The Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University in Havana,Cuba

Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, in Havana, Cuba

The Cougar flag hangs proudly from a beachside cabana in Varadero, Cuba.

"C'est Cuba"

Kaitlin Gillespie,
Reporting from Havana

A dark-skinned girl in a mustard yellow skirt stands before a crowd of about 50 Cubans and American journalism students. She holds the violin to her chin, and begins to play in a competition that may mean a better future for a 15-year-old.

The notes that pour out of her violin and soul are beautiful. Someone more knowledgeable in music than I am tells me later that her interpretation of the Italian piece is advanced for her age. From my seat, the mahogany of her violin gleams in the low light of the ballroom.

"You should have been there."

Matt Benoit
Reporting from Havana

It’s a cliché, really—normally uttered when a person’s story-telling skills aren’t up to snuff, or at the least, when he or she is lazy about it.

Sometimes though, “you should have been there” is a necessary phrase, for when you want so badly for people to not just understand what you experienced, but to know it for themselves.

In this particular situation, I think, the latter applies.

It is hard, in so few words and pictures, to convey the essence of a place as overwhelmingly exotic and beautiful, so strikingly anachronistic, as the island of Cuba.

As a writer and photographer, however, that is my task: to not just re-live the trip, but to attempt to take you there with me. To a place where vintage Bel-Airs roam the streets, where the Internet is virtually non-existent, and where you can drink juice box-sized cartons of rum while walking Havana’s pot-holed sidewalks. 

 

So if just for a couple of moments, come with me. 

Taste the bitters in my mojito, smell the sweet tobacco of a freshly-rolled cigar, and feel the cooling breeze as you walk along the Malecón at night.

I’ll wield my words and flash my photos, but you must keep in mind that—no matter what you see here—the bottom line is simple:

You should have been there.

Military Marching

Stevee Chapman

Reporting From Havana

At first they sounded faintly in the distance, but as the beats steadily grew louder, it became clear that something was approaching from just down the road. The unmistakable sound of a marching band filled the air, but the melodies were not the cheerful ones I was familiar with from the parades in my hometown growing up. This music was slower, more somber, and from my perspective a little intimidating.

Claudia, Rachael and I had been on location in a small park, just outside the United States Interest Section in Havana, since before the sun rose that morning. We were working on a story that had to do with hopeful Cubans looking to be granted permission to either visit or permanently relocate to the United States.

The park was crowded as hundreds of hopeful Cubans were filtered through the interview process while their friends and family, who came to support them, waited to hear the news. We were sitting in the park under the hot late morning sun, waiting to hear if a family we’d interviewed earlier would be approved to permanently move to New York, when we first heard the drum beats.

The Paladar- A Growing Opportunity for Cuba's Entrepreneurs

Madison Horner

Reporting from Havana, Cuba

According to an old fable, Cuba’s first privately owned restaurant was opened by a woman in her home and named “El Paladar”. For years, paladar owners made profit, under their own kitchen tables, serving tourists in an economy where the average wage is equivalent to $19 per month. As Cuban President Raul Castro makes economic reforms to a socialist system that is crumbling, the paladar is one of the many types of businesses that have become privatized.

Hector Higuera Martinez, owner of the popular French eatery Le Channonsier, has been in the business for more than 20 years.  He says the reforms make it easier to run his restaurant, which is located in a renovated 19^th century Havana mansion. The private sector in Cuba still has its shortcomings.  For example, all of the markets in the city are still state run. A lack of competition and an agricultural system threatened by the black market limit the variety and availability of many food products. Higuera changes his menu every night in order to serve the French-Cuban cuisine that is popular among tourists. Higuera says he relies on friends and customers to bring him hard to find ingredients—especially spices.  Additionally, inspectors visit the paladares regularly to ensure products such as meat and produce are purchased legally. Higuera and other paladar owners must keep meticulous records in order to stay in business.

There are many paladares including Le Channsonier that have proven successful, however the restaurants are very reliant on the tourist industry.  The price of a meal is approximately $25; much too expensive for the average Cuban who earns $19 per month. Since the paladar was legalized last year, many doctors, teachers and other professionals have quit their jobs to cash in on the opportunity.  The tourist market for private restaurants is not large enough to sustain such growth. Thomas Palaia, an economics expert at the U.S. Interests section said he expects more political reforms in the future will help to sustain growth in this new private sector and stimulate the economy overall. 

