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The Center for Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation in Bogotá

A monolithic concrete building stands in park-like venue.
Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación
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February 9, 2026
The Center for Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation mostly focuses on atrocities and assassinations that happened in Bogotá during Colombia’s violent history of the last decades.

Here’s a description of the Center from Spaces of Restorative and Transitional Justice :

Background information:

In Colombia, transitional justice is understood as a set of mechanisms, both judicial and extra-judicial, that guarantee the rights of the victims of the internal armed conflict. These mechanisms were incorporated into the countries constitution in 2017 and is officially referred to as the Integrated System for Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación Y No Repetición. This integrated system is composed of three institutions:
– Peace Tribunal (Justicia Especial para la Paz)
– Truth Comission (Comisión de la Verdad)
– Search Unit for Disappeared People (Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas)

Is this space designed/arranged for safe listening?

Yes, it has private rooms for attention to victims of the conflict.

Is restorative justice actually taking place in this space?

No, but it has the potential to become a site for these practices.Some public encounters between victims, civil society and Ex-Guerrilla members have happened in this space. In March 2018, The Center of Memory in Bogota was the space where women victims and ex-guerilla members held an emotional meeting to share life experiences during the war. The victims agreed that their role was not an obstacle to agree on the need to rebuild the social fabric, seeking to transform the past into opportunities for the future.

Who is the audience/the intended participants for this space?

Conflict victims and civil society in general.

How or to what extent is this space public?

It is a public building and has public spaces but they have a visiting schedule from 8 am to 5 pm. Monday and Sunday closed.

What are the politics of this space, either in terms of its location, design, spatial, or visual aspects?

It is an important space for documentation of conflict and generation of collective memory. The center states the importance of Social memory as a transitional justice tool. As a result of a public contest of architecture, the project of Juan Pablo Ortiz architects, established a meaningful and emotional relation with the victims, as part of the initial stage of the construction process. From the beginning of the project, a deep respect for the memory and unique conditions of the place were established as a priority. For this reason, the construction of the Center started with a series of community activities that included the participation of more than two thousand people.

Different collectives that represented the affected populations of the Colombian internal conflict were called to perform ten symbolic actions. A total of 2600 individuals gathered on the site to share their stories and to make personal contributions of soil brought from their hometowns. These contributions were storage in glass pipes that are now a visible and integral part of the building.

Physical/factual description of space:

The Center of memory is a building composed of two joined structures: a monolithic volumen made out of 200 layers of soil that represent the 200 years of independence of Colombia, and an underground section that balances the relations with the natural, urban and social surroundings. The project was intentionally built with a formal simplicity to obtain space flexibility and an easy change of use in the future.

Sustainability was a key aspect of the building design. The architects worked to generate a low impact construction that respected the surrounding historic sites. More than 70% of the building is implanted under the soil to generate the least environmental and landscape impact. The underground section includes a sequence of courtyards that enable illuminated cross-ventilated interior areas. The project is located at the grounds of a mass grave, next to the central cemetery of the city and a metropolitan park. The building honours the lives of the individuals resting in the site, and therefore looks for a deep connection with the land.

“An architecture that respects the cemetery, with silent and timeless features, with a subtle recognition throughout the park landscape is proposed” (Ortiz, 2018). The building was constructed with local, solid and long-lasting materials. A research on vernacular techniques of construction was conducted to find the appropriate matter. As limitations of construction techniques with 100% organic materials were found, the structure was built using 90% of inorganic soil and 10% of cement, in order to meet the seismic resistance rules of the city.

The building is located in one of the most deprived areas of Bogota, between el Samper and el Santa Fe neighbourhoods, near the city center. It is easily reachable by public transportation, and it became an urban connector, distributing pedestrian traffic from the park, the avenue and its surroundings. The construction of the project was completely financed by the Mayor’s Office and the Local Council. It is property of the Secretary of Government of the city that guarantees the site operation. The center has been open for ten years.

Analytical description of space:

The Center of Memory was built to create a space where memory and conflict victims were dignified. It was originally an idea of human right defenders to serve as a site that supported the culture of peace during the internal conflict. It opened its doors in December 2012, as part of the program Bogota City of Memory of the High Council for the Rights of Victims, Peace and Reconciliation. Since then, it has become a space that welcomes diversity and provides an opportunity for changing the meaning of Colombian violent history.

The center commemorates the victims of the conflict and upholds the values of peace, truth, justice and reconciliation, by offering spaces for attention and assistance to visitors. It has available spaces for teaching, community meetings, divulgation services and peace campaigns, related to the internal conflict. The mission of the Center is to provide a space for the reconciliation and transformation of collective imaginaries related to the internal conflict. Moreover, it contributes to a peace building process while making visible the different experiences of victims. The center promotes exhibitions, art performances, and collaborative initiatives that generate the creation and construction of collective memory and reconciliation.

The first thing you see when you enter the building is an interactive map, where you can see assassinations and massacres that happened around the Bogotá area. The pictures and names of the victims are matched with the locations where they were murdered. The Youtube Embed option on WordPress wouldn’t let me embed a Youtube link, so you can find it here. There’s also some great political graffiti, which I wrote about last time we were in Colombia

This collection of soil from sites of massacres and assassinations is reminiscent of the the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally called “the Lynching Museum,” which we visited on our Southern tour of U.S. civil rights landmarks. The translation of the plaque reads

THIS MEMORIAL
FOR LIFE
is inhabited by handfuls of earth
contributed by the public over seven years.
With the 2,012 glass tubes embedded in these walls, 
we symbolize more than forty thousand records
of people who were victims of murder and disappearances, 
and thousands of testimonies delivered with the earth sown with memory.
We recover voices, struggles, we make visible what has been hidden, disappeared, or silenced, because memory resists death.
Because we build the past so that dreams may return.

Translation of plaque:

EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS: DEATH AS A REWARD
The term “false positives” became popular to describe the extrajudicial executions committed by members of the National Army against innocent civilians, mostly young people from impoverished backgrounds seeking work or better opportunities for their families. These victims were presented as guerrillas killed in combat in order to inflate military statistics in the fight against insurgent groups. In exchange, those responsible received promotions, leave, decorations, and other rewards. Most of these crimes were recorded between 2002 and 2008 in different regions of the country. In the Bogotá area, the phenomenon became more notorious with victims in Ciudad Bolívar and Soacha, where an estimated 19 young people were murdered.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has documented 6,402 victims between 2002 and 2008 as part of its investigation into Case 03. As of August 2025, 182 people had been charged as the main perpetrators, most of them members of the Armed Forces and other state agents. Eighty-five percent of the members of the security forces involved have accepted responsibility. In the most advanced sub-cases concerning enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions—such as those in Norte de Santander, the Las Mercedes Cemetery in Dabeiba (Antioquia), the La Popa Battalion in Cesar, and Casanare—50 members of the security forces and third parties have acknowledged their responsibility for these serious human rights violations and breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

Besides the permanent exhibits, the museum also has classrooms for students to learn about the history of human rights abuses in the Bogota area, and revolving exhibitions. One of these exhibitions was about small rural community impacted by Bógota’s suburban sprawl. Alto Fucha has provided safe spaces for former guerrillas and their victims to meet. Translation of banner:

FUCHA: BETWEEN THE MOUNTAINS AND THE CITY
In the upper reaches of the Eastern Hills lies the Alto Fucha region, the source of the river that bears its name. This ecosystem has been affected since the mid-1980s by unchecked population growth, largely due to forced displacement. This is compounded by pressure from private and state actors to construct large-scale urban and tourism projects, which have led to further displacement, gentrification, and various forms of violence. With the deterioration of the environmental balance, natural disasters—such as landslides and mudslides—have also occurred, primarily impacting the most vulnerable population in the area.

Amid this process of territorial transformation, the construction of the National Army’s Logistics Training Battalion in the Fucha River basin not only caused serious environmental damage but also solidified a militarized relationship with the territory.

On September 12, 2024, the Specialized Forensic Analysis and Techniques Group (GATEF)
of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) confirmed the discovery of human skeletal remains within the facilities of this battalion, as part of investigations stemming from the statements of Sergeant José Leonairo Dorado, who confessed to his participation in acts of torture and other human rights violations, including the disappearance of Pedro Movilla.

In response to these events, the community has organized to defend its territory, primarily through Community Action Boards, using initiatives such as Environmental Classrooms, Eco-classrooms, and spaces like the House of Rain, where artistic, cultural, and peace education processes are developed. Likewise, collectives such as Huertopía and Endémico Andino continue working to care for nature, its healing through the recovery of ancestral knowledge, and the construction of new ways of inhabiting and organizing the city.

What can we learn from rural ways of inhabiting and remembering?

Included in the Alta Fucha exhibit were short films about the ecosystem and the residents telling their stories.

