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MARIO J. TORRES
The Price of the chosen
ones
Part 2
Transportation, driving directions and city knowledge:
In Cuban cities driving may be optional because places are near, the weather
is never cold and people can walk, cycle, or take the bus and besides few
people have cars, mostly due to the disaster Castro has created in the
island. In the US, on the contrary, due to long distances, the rush, the
number of jobs a person may have, the weather and their easy purchase,
buying a car is a primary need and here once again many good jobs have been
lost due to the lack of reliable means of transportation. Most Cubans have a
tough time in learning how to drive in a much heavier traffic than that of
Cuban cities with expressways as the greatest challenge for inexperienced
drivers, also in buying the car where they can easily be deceived by dealers
due to lack of knowledge on mechanics, on the law and rights or on the
language, in understanding traffic signs, the driving evaluators or the
police, in getting directions to go to places and after learning how to
drive, the foreign driver has to learn the city, where to go, when to turn,
avoid getting lost or having an accident and this is usually learned the
rough way by almost literally bumping your head against the wall. Also
things like car insurance or no-warranty will be new to Cubans. Deceit by
ignorance may be seen in many fields as in car or house purchases, bill
payments, internet offers, payments in advance for false prizes won or for
work-from-home promises, slamming and long distance phone charges,
inexistent fees, hidden harmful truths, bad credit cards offers and the easy
false use of the word FREE to cheat foreign customers to take advantage of
foreigners' low educational level at times, their lack of knowledge of the
American law in all fields and the rights they have to defend themselves or
sue someone and mainly of the absence of a person who speaks English.
Competition:
The repercussions of these changes also bring about two fast races in the
new life: one to see who has more or is doing better in a never-ending
competition of taking advantage of all the time lost and the second: who
knows more of the so many things that need to be acquired in the new land as
to technology, mastery of the new language, driving and traffic, knowledge
of the law and rights, directions to go to places etc, and unfortunately,
modesty has run away from the behavior in these fields of many undesirable
"know-it-all" wise characters.
Old fears:
The effects of the new life are so many that in some cases, who knows if for
an old and prevailing fear of so many years of repression, some Cubans, even
though they know they are in a land where freedom of expression is
practiced, are still reluctant at times, mainly in the beginning stages of
their lives in the new country, to openly express themselves against the
dictator, thinking that someone will hear them and turn them in as in the
old times in the island.
Racial issues:
In some regions of the north, where Americans are not used to seeing
foreigners and for a normal dual phenomenon of Americans' pride and
understanding of their power and their knowledge of the degraded situation
of Cubans, fleeing in rafts from the island and other miseries, including
the clumsiness of some in dealing with the new trends, their difficulty in
understanding and speaking English and even for the foreign accent of the
ones who manage to speak it, there is a lot of prejudice against newcomers
who are regarded as inferiors, savage people or real alien monsters in all
the subtle paths of discrimination or in the best of the cases completely
ignored or treated with a strange type of professional hypocrisy, no
hospitality and no concern.
In many occasions and fortunately not always, when relationships are
established between foreigners and nationals, the latter may use a
"thank-me-for-treating-you" style and the former, due to a real and material
inferiority feeling, also treats the national from a lower position.
This is the price of "breaking the ice" in communities where Americans had
never before seen or dealt with foreigners and therefore a natural
phenomenon, so a comparison with Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball
player in Major Leagues can be made in the moral deadballs newcomers have to
endure.
Cubans have had to quit jobs due to lack of communication because no-one
talks to them or answers their greetings even though they can communicate in
English and for other unfair and unequal treatment or wrongful decisions due
to discrimination issues. This brings about a sad sensation of isolation,
loneliness, emptiness and despair throughout 8 hours of work every day which
become a torture in many cases. This emptiness and isolation are reflected
also in many social activities in which the foreigner does not fit due to
many reasons. Sometimes even when the nationals are not to blame and are
willing to communicate, there are no points of mutual interest to share in a
conversation.
Sometimes, discrimination is the reflection of jealousy for thinking that
Cubans are going to invade or steal nationals' jobs, culture, language or
position as intruders from nowhere and instead of incorporating the new
culture as potential customers for their businesses, they tend to reject
them with a great lack of mind-broadness. At times they are not trusted or
thought of as decent or honest people and in any encounter with the police,
they are most of the times be treated as guilty and in matters of law or
work demands they are likely to lose because of their status even though the
posted signs in black and white say something else.
Fortunately, this is not seen in all cases since it depends on regions and
specific types of people but the general phenomenon does exist.
Budget administration:
The lack of knowledge on the administration in the normal policy of
consumption due to purchasing power and the abundance of food, household and
first need articles becomes a dangerous factor because some families become
overloaded with bills and credit cards debts which have led many to
bankruptcy. Taxes, also unknown in the island, give the newcomer a bad
welcome. Besides, the economical pressure and need of families left behind
in the island, which regard their relatives overseas as rich and the
commitment to help them and send them money conspires against the healthy
economy of immigrant households,
which have a tough time in stabilizing their economy and being economically
free also because they generally have bad jobs with a low pay and sometimes
they are forced to take up more than one to be able to afford a decent
standard of living. In many cases many immigrants live to work and the
absence of those hard working habits from Cuba bring out excess tiredness,
muscle pains and frustration.
Previously mentioned factors about knowing the language, technology, city
directions, having a reliable means of transportation or validating foreign
credentials in the US prevent newcomers from getting good jobs and slow down
their improvement.
Entertainment:
For the ones who do not speak English, entertainment is limited to a
Hispanic channel but radio, newspapers, music, magazines, movie theaters and
other shows are all in English, so not understood by the Hispanic families.
Except for some Hispanics who are rock lovers, the rest long for their music
in Spanish and their fast "salsa" dances. Eating out is another way of
entertainment although it goes against their pockets. Young people, who, by
the way assimilate changes faster, have to face the new trend of dating,
which does not exist in the Spanish culture, in which in order to go out,
couples have to be engaged first. Besides young men must be careful with not
crossing the line of sexual harassment, present in the US but not in Cuba
where men can express their preferences for a woman more openly without that
danger. The "bi-national" couple must also encounter the tough task of
understanding and accepting each one's cultural features.
( to be continued)
MARIO J TORRES
FEBRUARY 2004
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