The Arts of Cuba Video

Reporting from Havana, Heather Flynn 

The arts of Cuba

Strands in the Wind

Christine Ruston, Havana
May 14, 2013

HAVANA- Dinner at the docks near Hemingway’s museum satisfied my need for cuisine familiar to my American stomach: Pizza. No meat, no diced vegetables, just dough and cheese and a thin slathering of marinara. Contented and relaxed bumping away in the backseat of a taxi with a speedometer perpetually reading nine kilometers per hour, we pulled next to another car with a family and a three or four year old girl waving in the back. As the wind from the Malécon coiled her light-brown hair around her face like a cobra, her smile forced the corners of my own mouth to turn up in return.

What's the point of education?

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Making my way back from dinner in the streets of Havana, I ran into four children between ten and eleven years of age.  These children ran freely through the streets, barefooted and shirtless. They seemed to be lost in their own world, a world full of happiness and free of social problems.

Happiness; that is the standard that defines the Cuban people. Who despite any obstacle, any limitation continue to smile and embrace their difficulties.

FOREIGN JOURNALISTS LIMITED IN CUBA

FOREIGN JOURNALISTS LIMITED IN CUBA

By: Alicia Taisey

Edward R. Murrow College of Communication

HAVANA, CUBA _­When a foreign journalist receives an assignment in Cuba, his task can seem limited by the Cuban government, whose local reporters cannot stray from regulations imposed by the state.

Although foreign reporters, with audiences outside Cuba, do not have to adhere as tightly to regulations as their local counterparts, they still feel the weight of the state bearing down.

A Defector's Reflections

Adam Lewis

HAVANA -- Kendrys Morales and Enrique Diaz Martinez used to be teammates. It's the only connection remaining between the Cubans, formerly of Havana's Los Industriales, nine years after each made a decision that took their lives in different directions.

Night Moves

Matt Benoit
Reporting from Havana

 

Havana's El Capitolio is seen amid the city at night.

Havana, Cuba is not a city most people would compare to Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Yet during my time here, I find it is not a stretch to do so. After all, not only can you wander the streets with open containers of alcohol, but people will also routinely offer you prostitutes and/or drugs.

It is a lively and potentially dangerous nightlife, one that the majority of our group decides to investigate on our first full night in Havana by piling into taxis and visiting a local nightclub.

Initially, I feel this is “not such a good idea,” by which I more specifically mean “an idea that might ultimately result in being kidnapped, blindfolded, and exchanged for black market petroleum products.”

After several drinks at the lobby bar to improve my decision-making abilities, however, it seems a much more sensible idea.

A foreigner on familiar land

Kaitlin Gillespie,
Reporting from Havana

I’ve never felt more like a stranger than when I was a foreigner in my own country.

As I stepped through the gates of the airport, my ears and eyes tingled with the familiar sound of a foreign language. Announcers shouted instructions over the intercom, first in Spanish, then in English. TSA signs were emblazoned with bold Spanish. It was as though I’d already stepped into Latin America, but I hadn’t. I was still on United States soil, in an airport where my sleep-deprived brain saw it more like Guantanamo Bay by the time our seven-hour delay in Miami was over.

No Phone? No Problem.

“We’re finally on the plane. Hope to take off soon. This will be our last communication until we return to Miami in 10 days. Happy Mother’s Day. We love you all.”

I sent this text to my wife Tori's parents and my family before we left the Miami International Airport for Havana before powering down my phone for our flight. When we landed about an hour later, my iPhone had been reduced to a camera, note-pad, and voice recorder. Not too shabby, but far from the icon of connectivity it is back in the states.

Without cell-service, the "Maps" app on our
iPhones was useless. so we took pictures like
this one from guide-book in case we got lost.