Another temporary exhibit explored Colombian trans history and other LGBTQ+ stories. Below are some of the quotations on the wall:

“They told me they were going to rape me to cure me of my effeminate nature.
That they were going to teach me how to be a real woman.”
Testimony of a trans woman displaced by paramilitaries in the Caribbean

“In the neighborhood, bodies of transvestites began to appear with signs that read:’This is what happens to you for not respecting.'”
Testimony of a resident of Medellín

“We are victims too, but we are never invited to memorial events.
“Trans activist, Bogotá

“Telling our stories is dangerous, but silence is more so.
If we don’t speak out, they will continue to believe that we don’t exist.”
LGBTIQ Collective of Valle del Cauca

“Absentes Presentes”—Those who are missing, disappeared, or dead, but present in the memories of the people. At the annual protest at the School of the Americas/WHINSEC in Fort Benning, GA, participants carry crosses bearing the names of those killed by graduates of this school. As their names are called out, the crowd sings a mournful chant, “Presente.” The translation of the plaque:

Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity that, due to its complexity, has been difficult to measure, resulting in institutional databases that frequently have inconsistent figures. This is largely due to underreporting between reported cases and those without a formal complaint. It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 people living in the city are missing; however, more than 18,000 people have declared themselves victims in Bogotá, most of them from other regions of the country.

Currently, the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) has two regional search plans involving the Capital District: one focused on the Sumapaz district and its surrounding municipalities, and a regional plan covering the rest of the districts. The latter establishes that, of the 132,877 people reported missing, 3,678 were registered in Cundinamarca between 1948 and 2016, of which
1,714 correspond to events that occurred in Bogotá. As of April 2024, there were 473
search requests.

The Observatory of Memory and Conflict (OMC) of the CNMH attributes 19.8% to paramilitaries, 13.8% to the State, and 7% to guerrillas, while the Truth Commission (CEV) identifies paramilitaries as responsible for 52.8% and the FARC-EP for 24.2%. Besides the civilian population, both members of the armed forces and insurgent groups are among the victims of this crime.

These figures have made Bogotá an epicenter for organizations and families of victims who actively search for missing persons, as well as create and promote profound processes of memory and the search for truth, justice, and reparations. Among them are the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES), the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, FUNVIDES, the Reencuentros Corporation, the Colombian Association of Victims of Kidnapping and Forced Disappearance (ACOMIDES), among many others.

What implications does disappearance have on how it is silenced, forgotten, or remembered in Bogotá? To what extent does it fuel endless searches?

This graph shows the number of kidnappings in Colombia and the locations where they have happened the most.

Outside the museum, what should have a moving collection of letters to and from prisoners, from families to the authorities, from former prisoners to their torturers, was crippled by a design flaw. The white lettering on transparent glass was almost impossible to read while the sun was shining. Bogota does have a lot of cloudy days, but this was not one of them. I fiddled with filters, contrast and other techniques to make the writing legible, but was not successful.

That night we went out to eat with friends and found this graffiti: “Beware of Sad Dog.”

Colombian Native Food and Hamnet

February 9
Gurú is a Chilean friend of Camila’s, who came to participate in a conference on Nonviolent Communication (I presume.) She works on women’s issues and teaches yoga back in Chile. Camila suggested we have lunch together at Mini-Mal a restaurant that specializes in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian cuisine.

While we waited for Camila, I used the translator on the phone to read the menu, but since many of the words were Indigenous, it didn’t help. For example: “Cured and smoked pirarucu, grilled pineapple, green chili mayonnaise, farofa, lemon ants.” (Yes, they do eat rather large ants in some areas of Colombia). A lot of the food mixed savory and sweet things together (rabbit stew in coconut milk), which I don’t enjoy. I think I ordered the empanadas, and we ordered native potatoes as a starter—all very good.

In the evening, Gurú, Camila, and I went to see the film, Hamnet, while Michael saw Marty Supreme. Gurú and I were weeping at the end, and Camila wanted to know why it had moved us so much. My Spanish comprehension is poor, and Gurú doesn’t speak much English. However, we managed to describe the tragedy of two people who were in so much pain they could not comfort each other after their son died. Gurú identified some foreshadowing events that I had missed earlier in the film.

My back was in agony after the film because of the theater seats, but it’s been a long time since I’ve wept uncontrollably at the movies.

Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson
Human in hang glider
Smoke from bomb arising above fields
Rabbi Drorah Setel
Barbra Streisand
teenage girls

That night I had three dreams:

Olivia Benson from Law and Order SVU and I were with an Indigenous tribe in the United States. I don’t remember what concern brought us there. A little boy with a hang glider-type contraption was at the periphery of a group of adults, whom Benson was talking to. While the adults were discussing things, he climbed on top of a high place and jumped. Everyone was horrified as we saw him falling, not flying, but as he got closer to the ground, he appeared to be floating. People started sliding down huge piles of dirt to him, like, mountains of dirt. We would get to the bottom of one and then slide down the next mountain. We got to the bottom, and then a bunch of us went to a camp to take showers. For some reason, I was dirtier than everyone else. There was a very long line for the showers. At some point, waiting in line, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. Teresa Nickeson, a friend from church, told me that a shower was free to use. I entered and saw there was nothing there. She pointed me to a door, and I saw a toilet. I woke up and went to the bathroom.

In the next dream, we were living in some dystopian version of the United States, even more dystopian than now. The country was at war and we could see smoke coming up from a bombing in the distance. Many people had died from a disease, especially many children.  We were visiting a couple of friends of Michael in the Midwest. He asked if we could give them some fruit, and the husband immediately began to bring out tons of produce to show that they didn’t need it. We talked about his two dead teenage daughters who have been friends with Michael’s daughter. Then, a wild-looking man came to the door, and the husband started yelling at him. He said the man could come in and get some food, but then he needed to leave. The wild man began racing around the house, acting obnoxious and mean. After the father threw him out, I found out the year was maybe 2017 or 18. I told him we’re in the year 2027 and none of this has happened. Your daughters didn’t die. And then poof, his daughters Hannah and Anna appeared wearing windbreakers. And there was no war and the smoke disappeared and I think I began seeing other things that didn’t happen. I spoke more realities into being.

I felt very empowered.

The last dream I remember, I was with our Rabbi, Drorah. We were in crowded auditorium, and Barbra Streisand was squeezing by. Drorah asked if Streisand had gotten her letter about Puerto Rico. (This was after Bad Bunny’s triumph at the Super Bowl.)  There was more to the dream than that, but it ended with me having a conversation with Drorah. Two teenage girls were giggling at the end of the table. Drorah snapped at them for being rude to me, and one of the girls said “No, we think you’re super cool, you have this, like, Goth thing about you that’s really interesting. I said “I always wished that there had been Emos back in my time because I felt very alone in high school. If there had been Emos around, at least I would’ve had a group of friends that I could have related to. I was just depressed by myself.” And the girl said, “Right! Everyone needs a group of friends who understands them.“

I talked about the dreams with my therapist when I got back. She noted that all of them, in a way, deal with theme of lost children, which might have been the influence of Hamnet.

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Starting out in Bogota with people working for peace

As I write, we are on the last week of our trip to Bogota and Ecuador. For most of the trip, we had bad access to WiFi. Also, the cellular plan Michael paid for in the States wasn’t accessible to my cellphone. After two long calls to Verizon, erasing my phone twice (because I mis-typed the new password), we finally got it working.

But that’s not why you’re here. We spent the first part of our trip with our friend Camila, who used to work at the Gandhi Center in Rochester. She has also been at the Havana Jazz festival with us twice (once with both of us and once just with Michael.) Because of her friendship with a Colombian music producer, she was able to get an invitation for our friend Danielle Ponder to sing at the festival last year.

Colombia has been at war since La Violencia began in 1948. Today, the fighting continues amongst government, paramilitary, criminal gangs, and guerrilla forces. Much of the conflict is fueled by one of highest levels of wealth inequality in the world, as well as unequal land distribution. Indigenous peoples, AfroColombians, and campesinos suffer the worst impacts of both the inequality and the violence.

Camila believes that addressing the violence in Colombia has to begin at the local level. After intensive studies in Nonviolent Communication, she concluded it will not only improve the lives of community members, but keep them from becoming manipulated by armed groups. Communities all over the country armed with Nonviolent Communication tools could hold the key to ending Colombia’s never-ending war.

Accordingly, she founded and is the Executive Director of the organization, Resuena, or “resilience,” which provides these trainings to communities. Earlier this year it became a victim of the Trump administration’s USAID cuts, which provided 90% of its funding. If you would like to support her work, you can donate via PayPal.

A female figure is on a chalkboard surrounded by affirming phrases in Spanish

Camilla also believes in affirming others and herself. She drew this figure of herself for her 43rd birthday. Some of the quotations include the following:
“Grateful for receiving and giving love for 43 years.”
“I choose to see life with the eyes of love.”
“I live in hope”
“Thank you for existing to share in the movement.”

The Ex-Guerrilla Cafe

The next morning we visited La Casa de la Paz, a cafe/bookstore run by ex-guerrilla fighters. The outside was decorated with murals and a lot of people added stickers to smooth surfaces. For example, “Las Cuchas tiene razon”—’the old women are right,” or, “Respondo Preguntas IDIOTAS a $3.000 En TikTok”— “I answer idiotic questions for 3000 pesos on TikTok.”

Deep-set doorway in brick building, On the door are dozens, perhaps hundreds of stickers.
Doorway to Casa de la Paz
Brick front of building with high cast iron fence
Mural on wall below window showing colorful topical birds.
Iron fence post covered with stickers.

