What's Elian's Homeland Like For Kids?
By Lou Carlozo . Chicago Tribune Staff Writer . April 18, 2000
The custody battle over Elian Gonzalez has become an international saga. And as politicians, psychologists, protesters -even his own family -- debated Elian's fate, we wondered: What's life like for children in Cuba?
Cuba may be only 90 miles off Florida's southern tip. But compared with kids in America, Cuban kids live an existence that's truly a world away. To find out more, KidNews talked to people who have visited or lived in Cuba. Here's what we found out:
SIMPLE FUN
Do you picture Cuban kids playing Nintendo, gabbing on the bedroom phone or cruising in the family car? Don't. Such pursuits are simply out of reach for Cuban youngsters.
To put it in perspective, the average Cuban family doesn't have a car, computer, phone or microwave oven. There might be several TVs under one roof, but there's nothing like Nickelodeon or the cable channels we watch.
"They (Cuban kids) just have to be real resourceful," said Joe Pixler. He visited Cuba last year as part of a church delegation with the Presbytery of Chicago. "Kids down there don't know Pokmon," Pixler said. "But they still have fun -- they make their own fun. I saw
kids making kites from pizza boxes, baseball bats out of sticks and balls out of rolled up cloth." (Baseball is a huge national pastime.)
Cuba also suffers from a housing shortage, leaving many homes uncomfortably crowded. That in part explains why Cuban kids "have much more of an outdoor life than kids in Chicago do," said Maria de los Angeles Torres, a political science teacher at DePaul University. Torres came to the
U.S. from Cuba as a child.
Luckily, Cuba has plenty of beaches and summer weather all year long. "And it doesn't have the kind of street violence Chicago does," Torres said.
STRICT SCHOOLS
For Cuban students, school is highly regimented. Boys and girls must wear uniforms, and they are required to join an organization called the Young Pioneers.
"It's kind of like a patriotic Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts," Torres said. "They sponsor after-school activities that are pretty similar to the Scouts. But it's a political organization. You have to become a member."
And what if you don't want to join, say, on religious grounds? "Then you don't have access to the after-school activities and programs," Torres said. "You're ostracized."
At age 16, Cuban boys have a choice: Spend two years in the armed forces or work on a farm. "Women also have to do something like ROTC in school, but signing up (in the military) is only for men," Torres said.
Cuba's literacy rate is above 95 percent -- a source of national pride. But school conditions are deteriorating. According to a recent report by Miami's Cuba Free Press, some schools can provide students with only one pencil per month or a single copy of a textbook per class.
SCARCITY AND RICHES
It's not just school supplies that are scarce. Basic medicines like antihistamine and Tylenol are difficult or impossible to find. And once kids reach Elian's age, they become part of a strict food rationing system. Cuba's Communist government limits how much milk, beef, rice and beans families
can buy at affordable prices. In Elian's hometown of Cardenas, even toilet paper is scarce!
Still, Cuban kids have better access to vaccinations than poor American kids do. There's also a tight-knit quality to family life that helps make up for what kids lack in material possessions. It's not uncommon for grandparents to live with their children and grandchildren or very close by.
"When you say a country is poor -- and certainly Cuba is -- you have an image of malnourishment and lack of care," Pixler said. "But I was happy to see that kids are very well taken care of by their (families)."
Torres said: "Do Cuban kids have it harder than my kids? Absolutely. Harder than someone who's living in Cabrini-Green about to get kicked out? Absolutely not." |