Viva La Digital Revolucion

Thomas Pankau
Backpack Journalism—Cuba
May 25, 2013
                                                Viva La Digital Revolución

Cuba is a land of revolution.  From the country’s 19^th century wars for independence from Spain to the communist takeover in the late 1950s and the support of guerilla movements in Latin American throughout the Cold War, revolution has been and continues to be a concept familiar to all Cubans.  It pervades the many forms of government propaganda while the Cuban people publicly show their adoration for revolutionaries like Jose Marti and Che Guevara.  “Revolution” has become a source of collective pride for Cubans, as an integral part of their country’s history.  But there’s a certain revolution the Cuban government won’t embrace—the digital revolution. 

The rise of a new revolution

Claudia Ramos

Reporting from Havana

It is approximately 5 in the afternoon in Cuba, and it seems as though it is only past midday. It has been a long day of walking and touring old Havana, but I am fascinated! Walking through the crumpling buildings of the ancient city, I encounter all types of scenarios. From an old woman sitting on the edge of the sidewalk asking for some coins to a father picking up his daughter from school. People selling “churros” (sugar coated fried bread) and “empanadas” (a typical treat in Cuba) and a child carrying around a wheelbarrow with some rocks.

Rebuilding Old Havana

Nick Dettorre
Reporting from Havana


It is believed Christopher Columbus once described Havana as the, “loveliest land ever beheld by human eyes.” Today, much of the old city is in ruins. Years of neglect and unfortunate weather have reduced many of the buildings in the heart of Havana to rubble. In some cases, facades stand as an empty reminder to 16th and 17th century (or colonial) architecture that once stood proud along cobblestone streets.

A building in a densely populated Havana neighborhood, reduced to rubble on the street. More than two-million people live in Cuba’s capital city, many in buildings that may end up one day like this one.

However, there is some truth in Columbus’ words. Parts of the city are under renovation, and the students tasked with the job are using many of the same techniques that built the city Columbus encountered more than 500 years ago.

Glorias del beisbol

Matt Benoit
Reporting from Havana 

If you’re a sports fan, one of the greatest highlights of going to Cuba is attending a Cuban baseball game.

In our time here, several members of our group were able to take in two games—the first and last in a three-game playoff series between Industriales, Cuba’s most successful baseball franchise, and Isla del la Juventud.

 

The games were held in Havana at Estadio Latinoamericano, the blue-hued home of Industriales. Outside the stadium, a large billboard frames Fidel Castro’s words between a Cuban flag and a baseball.

A Misleading Paradise

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Sitting on the window seat of our tour bus on our way to the Varadero beach, lost in the beautiful scene I have of the countryside of Cuba, I cannot help but think of the millions of opportunities that young Cuban people are being deprived of.

On January of 1959 and after a 7-year campaign, rebel leader Fidel Castro arrived triumphantly to Havana. Overthrowing the corrupt regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro introduced radical social changes in Cuba, nationalizing schools, hospitals and industries, making Cuba the only communist state in the Americas. Under Castro’s leadership, Cuba seemed to be a dreamland and people celebrated the achievement of the revolution.

The streets of Havana; a playground

Heather Flynn
Reporting from Havana

In todays’ day and age it is rare to see children in America playing alone outdoors, especially in cities. A lot of children spend time consumed with television, the Internet, or video games. There are numerous advantages to the world of technology we are living in, but sometimes it makes me wonder, what are we giving up when we embrace this technology-crazed generation. Traveling to Havana, Cuba was as if I had taken a trip back to a simpler time, before human interaction was replaced with cyber space relationships. Everywhere we went people were outdoors talking and interacting with each other. Older people would sit and socialize, drink beer, or play games. At night time the Malacon, Havana’s biggest social gathering location would be crawling with people young and old, all interacting and spending time together. Everywhere we went, children could be spotted crouching and playing games in the dirt, or chasing each other up and down the crowded streets of Havana.

 A group of us students meandered down a side street one afternoon and came across three small boys that couldn’t have been older than six or seven. Two of them shirtless, and all three playing on a large metal dumpster with a slanted lid providing the perfect angle for a slide.  One child would climb to the top of the metal and slide down and the other boys would follow suit. They were cheerfully talking and laughing, as they would race to get to the top before their pals. When we began to take pictures they really started showing off, standing on top and posing for the camera. They held up their arms making “muscle man” poses and showing us their muscles. There were no parents in sight, but this didn’t seem to phase the children. 