Inside Casa de la Paz, they sell books, t-shirts, posters as well as fair trade coffee and other agricultural products. The Palestinian flag bears the quotation, “The weapons that kill Palestinians repress and assassinate our people.”

Room with bookshelves and a chair
The cafe sells a lot of books about books about the conflict and radical thought
A poster of a campesino woman holding a flower that says, "We are seed" in Spanish
In English, the poster says “We Are Seed”
Picture of weathered Indigenous woman
The poster says, “Our struggle is for the truth”
A selection of of hand made posters
A selection of hand made posters

Casa de La Paz also has a small cafe where people can buy beer (brewed by ex-combatants), cold drinks and light snacks. In the room with the tables and chairs, dozens of butterflies represent an assassinated ex-guerrillas who laid down their weapons for the sake of the 2016 Colombian peace agreement. As of July 2025, the UN Security Council noted that at least 469 ex-combatants had been murdered. Some were murdered by splinter guerrilla groups. A large number were killed by ex-Gaitanista paramilitaries who have gone on to become one of Colombia’s largest criminal gangs. Reasons for the murders include stigmatization, taking part in justice and truth processes, and refusal to be recruited by armed groups.

The majority of men and women who joined left-wing guerrilla groups did so because they wanted a more egalitarian, democratic society. They also wanted to protect regions from right-wing paramilitary groups. However, over the years they saw how their own commanders became corrupt. They saw how ordinary Colombians were sick of violence committed by all armed groups, and how their presence in communities could put those communities in danger.

After four years of negotiations, the Colombian Congress ratified a peace agreement and the FARC-EP, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, laid down their weapons. Some of the former combatants went to re-integration zones, where they receive an education, job training, or work assignments. Others tried to reintegrate into general society.

One ex-guerrilla, referring to the assassination of his friend by paramilitary groups in 2021 said

Jorge was my pal. He taught me how to be a good guerrillero, a good comrade. He strongly believed in the power of peace and reconciliation. I cannot understand why he was assassinated in front of his family in that bakery.…Jorge used to say to me: ‘You must believe in how peace can change the world. But to heal and be in peace, I do not need to forgive what these paramilitary groups have done to us. Jorge didn’t deserve to be murdered. After his killing, I was broken.

However, even after the killing of his friend, the ex-guerrilla remained committed to the peace process:

We are more determined than ever to comply with the peace accords – this is the reason they want to kill us. We need to defend the peace agreement. Words of reconciliation and hard work are our only weapons now. I am feeling positive. This is the best way to honor the memory of Jorge.

However, killings of the ex-combatants continues.

In 2026, Petro’s government made an agreement with two FARC dissident groups to create new re-integration zones for guerrillas who wish to take part in demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs.

Display explaining significance of the butterflies
“Memories in flight” The QR code explains the butterfly display
view of ornately decorated ceiling with butterflies hanging from it
View of ceiling
The Casa also includes a small cafe where people can buy beer, soft drinks, and light snacks

The Apostle Paul, John, and the Book of Revelation agree: Donald Trump is the anti-Christ¹

(This post was previously published on my Medium account.)

As you can see, I was not the first person to make the association.

The secular media have done their share of covering conservative Christian support of Donald Trump, while centrist and progressive Christian media wring their hands over the millions of Christians who claim to follow both Jesus Christ and a lawless, adulterous, tyrannical, heartless rapist.

As a person of faith, I am struck by how few fellow believers² have discussed the possibility that Donald Trump might be Satan’s favorite spawn, the Antichrist. Admittedly, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of historical figures have received that mantle from oppressed and disgruntled people over the millennia. Their choices have included emperors, popes, Adolf Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Saddam Hussein, Barack Obama, and Barney the Dinosaur. One could make a good case for Hitler, Kissinger, and certainly a few of the Emperors and Popes.

I John 2:18 suggests that multiple Antichrists are out and about. So couldn’t their number include Donald Trump? John continues in 4:2–3

By this, you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.³

I’ve never heard Donald Trump say he believes in the Incarnation, have you?

The Apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, refers to the Antichrist as “the lawless one.” What word better describes Donald Trump than “lawless”? He cheats on his taxes, refuses to pay his contractors, evades the consequences for sexually assaulting women and at least one child,⁴ and violates the Hatch Act, which stipulates that he must not use his political office for profit. Then there’s
•2 U.S. Code § 192, “Refusal of witness to testify or produce papers
•18 U.S. Code § 610, “Coercion of political activity.”
•52 U.S. Code § 30121, °“Contributions and donations by foreign nationals.

Paul also refers to the “lying wonders” of the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Was there ever so wondrous a liar as Trump? The Washington Post clocked him in at 30,573 lies during his first presidency, an average of about 21 per day. Note that these are just the lies he told in public, and do not count his lies before and since. Some lies have killed people. More than a million have died because of misinformation about Covid-19. The Big Lie about the 2020 election caused seven January 6-related deaths and he is currently killing representative government. I find the weird fabrications most wondrous, like his claim that windmills cause cancer or telling a crowd of Michiganders that he had received the honor of “Michigan’s Man of the Year.” He had never lived in Michigan, and no such award exists.

Paul goes on to say in 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12, that the Antichrist

practices every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.

So let’s pick that apart. Despite all the recounts, audits, and court rulings that confirm Joe Biden won the 2020 election, 70% of Republicans still believe that Trump won. They believed that Trump’s tax cuts would help the middle class. More than half believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. They believe that Critical Race Theory, which, like all Critical Theory, is a university-level discipline, is taught to elementary school children. Their denial of human-caused climate change is killing the planet, and their denial of Covid-19’s lethality, as mentioned above, killed more than a million residents of the United States and permanently disabled others. Indeed, Psychologist John Gartner has said this denial makes Trump the “most successful bio-terrorist in human history.” (Although I suspect Indigenous people might like to have a word.) Sure seem like powerful delusions to me, although I think it’s hard-hearted of God to send them these phantasms, given what the consequences are for the rest of us.

Next, let’s examine Trump’s followers “taking pleasure in unrighteousness.” As Adam Serwer noted in his seminal 2018 Atlantic essay, “The Cruelty Is the Point,” for Trump and his followers. Trump lifted the social restrictions that made their meanness unpopular. A look at pro-Trump T-shirts illustrates this point:

Trump has repeatedly advocated and condoned violence, often at rallies in front of cheering supporters. Indeed these assemblies are textbook cases of mob incitement, with zealots applauding his vicious statements about marginalized people—including immigrants, Muslims, and victims of police violence. They chant hateful rhetoric about the people he targets, and physically attack protesters. So much unrighteousness, so much pleasure.

Now we come to the Book of Revelation, where the Antichrist, referred to as the Beast, has a starring role.

Revelations 13:1 describes a beast with seven heads, and on the heads were blasphemous names. Now, I often fall far short of the glory of God. But I sincerely love Jesus and have since I was a child. When I read the Gospels, my heart still glows. That’s why when I saw these billboards and art print,

I thought, well, it’s come to this. We’re not talking about metaphorical blasphemy anymore — such as when churches promote teachings directly contrary to those of Jesus. We’re talking about actual blasphemy.

For those of you not in the know “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” comes from the first chapter of John’s Gospel. It’s referring to Jesus (i.e., the Word was God, and God incarnated as Jesus). In other words, that billboard is super-blasphemous.

And check out this tweet thread:

“Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words. “President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019

….like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God…But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019

Windsor Mann, in The Week, noted: “A couple of hours later, Trump referred to himself as ‘the chosen one.’ “Many people are saying this. Trump is beloved, even worshipped, by people who love Jesus and abhor Mexicans named Jesús.”

Revelation 13:3 goes on to say that one of the Beast’s heads has a mortal wound that was healed.

I ask you, how is it that a man can be impeached twice, lose an election, cheat his followers out of millions of dollars, boast about groping women, have 25 women credibly accuse him of rape, sexual assault, and harassmentand still be the most powerful man in the Republican party? What else would explain his ability to suffer no consequences other than a supernatural power granted by Satan?

And then Revelation 13:4 speaks of vast numbers worshipping the Beast (see billboards above) and saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’

Or, as U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham put it, “You know what I liked about Trump? Everybody was afraid of him, including me.” (Note: If people wish to alert Senator Graham to his likely eternal damnation for choosing Team Antichrist, contact him at @LindseyGrahamSC on Twitter or via his contact form.)

13:5 The Beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

People who have worked with him in the Trump organization and on his campaign scoff at the thought of Donald Trump having any religion. He has publicly claimed that he has no need to seek God’s forgiveness. Indeed, when pastors laid hands and prayed over him, he laughed at them afterward and said they were full of shit.

As far as exercising authority for forty-two months, we know that four years in office equals 48 months, but while in office, he was on vacation, some of which he said he spent working, for 32 months. On the other hand, since Trump left office, the sniveling oblations of Republican politicians show that he still exercises a great deal of authority. I’m sure we can make it all add up.

I am not an expert on who dwells in heaven, but records show that Trump has called soldiers who were captured and killed “suckers” and “losers.” He mocked the mother of a Muslim soldier who died in Iraq and suggested at a rally in Michigan that the former representative John Dingell, whose widow succeeded him in office, was in Hell. As people across the country succumbed to the coronavirus pandemic, he made light of their deaths.

