Saturday, August 25, 2007

Habana...Libertad


Usually I see fishing boats named after women...maybe a mother or wife...a daughter or a lover. But this one named his "Liberty"...does the fisherman feel some sense of freedom when on his little island?
My grandfather was a fisherman...he was a courageous, strong man and had an quiet endurance in life. When we would go fishing...he knew where to go based on landmarks and looking into the water...we would always embark at dawn and by noon had a cooler full of fish...all caught with a hand line attached to a "cuban yo-yo" a round implement that is used to hold the line. I would feel the line with my finger and could feel the fish biting...once it grabbed that bait I would jerk the line...set the hook and pull the fish in. It's a good memory...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eloquent photos of Cuba. You're based in Miami, and travel to Cuba to get these powerful images. Glad you are able to do that. Shouldn't everyone in the United States be able to visit the island? I've visited often and think everyone should be able to go.

My father and his parents lived in Cuba during World War II. He took me to see it in 1956 as well. It's a beautiful country today as well, despite its many problems.

Thanks,


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California.

Roy Llera said...

I agree that everyone should be able to visit Cuba...as soon as all Cubans can visit the rest of the world. That they can decide for themselves what direction their lives will take without being told what, where, how and when...I think Cuba would not be able to handle the rush of tourism that would be created if Americans were allowed to travel to Cuba now. Besides who would benefit from this opportunity...after more than 10 years of solid growth in the tourisn sector...consistently over two million a year the past couple of years...the only way it has affected the majority of Cubans is to feed the mechanism that represses the majority of the population.