenance of Ley- land buses and to discour- age their use as military vehicles should Fidel see fit to invade Miami Beach. to their previous ' An aerial view of Havana $100 tips in the old days. Cutting the sugar cane. “An intense equality of labor.” To this observer, the whole sad state of affairs could be summed up as follows: Figuratively speaking, Cuba’s previous status was that of a high class Caribbean call girl with little rights or guaran- tees, who was genuinely fond of her affluent, influ- ential, though sometimes overbearing, sugar daddy. After the Revolution, she decided to hit Uncle Sam for the deel of the house and a cullege education for the