13:7 Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

Who is more saintly than parents willing to leave everything they know in their homelands to protect their children from hunger and violence? Or Indigenous people laying down their bodies to prevent yet another fossil fuel pipeline from raping the earth and water sources? Or organizers fighting for their communities to have the same access to education, healthcare, security, and environmental protections that wealthier communities do? Or those who say, “Not one more Black or Brown person made in the image of God will die in police custody without the System feeling our outrage?”

13:8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life.

I think we’ve covered this part. Of course, die-hard Trump worshippers are probably about 20–25% of the U.S. population, and most of the world despises him, but let’s allow for some poetic license.

Now a second Beast appears, also called the false prophet.

13:12 It exercises all the authority of the first Beast on its behalf and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

The Republican Party? Trump’s Press Secretaries? How about Mike Pence, who tried to lend Trump’s vulgar, incoherent ramblings some gravitas? Or maybe post-presidency Trump talking about when he was president? Again, we’ll take some poetic license here. Medieval Christians linked it to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, has been suggested in the past and, more recently Barack Obama, because of course, it’s Obama.

13:13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all;

How about those fireworks Trump authorized over Mt. Rushmore, even though the National Park Service told him the danger of a forest fire was too great? Or the Trump 2020 fireworks at the Republican National Convention?

13:14 and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the Beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the Beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived;

Remember this guy from the 2021 CPAC Convention?

13:16 Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,

MAGA hats, duh. (As many people on Twitter have already discerned.)

13:18 This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

Apocalypse-watchers have associated 666 with a lot of people throughout history. “Vicarius Filii Dei,” or “Representative of the Son of God,” was a title applied to Peter, whom Catholics regard as the first pope. The numerical value of the letters add up to 666. People have also found ways to adjust the names of Muhammad, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini to fit the number 666. Famously “Ronald,” “Wilson,” and “Reagan” have six letters each.

Thomas Hartmann noted that Donald Trump’s grandfather’s name was Friedrich Drumpf. Trump’s father anglicized his name to Frederick Trump. So if we Germanize Donald John Trump’s middle name and surname, we come up with Donald Johann Drumpf: 666.⁵ Also, Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States, and unemployment peaked at 14.8% during his presidency: 45×14.8=666.

Other indications suggested by Thom Hartmann: MAGA means “sorcerer” in Latin and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, bought 666 5th Avenue.⁵ Among the evils related to that address: when Kushner fell into debt and couldn’t pay the mortgage on the property, he asked the government of Qatar to bail him out. Soon after, Saudi Arabia, which is bombing and starving Yemen all to Hell, imposed a blockade on Qatar because it has diplomatic relations with Iran (also, I’m guessing, because it hosts Al-Jazeera, which reports on Saudi Arabia’s human rights atrocities.) Kushner, an advisor to Trump, urged him to support the blockade. Qatar gave Kushner the loan. The State Department then told Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade.⁶

Of course, some textual arguments against assigning the role of Antichrist make sense. As I mentioned above, far from worshipping him, all but around .002-.003 of the world’s population despises him. And given his open disdain for people who choose to join the military, it’s hard to picture him leading the “kings of the earth and their armies” to fight a heavenly rider on a white horse and his angelic hosts, as described in Revelation 18:19.

However, if you read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, you will see that Trump preaches and models its antithesis. Egotism, violence, and never, ever forgiving anyone are foundational to his theology, such as it is. Then we have Matthew 25:37–46, in which Jesus says those who attend to the physical needs of desperate people, welcome strangers, and visit people in prison bestow those same acts of mercy on him. We need only brief reminders of Trump’s contempt for people trapped in poverty and the criminal justice system, as well as his crimes against the immigrant community to call him the Anti-Jesus Christ, or Antichrist for short.

Black and white picture of tall rectangular building
From Wikimedia commons with noir filter

And Matthew 25:41 tells us in the final days, God will say to Donald J. Trump,

You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Endnotes

¹DISCLAIMER: I have a Masters’s in Biblical Studies and believe the Book of Revelation, like the Book of Daniel, was written in coded language to provide comfort and hope to people suffering under military occupation and the egregious abuses of their human rights. (Revelation was intended for first-century Christians living under persecution by the Roman Empire, and Daniel for Jews suffering under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in the 2nd-century BCE.) But if Hal Lindsey, Frank Peretti, Tim LaHaye, John Hagee, and random people on the internet can speculate on the identity of the Antichrist, I think I have the authority to do so as well. Oh, and check out Revelation 21. Its pathos and beauty never fail to touch me.

²Thomas Hartmann is a notable exception. He does not claim to be a believer, but he makes a good case for the Antichristhood of Donald Trump. I am indebted to him for his research.

³Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

⁴‘All the Assault Allegations against Donald Trump, Recapped’. PBS NewsHour, 14 Oct. 2016, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/assault-allegations-donald-trump-recapped; Yuhas, Alan. ‘Woman Who Accused Donald Trump of Raping Her at 13 Drops Lawsuit’. The Guardian, 5 November 2016, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/04/donald-trump-teenage-rape-accusations-lawsuit-dropped.

⁵Ibid.

⁶An extreeeemely simplified description. For a better analysis, check out this article from Just Security.

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Who is the Antichrist

Donald Trump, of course!

How we spent our final days in Havana, Cuba

February 1-3, 2025
#DeportWhiteMen #WhiteMaleCrime #DeportWhiteEvangelicalleaders
We realized that we hadn’t taken a group selfie yet.

Remember how I broke my glasses when I fell on the Malecón?

Well, the glasses hung on until we were able to find a place where I who could get them fixed. The eyeglass repairman cut the shank and used it to build an entirely new hinge. Because of the U.S. embargo, Cubans have to make things out of whatever materials they have on hand. Below are photos of the repaired hinge and the unbroken hinge.

Judy was feeling better, so she and Ken did their own trip to the artesanias marketplace. They made some major purchases.

For dinner, five of us went to Topoly, a Cuban-Iranian fusion restaurant. I remember liking what I ordered, which was more toward the Iranian end of the spectrum, but what really impressed me was the interior decorating.

On the left there is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez quotation, “You can be just a person [word obscured], but to some people, you are the world.” To its right, Polo Montañes’ quote translates as, “I was able to go up to heaven to bring down a lot of stars.” (Probably loses something in the translation.)

In the next panel, Pablo Picasso says, ” Everyone wants to understand the painting. Why don’t we try to understand the song of birds?” José Martí weighs in with “Exaggerated (grandiose? pompous?”) friends are worse than enemies.” And Bob Marley reminds us, “Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.”

The final panel is a verse from a poem or song:
Where are you my friend?
Exactly where are you?
Where are you without me?
Without me where are you?
Come to heal my wound…

To Fernando and Ramón/ Friends forever

That evening, Michael, Ken, Judy, and Camila attended a performance of the Hermanos Abreu, who had played earlier in the week at the Colombian Embassy. These are two young Cuban brothers, whose father is a well-known Cuban musician. Michael thinks they may have potential to become famous outside of Cuba because of their talent.

The next day, we visited the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Memorial. Dayamí had told us at prior to Danielle’s performance on Tuesday that all Cubans learned in school about their execution after a show trial during the McCarthy era. We had not expected a Cuban in their forties to be aware of this part of U.S. history, since most people in the U.S. are not aware of it.

The writing on their memorial reads, “For peace, bread, and roses, let us face the executioner. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg/ Assassinated 19-6-1953.” We observed the Jewish custom of putting stones on the memorial.

After the Rosenberg Memorial, and a pause to admire a couple of skilled police officers directing traffic at the difficult intersection near the Memorial (during an electrical blackout), we made our way to the Plaza of the Revolution. Fidel Castro and other political figures held rallies with more than a million Cubans attending, particularly on May 1—Labor Day for everywhere else in the world besides the United States—and July 26, an anniversary of the Cuban revolution. Popes John Paul II and Francis also led huge outdoor masses there. The sculpture on the side of the Ministry of Communications is Camilo Cienfuegos, possibly the most popular figure of the Cuban revolution after Castro. The words on the sculpture translate to “You’re doing well, Fidel.”

The sculpture of Che Guevara on the Ministry of the Interior bears the quotation, “Until victory, always.”

The monument to José MartÍ was erected under the regime of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Significantly larger in scale than the memorial to Martí in Manhattan’s Central Park, shown on the bottom right, the monument generated a number of controversies. Batista displaced people in a neighborhood bordering the plaza to build it and tore down a chapel erected by Catalonian immigrants in 1921. Seems on brand for Batista. Also, I don’t think Martí would have approved.

I think I mentioned that Cuba’s famous antique cars park at tourist destinations. We decided we would splurge and ride back to our apartment in one for Ken’s sake. Turns out every single one of them was booked by what appeared to be a German tour group. So it was a cocotaxi for us, once more.

Since cars have the same impact on me as sports do (aside from Ravi, my Toyota hybrid, who does his best to keep me safe while I’m driving), I wandered across the street. On the top left is the view from where the cars were parked. To the right of that picture, is a closeup of Cuba’s National Library and a billboard with a cut-out of Fidel Castro saying, “Faithful to your ideology, teaching, and example.” The bottom left gives a clearer view of the library’s sign: “José Marti National Library of Cuba.” While he might not have appreciated Fulgencio Batista’s monument, I think having a library named after him would have pleased Martí.