    Brittany Cardoza poses with three Cuban children on the streets of Havana

Another night after dinner we were walking the streets of Havana looking for a market to buy some water. Turning a corner I was almost run-over by a shirtless boy, about age 11, sprinting up the street. Shortly after 3 more boys joined him, all breathing heavy and panting from running.

Havana, a seductive city

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Havana, a seductive city

Walking through the streets of old Havana, it’s inevitable to be trapped by the sun, the music, the culture, and the still vibrant revolution of Cuba.

Founded in the 16^th century by the Spanish conquistadors, today Havana is home to more than 2 million people. Standing on the edge of the famous Malecon, from this distance the city looks like anywhere else, but Havana is like few other cities in the world. This revolutionary city is truly alluring, its mix of colonial architecture, rum and sea, give the city an unexplainable romance the catches your eye from the get go.

In every corner of the city you can feel the spirit of the biggest island in the Caribbean. Trumpets, children running through the streets, and women dressed in colorful dresses moving to the beat of Guantanamera. In Havana you cannot avoid a cup of coffee, a mojito, or a cigar, it’s the essence of this ancient city.

A city where buildings appear to be falling apart, where taxicabs from the 50’s pass by, and where it is common to see a woman hang clothes from a balcony. Meanwhile I listen to the festive melody of “La vida es un carnival” (life is a carnival) being sung to me by an old man sitting on the edge of a cracked sidewalk, I cannot believe I am in this "prohibited island."I continue to stroll down the street and as I look around I cannot avoid smiling back to the people who kindly smile and welcome me to their home; one of the most seductive, elusive places on earth, La Havana, Cuba.

The Rise of Cuban Soccer

Tenzin Choephel
Reporting from Havana

El Estadio de Jose Marti is one of many local stadiums where the Cuban youth play soccer. While baseball is Cuba's national sport, soccer is starting to challenge its popularity. Take a glimpse into the current status of Cuban soccer.

Tales from a Taxi

Tales from a Taxi

Stevee Chapman

Reporting from Havana

Perhaps the most touching story of my time in Cuba began on the second night of our trip. After dinner, many of the other journalists and I decided to get to know each other a little better through a night on the town. While there are probably a few stories that could be told from the few hours of dancing at a Cuban club, this story begins on the taxi drive back to the hotel.

Baseball, Not Just an American Sport

Megan Clark
Reporting From Havana

Baseball, Americas’ sport, in this case though it was Cuba’s sport! The sounds filled up the stadium before you even walked in, before entering I thought there must have been thousands of people there because of the noise. By the looks of it, you would’ve thought we were at the Mariners game because of the amount of people. But the cheers and dedicated fans made you realize we were in a different place. These fans were not the fair weather fans that we are used to; they stick with their team through the ups and downs of the season.

The sound of horns and cheers erupts and the crack of the bat sends a ball flying into the outfield.

"Where are you from?"

Stevee Chapman

Reporting from Havana 

Walking through the streets of Havana, it is so obvious we are foreigners we may as well have a flashing neon sign suspended above our heads. While most of the locals wear old worn clothes, we parade around in our new colorful dresses and tops, some of which may have been recently purchased specifically with this trip in mind. As we explore, our top-of-the-line cameras are out at the ready, prepared to capture any moment that comes our way. What Cubans see as everyday life, we view as a valuable experience that needs to be captured and immediately shared upon return to the United States.

Revolutionary Cuba

Thomas Pankau, Reporting from Havana

 

Gracias

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Christine Rushton
Havana

May 15, 2013

Walking toward the stairwell one morning after breakfast, a graying woman tilted her head in a greeting nod as she held the door open out of courtesy. I stepped through and smiling, opened my mouth to thank her. Silence filled the doorframe as I my mind fumbled to find a language. Gracias, thank you, merci, grazi, spasibo; we had met so many non-Cuban foreigners during the trip that my mind had started to think in French, make decisions in English, and speak in Spanish.

