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'Mad about Cuba': Exploring the unique connection between Cuba and Kerala

Cuba is a metaphor in Kerala for communist values, but there is another, lesser-known reason for Malayalis to feel a special affinity for Fidel Castro

Mad About Cuba: A Malayali Revisits the Revolution

Mad About Cuba: A Malayali Revisits the Revolution

Neha Kirpal

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Mad About Cuba: A Malayali Revisits the Revolution
Author: Ullekh N P
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 223
Price: Rs 399
  Most people think of Cuba as “a tourist paradise known for three Ss (sun, sand and salsa), three Rs (rum, rumba and romance) and three Cs (cigars, classic cars and communism).” Having been fascinated by Cuba over several decades, author, journalist, columnist and political commentator Ullekh N P finally had a chance to visit the country in the summer of 2023 on a journalist visa. This book is a result of that visit. It consists of his observations as well as conversations with various local people, including senior bureaucrats, scientists, students and tourists among others.
 
 
“As the largest island in the Caribbean Sea, Cuba is breathtakingly beautiful and a magnet for tourists with its shimmering blue sea, stately mountains, colonial architecture, old-world charm, iconic cocktails, addictive music and the innocent faces of its people,” he sums up his impressions at the beginning of the book. According to 2014 figures, there are about 60,000 classic cars on Cuba’s streets, most of which are in Havana. “All these cars, according to their owners, are precious heirlooms passed on from grandfathers to sons and now grandsons,” writes Ullekh. With its thousands of species of flora and fauna as well as bars and restaurants made famous by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, however, there is a lot more to discover in Cuba than meets the eye.
 
As a young primary school boy in Kerala, Ullekh first came across Cuba and Fidel Castro in 1982. These encounters were mostly in the form of political discussions at his Marxist household and on the streets of Kannur where he lived. Mainly due to its active communist movement and high literacy rates, Kerala recognised Castro and idolised the Caribbean nation as a repository of communist values. “The influence of leftist politics in Kerala was so deep that it spawned a literary culture that familiarised the people with classics and heroes associated with liberation movements from afar,” writes Ullekh. In 1983, Castro visited New Delhi, where he met the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whom he “bear-hugged” at the inauguration of the Non-Aligned Summit. “A dashing man with a beard and film-star looks, and more than that, charisma — for us kids, his photographs in dailies left a lasting impression,” recalls Ullekh.
 
Growing up inspired by the Cuban Revolution that brought Castro and his fellow revolutionaries to power, Ullekh pored through countless leftist journals, documentaries, articles on Cuba by Malayali Marxists as well as Malayalam translations of Cuban literature over the years. “Some of us friends, all of us like-minded and curious about Cuba, also shared books on Castro and discussed them along with works on and by the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary, Che Guevara,” recalls Ullekh. He adds another reason for Malayalis to feel a special affinity for Fidel — his love for drumsticks (moringa), which are perhaps consumed more in Kerala than in any other part of India. As a young journalist later, Ullekh had the opportunity to meet Guevara’s daughter, Aleida, who was pleasantly surprised at the heroic welcome she received in several parts of Kerala, when she visited India in 1997.
 
In 1990, Ullekh first read the Malayalam translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who soon became one of his favourite authors. Interestingly, Marquez also became the favourite of publishers and booksellers in the state, where his books continue to be bestsellers. In fact, shortly after Marquez died in 2014, Ravi D C, who runs Kerala’s top publishing house DC Books, is believed to have commented, “Marquez has been accepted and enjoyed by Keralites as a Malayali writer and not as a foreigner.” Further, the love for Maradona in football-crazy Kerala knows no bounds. “Maradona became synonymous with Cuba, too, besides, of course, Argentina, which, to date, remains the all-time favourite team among a majority of Malayalis,” writes Ullekh.
 
Ullekh elaborates on how Cuba is unique in more ways than one. “The country has been under the longest trade embargo in modern history — since 1960,” he points out. Despite American sanctions, the great progress Cuba has made in education, biotechnology,
 
public health, pharmaceuticals and agriculture is commendable. The average life expectancy in the country is above 79 years, which is on a par with advanced countries. According to  the World Health Organization, Cuba has literacy levels of close to 100 per cent, and is home to the highest number of centenarians per million inhabitants.
 
Founder-director of Antara Foundation, Ashok Alexander, once referred to Cuba and Kerala as “curious cousins”, given all that they have in common — small places with less population, high female literacy rate, a socialist-communist ideology, and both winners in public health delivery, especially maternal and child health. “Cuba, in a sense, is also a metaphor in Kerala for so-called communist values — which are considered not very different from Gandhian values in the state,” explains Ullekh.
 
But as with many small nations, Ullekh discovered that in recent years, most young Cubans have moved for jobs in large numbers to the US and Spain. While interacting with some of the nation’s youth, he also found that unlike the older generation that was interested in the utopia of the revolution, the younger lot wants freedom from perpetual economic uncertainties. “Expectedly, the ballooning aspirations of well-educated Cuban youth connected through the internet with peers around the world have led to frustration and a collective sense of #FOMO,” he concludes.
 
The reviewer is a freelance writer based in New Delhi

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First Published: Jan 27 2025 | 10:27 PM IST

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