The tree with different colored flowers in three of the bottom photos intrigued me. An internet search revealed its identity as Hibiscus Elatus, or Blue Mahoe. The flowers change color as they mature, from yellow, to orange, to red, to crimson. Artisans prize the wood for cabinet making and carvings.

Later we went to the Doña Alicia Restaurant, which, while recommended in travel guides, served us piña coladas with bad milk. We also had to order using QR codes, which was annoying.

In the evening, Ken, Judy, Michael and Camila went to the Cuba Vive gala at the Karl Marx Theater which featured Cuban musicians performing the best of Cuban music. Afterwards, they went to the National Theater to attend a performance of a Buena Vista Social Club cover band.

The next day we flew home. We got up early, but the flight was late. The airline instructed the airport restaurant to serve lunch to the passengers, but instead of sandwiches or something simple, they cooked full meals, which meant half of the passengers got nothing. On the plus side, the restaurant used compostable eating utensils. The final photo shows a book rack at the Havana airport.

Reflection

As I look back at the January-February trip, I realize I had shut down emotionally for much of it. The meds I am on do a good job of stabilizing my mood, so I haven’t experienced despair or anxiety attacks for a long time. But I also realized recently that it’s been a long time since I experienced joy.

Certainly seeing Cuba deteriorate because of my country’s inhumane policies toward Cuba and its people is enough to depress anyone. I couldn’t forget the USA’s continuing slide into fascism, although part of the reason we came to Cuba included skipping all the nonsense that we knew would occur after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Forgetting my computer at the TSA checkpoint probably didn’t help.

In the coming months, as we resist the evils our government is inflicting on vulnerable people, perhaps we would do well to remember the Cubans we met who, in spite of increasing deprivation, manage to enjoy each other, remain proud of their history, and who always, always, remember to keep dancing.

Visit to Jose Martí’s Natal Home Plus….

January 31, 2025

In the morning, we visited the birthplace of José Marti, which, if we are going to keep up the analogy, is a considerably more modest place than the plantation house where George Washington was born. The sign reads “José Martí was born in this house (on) the day (of) 28th of January 1853. A tribute of the emigration (to) Cayo Hueso –literally, “Island of Bones,” aka Key West. In other words, Cuban emigrants to Key West paid for the refurbishment of Martí’s home. (Those who live there are largely descendants of those who fled the Cuban uprising against the Spanish in the 19th century. Their attitude toward the Cuba is different from that of more recent immigrants. Because of Border Patrol harassment, they seceded from the U.S. in 1983 and became the Conch Republic.

Picture shows Jose MartÍ dying in battle. He is wearing a suit, and is on a white horse. A chestnut (auburn) horse is rearing up on his hind legs. The rider's hat floating in the air, showing he has just fallen to the ground.
This is the famous picture of Martí dying in battle—usually shown in black and white. Two things that caught my eye: Martí appears to be wearing a suit, and the guy on the other horse holding onto the reins has lost his hat.

Starting at the top left, are photos of Martí’s mother and father. He had seven younger sisters, two of whom died when he was a child. I’m assuming the middle shows the five who survived. If you look at the genealogy tree, you will see that four of them had a lot of descendants. Martí had one, possibly two, children

Bottom left shows Martí as a schoolboy with his teacher. At the San Acleto school he met Fermín Valdés Domínguez, who would become his colleague in revolutionary enterprises. To its right is a photo of María García Granados y Saborío, known as the “Girl from Guatemala” in Martí’s poem. The two met after Martí was already engaged to Carmen Zayas Bazán, whom he compares unfavorably to the Girl from Guatemala in his poems. María died young of a lung disease—or heartbreak—as some would prefer to believe.

Carmen did not approve of Martí’s political activities, chiefly because they didn’t bring in money. She also did not want to live in New York, where Martí was living in exile, so she took their son back to Cuba, raised him to pledge loyalty to Spain, and to despise his father. In my slapdash research, I did not find whether she knew about Martí’s other mistresses. The frame to the right of the “Girl from Guatemala” has a picture of Martí’s son, José “Pepito” Martí Zayas Bazán and his father, when he came to visit Martí in New York.

The last frame shows Carmen with a grown up Pepito. The document shows that he outgrew any sympathies for Spain and fought for Cuba’s liberation. Note the signature of General Calixto Garcia Íñiguez, who fought in three wars for Cuba’s independence from Spain, promoting him to Second Lieutenant. The last photo on the right show refers to his time serving as Secretary of War and Navy.

I was playing around with the edit feature because I wanted to remove some of the glare on the glass. Trouble is, I removed Pepito’s face in the process: sort of like that woman in Borja, Spain, who wanted to improve the “Ecce Homo” fresco.

All in all, most of the museum was photos relevant to Marti’s life. It reminded me of the small civil rights museums we visited in the southern United States, that kept running solely because they had a staff of dedicated volunteers that kept it running.

From the top left, the first photos show the church where Jose Martí was baptized, his baptismal certificate, and a plaque installed at the church by an organization that brings to mind the Knights of Columbus in the U.S. The information on the plaque reads.

In this church of the Holy Guardian Angel on Saturday, February 12, in the year of our Lord 1853, the priest D. Tomas Sala y Figuerola, Cabellan by His Majesty of the Regiment of the Royal Artillery Corps of this Plaza of Havana, solemnly baptized a child – whom he named Jose Julian – who was born on January 28 of that year, legitimate son of D. Mariano Martí, First Sergeant of the Real Perez, native of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, paternal grandparents: D. Vicente Martí and Mrs. Manuela Navarro maternal: Mr. Antonio Perez and Mrs. Rita Cabrera. His godparents were: Mr. Jose María Vazques, and Mrs. Marcelina Aguirre.

In memory of this Christian ceremony, the Association of Catholic Knights of Cuba, a branch of Cuban Catholic Action, place this bronze plaque on the 96th anniversary of the birth of the Great Apostle of Cuba

La Habana, January 28, 1949

To the right of the church frame, is a frame showing the region around the town of Jagüey, where Martí’s father took him when he was nine. The museum doesn’t say whether the parents were having marital problems. Black and white photos, and photocopies of black and white photos have their limits. Check out the handwriting on the letter MartÍ sent to his mother when he was nine!
Underneath the Jagüey frame are an article and poem that the periodical, La Patria Libre, published when he was 15.

The frames to the right of the Jagüey frame and below the Cathedral frame represent Martí’s 1870 sojourn in prison when he was 16. He had written a letter criticizing a friend for joining the Spanish army. Accused of treason, Martí was sentenced to six years hard labor. His parents appealed to the authorities, and they banished him to Spain instead.

In Spain and Mexico, he studied and wrote. He taught French, English, Italian and German literature and History of Philosophy at the Central School of Guatemala. He married and returned to Cuba in 1879. After the second “Little War” for Cuban Liberation broke out, the Spanish Government deported him again. From Spain, he traveled to Paris and then to New York, where he would live for the next 15 years. The frame to the left of the large picture of Patria and below the picture of Marti as a teenage prisoner, displays pictures of his time in New York. The labels were hard to read and photograph, but the picture of the Catskills is significant. Martí’s health in New York deteriorated the longer he stayed there. A doctor recommended a retreat to the Catskill Mountains. In that beautiful environment, he wrote his poetry collection, Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses), the most famous of which became the song “Guantanamera.” When I looked at the picture, I immediately thought of the line, “The streams of the mountain please me more than the sea.” Below that frame is one of the only pieces of furniture in the museum: his writing desk in New York.

Martí, along, with other Cuban exiles, put out the newspaper Patria while he was living in New York. They printed it there and sent the copies down to Cuba, where it was distributed furtively. Cubans under Spanish colonial rule often did not receive news of the outside world; they often didn’t know what was happening in Cuba. Patria helped fill that vacuum.

The frame below on the right has pictures of places in Tampa, Florida, where Martí and other Cuban leaders developed their strategy for the third and final war of Cuban independence from Spain. Who knew Tampa, FL was an integral part of Cuban history? In the middle are pictures of his trip to Jamaica, where he was gathering support for the Cuban revolution and the writing desk he used in New York. In the same year, 1892, he founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

The final frame shows the route Martí took for the final Cuban War of Independence, from his disembarkation at Playitas Cojobabo to Dos Rios where he died.

So to complete my José Martí/George Washington analogy, imagine George Washington, except as an abolitionist, poet, journalist, diplomat, who had never fought in a battle and died in the first one he did.

After Martí’s childhood home, we went to the Artisans market, where I bought two skirts. I could have spent all day there. They had great food places and all sorts of handmade goods. Judy was still sick, and Ken said the market was just the type place she liked to visit, as well.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a teenager with a spray can must add penises to figurative street art.

One mode of transportation you see in tourist areas is the Cocotaxi. As you can see, Ken and I enjoyed our ride a great deal. However, the middle seat is extremely uncomfortable unless you are a small child.

In another Cocotaxi trip our driver was a musician in a group that had toured Europe. Having visited Miami, she told us she strongly preferred Cuba. She confirmed our growing understanding that those who are still in Cuba really want to be in Cuba.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant, Marechiaro, with Camila’s friend, Laura Segura, the music producer and another Colombian friend. I found the photo of the baby at the entrance disturbing.