“Cuba-Love is The Meaning” Artwork, Coffee, and Possibilities for the Passionate"

Madison Horner

Reporting from Havana

 

Thursday, May 16^th

The whistling espresso machine and sharp smell of freshly roasted coffee beans almost made me forget I was in Havana as I sat on the patio at Café Escorial in La Plaza Vieja.  Unlike the other local cafes that can’t seem to shake the smell of raw sewage lingering in the damp humid air— all with menus limited to the usual pizza, fish,

mojitos and sparkling water—Café Escorial has a Western European feeling and sells the novel Cuban coffee.  Tourists from around the world looked at maps and read guidebooks as they sipped cappuccinos on the patio. Inside, a few privileged locals waited in line to have a bag of beans ground to take home.  In the square in front of me, school children sang and danced, and the people around seemed exceptionally hopeful this morning.

A Nation Waiting for Redemption

Madison Horner
reporting from Havana, Cuba

A Nation Waiting for Redemption

Sunday, May 12^th

As we passed fields of palm trees scattered along vacant countryside on our way to Varadero on Sunday, our tour guide educated us on Cuba’s “Special Period”. In the nineties, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the country suffered a severe economic downturn.

The Arts

Megan Clark
Reporting from Havana

The arts are so important to the Cuban people. It is not hard to see this right away. As you are walking down the streets in Havana you are surrounded by paintings, sculptures, dancing, singing, and so much more. You are submerging yourself in a whole other world, it is unlike anything I have ever seen. The paintings are filled with such detail and emotion, you feel like you are in that place and time. The streets fill up with dancing at night time as you are listening to music being played at a restaurant. Whether it’s children dancing in the street during the day trying to practice for their dance class, people dancing in the street while enjoying the music being played all around, or everyone enjoying the music and dancing at a club, the Cubans’ love to dance! Our tour guide said whenever he hears music he feels the need to move his hips and dance. Over the period of the trip I began to see the arts play a major role in the life of the Cuban people. It is a way of allowing them to express how they are feeling in a way that they can.

A place for tears and hope

  by Arianna Kemis 

 

HAVANA, Cuba—It begins at 5 o’clock every morning. Hundreds of Cuban citizens gather at a public square known as the Weeping Park awaiting their final interview that will grant them entry visas to the United States.

Chocolate Paradise

Jasmine Goodwin

Reporting from Havana

HAVANA, Cuba - During a tour of the numerous plazas and shops located in central Havana, we had the opportunity to make a stop at the Museo Del Chocolate. It was by far one of my favorite, delicious food moments during my Cuban adventures. 

The Museo Del Chocolate specializes in chocolate - and only chocolate. I visited the shop three times during my time in Havana, and each time there was a chance to view the chocolate being made into various shapes, sizes, or even flavors being added for unique candy and other treats. 

My favorite menu item was a simple drink called "cold chocolate." It tasted similar to a melted chocolate milkshake, and it also came with a friendly price tag: just one CUC per glass. To learn more about the Museo Del Chocolate, view the video below:

Why it changed the way I eat:

Experiencing cold chocolate has set a high bar for any future consumption of chocolate milk or milkshake. 

The Real Havana

Thomas Pankau
Reporting from Havana


My academic work for the day was done: I had just finished helping fellow students, Claudia and Jasmine with their news pieces when we began to head back to our hotel from the middle of Havana. We passed by stray animals, musicians playing money for tips on the streets, and children playing soccer with a deflated ball and shoes that were falling apart. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't clean, but it was Havana as the average Cuban knows it.

Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly Different Game - Saturday, May 11th

Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly different Game Saturday, May 11th   “El Triunfo Estara En La Suma Del Esfuerzo de Todos.”  In English, it means triumph is the sum of all our struggles.  The billboard is only one of the many examples of the socialist propaganda that decorates Cuba and appears outside El Estadio Latina Americano, the city’s main baseball stadium.

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Los Industriales- Athletes Playing a Slightly Different Game

Madison Horner
reporting from Havana, Cuba
 Saturday, May 11^th

  
 “El Triunfo Estara En La Suma Del Esfuerzo de Todos.”  In English, it means triumph is the sum of all our struggles.

The billboard is only one of the many examples of the socialist propaganda that decorates Cuba and appears outside El Estadio Latina Americano, the city’s main baseball stadium.