“Marechiaro” means “clear sea” in Italian, and as you can see from the view through the window, the name is appropriate, or “adeguato.”

Ken and I walked back to our apartment after lunch. Michael went listen to Myrlla Muniz again at the Cuban music museum in Old Havana. In a conversation following the concert, she told him she was excited that someone had come to see her twice.  They talked about why someone had come from U.S. to Cuba, politics, and her music. A Brazilian TV reporter who had come to interview Muniz asked Michael some questions in Spanish.

Then Michael went to the Teatro Nacional to hear Brazilian Gaucho (cowboy) music. He and Camila went to a second performance of Los Van Van, who came on stage at 1:30 a.m.

 

Good times in Viñales and Havana

January 30, 2025

Top picture shows Viñales Valley, UNESCO describes it as, " an outstanding karst landscape encircled by mountains and dotted with spectacular dome-like limestone outcrops (mogotes) that rise as high as 300 m." The bottom photo shows the town of Viñales with its pink and teal houses with curved red terra cotta roof tiles. A small human figure leans against a pillar outside one of the one-story homes. A green motorcycle with a passenger attachment sits on the street.
Top picture is a street view of Viñales by David Shankbone. Bottom is a view of Viñales Valley by Fran Hogan. The colors are richer on the Wikimedia pages.

I’ve been writing these blogs based on the photos I took, with Michael helping me fill in details after he reads them. I happened to take no pictures on January 30, but luckily, Dawn took pictures of the trip she, Jose, and Camila took to Viñales.

Michael and I very much enjoyed our trip there nine years ago. I’m more of a small town person, and we loved the artesanias made from what scraps people had available. Below is a camera made of beer cans that we picked up. If you press a lever in back, the lens cap pops off.

Here are some pictures of Dawn, Jose, Camila and the good time they had there. Viñales Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its “outstanding karst landscape encircled by mountains and dotted with spectacular dome-like limestone outcrops (mogotes) that rise as high as 300 m.” (See top picture.) According to Wikipedia, “Karst (/kɑːrst/) is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite.” Note Camila and Jose with their cigars in the bottom right picture. We also visited a tobacco farm nine years ago, and bought some freshly-rolled cigars for friends back home. Today, under the embargo, that would be illegal.

A man in a blue shirt and black pants and a woman in a sun dress are standing on craggy rocks. Trees are growing out of the sides and the top of the rocks

Judy had a terrible cold, and I stayed in most of the day—listening to a book, I assume. In the afternoon, Michael went to a couple afternoon Jazz Festival discussion panels. One about K-pop and jazz included a Korean woman talking about women in K-pop. The next panel—about the impact of women in the music industry—included Laura Segura, the Colombian friend who made it possible for Danielle to come to the Jazz Festival.

For dinner, Michael, Ken and I went to Algarabia, which shows up in travel guides as a place for good, cheap food. Also, the guides say it’s an Italian and Chinese restaurant, which is not how we would have described it.

That evening Michael, Ken and I went to the Bertolt Brecht Theater. They listened to a Portuguese jazz pianist while I enjoyed a piña colada (which was meh). Then I joined them for a performance of the Sacred Funk Quartet, which roots its music in “the ancient sounds of the Yorùbá people of West Africa,” and  “honours the rich traditions of West African music,  reimagining these timeless melodies for contemporary audiences.”  I enjoyed their performance. Ken, a woodwinds specialist, identified an instrument that I thought was a weird-looking saxophone as a bass clarinet.

Just for kicks, I googled “January 30, 2025 Havana” and found the following news item in Cibercuba:

The Cuban regime has strongly rejected the proposal by the United States government to expand the Naval Base at Guantánamo to accommodate 30,000 migrants. In a statement, Havana warned of the “serious consequences” of this measure, emphasizing that it could affect regional stability. Both Miguel Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez have vehemently condemned this initiative, describing it as “brutality” and a “disregard for human dignity.”

Cuba News today, January 30, 2025

Walking Around and Seeing Stuff That Makes Cuba Cuba

January 29, 2025

Spontaneous dancing in the streets is one of my favorite things about Havana

We started the morning with a visit to the museum of the Sitial Moncada, or the Moncada Seat of Honor. The museum pays tribute to the 153 fighters who, along with Fidel Castro, launched the attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. A 2014 Al Jazeera article profiles the 93-year-old man who started the museum, using whatever scraps he could find. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there. I hope they found someone to continue running it. I appreciated that he tried to lift the profile of women in the revolution.

The in clear red letters beneath the middle portrait says something like, “Shame on money.”

Across the street from the museum was the bar where part of the satirical movie, Guantanamera, was shot. We met our friends from the AfroCubano neighborhood there and had some drink the bar specialized in—non-alcoholic for us. Carlos told us that Che Guevara used to have an office in the museum across the street.

Below, Michael is asking pertinent questions.

One of the nicest places to walk in Cuba is the Malecon, a five-mile seawall constructed around the Havana Harbor. I’m glad that nine years ago I didn’t know that the U.S. built it after Spain ceded its colonial power over Cuba to U.S. colonial power.

We did pick a lovely day for the walk.

On the walls of the derelict buildings across from the Malecón, some of which contained good restaurants, we saw interesting street art.

Maybe I should not have paid so much attention to the buildings on the other side of the street because I ended up tripping, falling, and nearly breaking my glasses. Major falls seem to be a motif for me on vacations. I was proud of myself for not picking at my blood blister for the rest of the trip.

Below the walls lay craggy rocks with channels of seawater running in between. Cubans were fishing on them and recreating in other ways. I knew that I did not have the physical coordination to make the drop to the rocks (the stairways ended before they met the rocks) and hop over the channels. Ken and Judy decided they would investigate ways of getting down to the shore, but also decided it was too dangerous.

We finished our walk at the Mirador de la Bahia La Habana (Havana Bay Lookout). The fortress in the distance, El Castillo de Los Tres Reyes del Morro (Castle of the Three Kings of Morro) was built between 1547 and 1616. UNESCO includes it as part of Old Havana’s World Heritage site. The bronze map shows a layout the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, a fortress in Havana, Cuba, which was supposed to help guard Havana from pirates but was set too far back in the harbor to do any good.

The first bronze plaque says the the Malecon was constructed in 1901 under the auspices of the [U.S. Imperialist] Governor General of Cuba, Leonard Wood. The second I translated with AI as follows:

On this esplanade, the artistic lighting of the Castle of the Three Kings of Morro was inaugurated on November 16, 1997, in celebration of the 473rd anniversary of the Villa San Cristóbal de La Habana [The town established in 1519 that became the city of Havana]. The project was executed by the Lyon City Hall and various French companies, under the auspices of: Metropolitan Electricity Company
Led by Engineer Serge Ussorio
Office of the Historian of Havana
Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, General Coordinator
The project was named Margarita – Morro – Gaban in honor of the memory of Mme. Marguerite Ussorio. 1913-1992 Mother of Engineer Ussorio

Back in Old Havana, we came across this monument honoring the barbers and hairdressers of the world. December 27 is the “Day of the Barber.” Hairdressers in Old Havana come out to Barbers’ Alley, where the monument is located, and give free haircuts to people who ask for them.

On the same day, some lucky hairdresser receives the Juan Gomez award. It honors the first barber and surgeon to receive a license to practice the trade in the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana in 1552.

Tonsorialists from all over the world have sent in scissors to decorate the giant shears. One of the signs has the email, proyectoartecorte@gmail.com, for people who want to help with the project, which means, I assume, sending in more scissors.

This is part of a mural that was also in the Barber’s Alley. I think I wanted the picture because of the line from a Jose Martí poem: “I have two homelands—Cuba and the night.” Here’s a link to the entire poem, written when he was in exile.

From the square, we walked into the Old City to get some lunch. Instead we got ice cream. I remember my cone had some sherbet made of fruit I had never heard of. Turned out to be mamey, which I highly recommend.

We passed by Cathedral square, where Havana’s Main Cathedral is located.  Consecrated in 1782, the Cathedral still holds 10 masses a week.

The last time we visited the Plaza de Armas, it was full of booksellers and sellers of other Cuban tchotchkes. I bought some political buttons and a Havana Freemason’s pin. This time, we saw only some Cuban dancers, dressed in brightly-colored satin, conversing quietly in the shade of a tree. No one could tell us what happened to the booksellers.

After that, we passed Havana’s mosque. Cuba has between 9000-10,000 Muslims, and a lot of them are recent converts.

On a doorway hangs a sign,

Outside of one of Hemingway’s three favorite Havana Bars—La Bodeguita del Medio—we saw one of my favorite Cuban things: people dancing spontaneously in the street. I’m guessing the young woman was a tourist.

We ended up at the plaza of Plaza de San Francisco de Asís (Francis of Assisi) famous for all the birds who hang out there—which is a little weird. I mean, how could they know about his affinity for birds?

We also observed some notable statues in the Plaza, including “El Caballero de Paris.”

According to architect Cheo Malanga:



José María López Lledín was an elegant vagabond known as El Caballero de París (“The Gentleman From Paris”) who wandered the streets of Havana. According to Malanga, “El Caballero de París” was a cult figure in Havana in the 40s and 50s. He was of medium height, disheveled hair with some gray hair and a beard. He always wore black, with a long coat of the same color, even during the summer. He used to carry a folder full of papers. He was a gentle and educated man who roamed the streets and traveled by bus all over the city, greeting people and discussing philosophy, religion and politics. He never asked for alms or said bad words, he only accepted money from people he knew or liked.

People had various theories as to why he lost his sanity, but most trace it back to his imprisonment in 1920 for a crime he did not commit.

People rub the beard on his statue for luck.

A less auspicious statue in the Plaza is the one honoring Junipero Serra, whom some remember as a dedicated missionary whom Pope Francis has beatified, and whom Indigenous people consider an agent of the whole settler-colonial enterprise.

Then at the edge of the plaza, we found some more art. Etienne is French sculptor who just recently died in January 2025. The plaque says,

ETIENNE
“THE CONVERSATION”
SCULPTURE DONATED TO THE OFFICE OF THE
HISTORIAN OF THE
CITY OF HAVANA BY VITTORIO PERROTTA
25 MAY 2012

We had an awkward time getting home. The driver of the taxi we hailed was called over by the police in the square, who wanted to see his papers. Something was wrong with them. He kept assuring us that he was going to clear things up shortly, but eventually, we got another taxi.

That evening, Ken, Judy, and Michael attended a performance of Argentinean and Cuban musicians at open air venue called Pabellón Cuba.  Camila went to a concert at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano. For Rochesterians, that venue is similar to Artisan Works, which profiles both musical and visual artists.

Then the three of them walked over to Bertolt Brecht Theater to hear Brazilian singer Myrlla Muñiz.

Afterwards, they met up with Jose and Dawn. They had a late dinner at Cafeteria Loretta, where personal pan pizzas cost the equivalent of 67 cents, or $1.00 with ham.

They brought extra pizzas home, and I enjoyed them for the next couple days.

Havana’s Jewish and Afro-Cuban communities Hotel Nacional, and Danielle’s performance

January 28, 2025

Danielle Ponder
Yeah, we knew her from back when

El Patronato—Havana’s Jewish Community Center

The next day, we visited El Patronato, Havana’s Jewish Community Center and one of the three Havana synagogues. In the library were an embossed portrait and a bust honoring Max Stone, both of which I thought were Jose Martí. I have included a bust of Jose Marti from the foyer of the center, which is one is which?* Max Stone helped found the the Patronato.

Stone was instrumental in helping Jews from Europe immigrate in the 1930s and 40s. Below is a summary of minutes taken by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in the 1930s. Note that Stone reported on the Cuba’s denial of entry to passengers on the S.S. St. Louis, who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Canada and the U.S. also refused to give the passengers asylum and the ship ultimately had to return to Europe.

Minutes, 1939:3/28/1939, 4/25/1939, 5/16/1939, 6/5/1939, 6/20/1939, 7/25/1939, 8/15/1939, 9/19/1939, 10/19/1939, 11/21/1939, 12/26/1939, 1/23/1940, 2/20/1940Included are: Appointment of committee to ascertain the possibilities of obtaining from the federal authorities diplomatic immunity for HIAS representatives to be stationed in Germany. Discussion of fate of 104 refugees on S.S. Flandre denied entry into Mexico. Commitment to continue transport funds for immigrants to Central and South America. Report by Dr. Max Stone, President of the Centro Israelita de Cuba regarding passengers on the S.S. St. Louis. Report on refugees in Shanghai. Text of cables regarding transport of refugees to the United States. Report on trip to Washington regarding missing person searches in Poland. Report on committee meeting to discuss HIAS participation in 1940 United Jewish Appeal. Appointment of Israel Bernstein as HIAS representative in Lithuania. Report on opening Miami office. Appointment of Milton Goldsmith, director of the Joint Relief Committee in Havana, as HIAS-ICA representative in South America. Report on meeting with Alexander Qumansky, Soviet ambassador to the United States. Minutes of the board of directors, January 21, 1936 – September 25, 1944, Reel: MKM 25.2, Folder: 9. HIAS Board of Directors and Steering Committees, RG 245.1. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Hella, the vice-president of the Jewish Community showed us around, and the President, David, also stopped by to talk to us. The community celebrated its 100th year anniversary in 2006. On the wall of the Center’s large, all-purpose room, were pictures of the hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7. There were also photos of their youth who had competed in Israel’s Maccabiah Games and who had worked on humanitarian projects with Proyecto Kesher.

We exempted ourselves from State Department’s travel ban by giving medical supplies to Hella. She was especially happy to see the thousand dollars worth of colostomy bags we brought from a generous Rochester donor, because some members of their congregation use them. Tourists? Not us!

In the foyer, we saw a framed display of multiple snapshots of famous people who had met with people from Havana’s Jewish community, including the Pope and Fidel Castro. But they obviously did not compare to the visit that Stephen Spielberg made to the Center.

I wasn’t sure why they had old newspaper ads framed on the walls of the foyer, but when I look at them closely now, I see they must have been businesses that members of Havana’s Jewish community had owned.

This picture wasn’t the right size to fit in the image gallery of the Jewish Community Center above. This stone was also in the foyer.

The sign says,

This is one of the stones of Clodno Street in the then Warsaw Ghetto. One of them remains in the Synagogue of the Hebrew Community of Cuba, and the other is in the Santa Clara Cemetery. Both pieces serve as a historical reminder of the time and place where the terrible events of the Holocaust occurred. This is a donation from the “Holocaust Memorial Museum” Washington DC.

In this way we share the commitment to education and remembrance of the Shoah.

After the Center we went over to the Beth Shalom synagogue, which belongs to the Conservative Jewish denomination tradition, and Hella answered more questions.

After leaving the synagogue, we went to Dawn and Jose’s rented B&B apartment to celebrate Jose’s birthday with cake. The U.S. Embassy lay directly across from their balcony. None of us reported Havana Syndrome at the end of the day. On the way to the Hotel Nacional we passed the Office of the Jose Martì Tribuna AntiImperialista Plaza (Pictures of the Plaza to come later.)

One sign of the Kingdom of God unveiling itself on earth will be when countries that colonized Africa, the Americas, and Asia also have anti-Imperialism monuments and plazas.

Hotel Nacional

The National Hotel wants you to know about ALL the famous people who have stayed there, including sports figures, celebrities, actors, musicians and and presidents. I didn’t see a real pattern to the notable persons, unless it was by date. For example, Paris Hilton is on the same framed display as Andrew Cuomo and the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

The room of photos was so crowded the establishment even hung some of the framed ensembles from the ceiling. I have outlined Pete Seeger in a yellow circle, because he was the only one I really cared about.

In the foyer of the hotel, they had a display of employees who had lived to the age of 100 or more, which I thought was cool. They also had a display of the rooms in which notable people had stayed. The establishment had decorated the outdoor area for Chinese New Year.

View of the Hotel from the outside and the classic cars parked across the street.

The graffiti we saw in Havana wasn’t quite as orchestrated as the street art we saw in Bogota, but these examples were still impressive.

Havana’s AfroCuban Neighborhood

After the hotel, we headed over to Calle Ejon de Hamel, the center of AfroCuban culture in Havana. On the way, we met an AfroCuban couple, who I’d say might have been in their 60s or 70s. It was hard to tell. Let’s just say they were a vigorous pair. When we told them we were heading to the AfroCuban neighborhood, they said they lived nearby and offered to show us around. This warmth and hospitality I should say, is not uncommon in Cuba.

It turns out that they run a little center for AfroCuban culture in the neighborhood. As we walked toward it, they pointed out what the art on the walls of the neighborhood—and ALL the walls were covered with art and poetry—signified.

The neighborhood demonstrates how much Cuba values the arts. Much of the visual art had to do with AfroCuban religions, the primary one being Santería, but Palo Monte, and Abakuá are also Cuban religions rooted in West African traditions and syncretized with Catholicism.  I could have sworn I had a picture of Judy sitting in a chair specifically intended for menopausal women—there’s a god for that—but I can’t find it.-

One new thing I can do with this upgraded operating system is copy text in a photo, and then paste them into another application. You have to do some cleanup in the paste, but it’s useful. Here’s the first example of poetry on the wall of the AfroCuban neighborhood. An actual Spanish translator who understands poetry, of course, would do a better job


I want to mutilate you,  black shade of the unknown,
I want to laugh in your claws of intense blue, of distant sea.
I want to sit in your shadow and continue onward,
I want to describe you in spaces so that you may be known.
You are the inert pace of distant time,
You are the light and song that calls more, but I cannot describe you.
Like my hand, you escape like water between small stones.
What is your enigma at the far front?
What is your back that smiles inertly?
I know you return every night.[…] morning

After I’m dead I neither want an apology
nor gifts.
I come from a
hidden reality to
an open reality
so that you know me

Anonymous

The top two ruminations by Salvador say,

“All that sell love 
are as miserable as
They who buy it.”

Salvador


“The fish doesn’t know
that water exists.”

Salvador

I actually was able to translate those myself! Here’s an AI translation the anonymous poet below Salvadors:

It is not my street  
It is not anyone’s street  
It is our street  
Compelling Spirit of a single mystery that emitted colors one morning to conquer  
With its old man it wins the battle  
At the door of your mantle  
I wrote your name  
As distant as history  
Distant land, stone, fire, and water here is the gift so that you  
Learn  
Because profane is the one who  
Hides the true word  

Finally, I was haggling with this boy on the left about how much it would cost me for him to move away from the wall, when an older gentleman ordered him to get lost. The wall appears to be a tribute to the art in the neighborhood, and in particular, the artist Salvador. I realized that the problem with my comprehension toward the end wasn’t the fault of the AI translator. The author was using academic art jargon. I have linked some of the jargon-y words to definitions.

Don Fernando Ortiz  
To the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso  
To the people of Cuba
In this alley of Centro Habana named Hamel, on April 21, 1990, the first mural was born in the public street dedicated to Afro-Cuban culture.  
Iremes, Orishas, legends of black gods in the great thicket of the jungle and the woods to say: Today I have my first public temple for everyone, where the branch covered the bare body to ward off the evil that suffers, the evil that ends. To fill with colors those mute and bare walls that waited so long, and with my time, which is mine, just as from yours you are the owner,
To give through the sentiment of being to be a trace of the known without fragments of words. Songs of my drums, songs of my white garments.
Without being a sentence, I am word by word.  
I am the one who painted walls and sent messages at dawn.  
Forgive me critics and intellectuals, I speak my word.  
I seat the beggar in the chair, I embrace the frank smile.  
I enjoy the juice of my blood, which is African blood,  
but I also breathe deeply to fill my life and soul  
with a Spanish smile that bore mixed-race blood.  
Spirits of the day and the consecrated night, may all be present  
to send messages at dawn.  
The coward flees from the truth because the lie is like him.

The work of Salvador González Escalona exposes the purist equation of a context that now, as a solitary fact, as a historical definition presented as an artistic assistant of a nation of our cultural reality, and as such, becomes a source of knowledge and expression of the social being. It is in this concept that his artistic work makes tangible demystifying aspects of an analogy and increases the gnoseological value. It’s worth noting that, as art, it also refers us to a form of knowledge that challenges to stretch its own boundaries in time. 

Salvador’s art shows us not only all the techniques and styles of the old art of the Islanders, clear santero houses where the most elaborate and beautiful ceremonial pieces are crafted. Salvador, with intelligent function, has refined these techniques and created, on a protean platform, his own style.
*Miguel Barnet
The Afrocuban Spirit as It Is Called,” Miguel Barnet

Despite knowing other painters and visual artists in general who have ventured into this field, Salvador has not been influenced by the superficial and deceptive snobbery or by the aesthetic intellectualism of the West in approaching these topics from the outside. Or “from above,” that is, from the analogical picturesque view that might exist between Haitian voodoo and the rituals that occur in Cuba, treated from a European capital or from the morphological aspect of Dahomeyan cloth or the pictorial decoration of the Yoruba widely publicized through art books, to extrapolate to Cuba for the simple fact of being “African” and thus being in international fashion.  
Jesús Guanche 1986**


Although certain corners of Havana’s neighborhoods were heaped high with rotting piles of trash, if someone painted, “No Trash” or “Don’t throw trash” on a wall, Habaneros obey the order scrupulously. I was so intent on getting the trash warning, I didn’t notice that the gang graffitied next to it were holding band instruments until I prepared to upload the photo.

In the evening, we finally reached our Apex Event—Danielle singing at the Havana Jazz Festival. I’ve never seen her give a bad performance, and that night continued the streak. She got a ticket for our cook/cultural advisor Dayamí, and we had some time to sit in a place outside the concert hall that served drinks and snacks. I had a reasonably good 5 minute video of Danielle singing, “Poor Man’s Pain,” which followed two bad attempts of me learning the video feature on my phone. Turns out, WordPress can’t handle a 5 minute video. Anyway, here’s a video of Danielle singing “Poor Man’s Pain,” at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.

While we were in the room where Danielle was singing, Dawn thought she saw Camila and motioned her over. Turns out it was a Turkish diplomat who wanted an introduction to Danielle, and they talked about Danielle coming to Turkey.

A pianist from Azerbaijan performed immediately after Danielle in the same room. A few peoplein our group decided to stay.

In the evening we went to a famous restaurant in Havana: San Cristobal Paladar. The Obamas ate here when they visited Cuba. The manager had a lot of their photos prominently displayed. Although we had made reservations, the manager made us stand for a long time while an empty table fitting the size of our party was clearly available. Then the wait for our food (at that very table} was also long. Truthfully, we were not all that impressed. The piña coladas were meh. I ordered fried lobster, an appetizer, for my entree, but they brought it out early anyway. However, it was delicious. Imagine eating a a basket of fried clams, but it’s lobster. Caribbean spiny lobsters are a lot smaller than Northern lobsters, but also cheaper.

Outside of San Cristóbal Paladar
One of its dining rooms
Caribbean Spiny Lobster
While we were waiting. There were more than a few pictures of Obama and his family
while we were waiting
While we were waiting

After a long day, we went home to sleep

*The one in the middle is Marti, who sits in the foyer of El Patronato.

The Martin Luther King Center and Ebenezer Baptist Church

January 27, 2027

The previous night, we all went out with Danielle to something resembling a diner with Cuban food. Think Denny’s with less decor. I just wanted something cold to drink. “Suero helado” was an item on the menu. We all knew the second word meant ice cream, but even Camila, a native Colombian Spanish speaker, didn’t know what “suero” was. The server behind the counter explained that it was a milkshake, which sounded good to me, even though the only ice cream they had was rum raisin. Later on, as I was running through Spanish flashcards, I found out that “suero” could also mean “saline solution.” I looked it up, and the Latin root of the word is “serum,” which also means “whey.” Dawn or Jose took the pictures below.

The next morning, Danielle came over to our place for breakfast and we had a leisurely conversation with Dayamí, our cook. She told us she had taken part in a torchlight parade to honor Jose Martí the previous evening, and has been doing so annually since she was a university student. Then Danielle, with Camila as her translator and erstwhile “manager” in Cuba, went to a press conference with local Cuban media.

The rest of us went to the Martin Luther King Center and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, which are located in the outlying neighborhood of Marianao. Pastor Rudiel ,who shepherds the church, met us at the Center and gave us a tour. He told us that both the church and the center were founded to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and purposely built in a poor, Afro-Cuban neighborhood. However almost everyone who attended in the beginning was white. So they looked for ways to engage with the community. They announced that people could fill their buckets with clean, filtered water every evening between 5:00 and 9:00. They also began offering milk for children, and opened a small pharmacy where they passed out medicine, bandages, and other basic First Aid supplies. Their church now reflects better the community in which they live.

Pastor Rudiel told us the minimum wage is $5 in Cuba, and the government no longer provides a basic food supply of rice, beans, flour, and oil as it used to. Cubans who work in the private sector earn much more. His own salary is $30/month. A lot of people get by, he said, because their workplaces offer breakfast and lunch. I thought, but what about their families?

Networking is a big part of the center’s work. They have contacts with peace and justice-promoting Evangelical organizations all over Latin America, including Justapaz , who first invited Christian Peacemaker Teams to work in Colombia.

In the room where we met, there was a wall hanging from The Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA)  (in the picture with Gandhi) that offers God’s blessings to the center. The red sign says, “On the road home, I want to be free, not brave.”

After the meeting we gave the Center’s pharmacy the medicine and bandages we brought from Rochester. U.S. tourists cannot visit Cuba. they must have reasons. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is implementing a new restriction that tells Cubans who have residency in the U.S. but not citizenship may go to Cuba, but will not be able to return. Bringing in the medical supplies counted as “support for the Cuban people.”

12 categories of authorized travel to Cuba are: family visits; official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations; journalistic activity; professional research and professional meetings; educational activities; religious activities; public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions; support for the Cuban people; humanitarian projects; activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes; exportation, importation, or transmission of information or informational materials; and certain authorized export transactions.

U.S. Embassy in Cuba https://cu.usembassy.gov/services/traveling-to-cuba/

Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is implementing a new restriction that tells Cubans who have residency in the U.S. but not citizenship may go to Cuba, but will not be able to return. When we visited the Center in 2016, one wall of the cafeteria was full of T-Shirts from solidarity groups. We added a red and black T-shirt from Metrojustice, a Rochester Non-Profit. Unfortunately, due to the Covid pandemic, they had to destroy the T-shirts.

Last four pictures taken by Dawn and/or Jose.

Some pictures from inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church

We had a restful afternoon at our apartment.

In the evening, we went to Antojos, a good, but pricey, restaurant in Old Havana. Danielle’s guitarist, Garrett, and photographer, Ray, joined us. The piña coladas were on point. Most of us went back to our apartments. But Ray, Danielle, and Michael went to Havana’s coolest Hip Hop place and then met Camila at an invitation-only performance of Los Van Van, Michael’s favorite Cuban musical group. Laura, a Colombian music promoter who had helped Danielle get the invitation to sing in Cuba, got tickets for Michael and Camila. Danielle and Ray got tickets because of Danielle’s status as a performer at the Jazz Festival. Los Van Van started their set at 1:45 a.m. When Michael, Ray, and Danielle left at 3:00 a.m., Camila was still dancing.

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