Cayo Granma’s Golden Dreams

Cayo Granma's Golden Dreams / 14ymedio, Rosa Lopez
Posted on August 11, 2015

The economy of Cayo Granma has been in decline for many years. The only
way to secure a job is by crossing the channel separating it from
Santiago de Cuba.

14ymedio, Rosa Lopez, Santiago de Cuba, 8 August 2015 — "If Cuba is the
key to the Gulf of Mexico, than this is the key to Santiago de Cuba,"
asserts Gaspar, who lives on Cayo Granma, and swears that he has not
crossed the narrows separating him from the city in many years. Gaspar
thought it "was the end" when hurricane Sandy devastated the area in
October 2012. During those early morning hours when waves reached thirty
feet, forty homes were destroyed and two hundred experienced major
damages. Gale force winds took their heaviest toll on this tiny bit of
land, and the storm's scars are still visible.

A team of students from the Martha Abreu Central University of Las
Villas has been rewarded for its rescue plan for Cayo Granma during the
London-based i-Rec Conference 2015: International Perspectives on
Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction. But thousands of miles from
England, the residents of the most famous island in Santiago Bay are
trying to rebuild their lives three years after what seemed like a
meteor impact.

The team is led by Professor Andrés Olivera Ranero, and includes
students Ana Lourdes Barrera Cano, Royer Leno Medina, Elisa Medina
Toboso, and Niuris Martín Rosabel, all of who hail from the provinces of
Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. With the objective of the revitalization of
the community, they presented their four-step plan, and were able to
beat out over fifteen other projects competing for the award given in
London.

The longboat that arrives once a day at Cayo Granma is noisy and leaves
behind an odor of burning oil. Immediately after disembarking one is
struck by the natural beauty of the place, and by the precarious life of
its inhabitants. Cayo Smith, as Cayo Granma was originally called, is
still a humble fishermen's village, with wooden shacks that gave it its
architectural uniqueness, and that used to house families of up to
twenty members. The holes the winds left in the roofs and in the walls
have been concealed with zinc slabs and pieces of wood collected after
the storm.

"There's not too much to do here," explains Agustina, who lived through
those years when most of the owners of Cayo Granma's best homes left for
exile, and the government turned the dwellings over to very poor people.
"It was like a dream come true, but then everything got run down." This
lady confirms what specialists and sociologists have proven through
their research: Cayo Granma's economy is at a standstill, alcoholism
rates among the youth are alarming, and unemployment figures are high.

"There's only one school here that goes up to the sixth grade, and a lot
of the adolescents drop out because it's too hard getting to the other
side," explains Agustina as she points to Santiago de Cuba. Some of the
villagers have their own dangerous and fragile rowboats. When they use
them, they do so very quietly since most of them are not authorized and
therefore are subject to frequent confiscations. When talking abut the
unreliable schedule of the only means of transportation connecting them
to the city, Agustina complains: "There're days we're not sure if the
government's longboat is coming, or at what time."

The architecture students have proposed a first phase that would
guarantee a decent home with a roof for each family living on the key.
Only after this is accomplished, the second phase of the project would
start with the building of a manufacturing plant and a sawmill in order
to create employment in an area with a high percentage of people without
ties to the labor force.

The initiative's third step would focus on urban and economic
development. The models shown the judges who gave the award to the
proposal show a lovely place, with flowers and abundant gardens, where
residents build their own boats and semi-attached homes. "Picturesque,
resilient, sustainable, and dignified habitat," are some of the words
used to describe the community that will ensue after the project is
executed. The fourth stage would be the consolidation and preservation
of what has been accomplished. However reality is far from this panacea.

With strong winds powerfully whipping the shoreline, 72-year old Carlos
Cesario passes by with a bag hanging from his shoulder. "Very few homes
have been repaired," he states, while explaining how he shares a
dilapidated house with fifteen relatives. This problem is common among
the key's residents, and they stare blankly out towards the horizon
without the slightest hope that solutions will come through official
channels.

"It's an awful situation," protests Moraima Fernández. "My roof caved
in, my house fell apart, and I couldn't find zinc slabs." Mrs. Fernández
points out that the local authorities' poor handling of the situation
has contributed to "after three years, everything still being more or
less the same."

When Cayo Granma's residents were shown the winning models from the
London competition, some could not contain their laughter, while others
asked "And when is it supposed to happen?" The project's timetable and
date for the completion of the homes have yet to be determined. There is
not even a budget yet to start on the first phase. "I'm sure that
they'll have to wait for some foreign organization to fall in love with
the idea, ones that will want to finance it," reflected Ana Laura, a
young lady born on Cayo Granma. Nowadays "I only come here to visit my
grandmother, because this place is like death," she added.

Far from here, on a few restless architects' drawing boards, rest the
plans for Cayo Granma's future, a faraway, utopian place that the
island's current residents do not even want to think about.

Source: Cayo Granma's Golden Dreams / 14ymedio, Rosa Lopez | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cayo-granmas-golden-dreams-14ymedio-rosa-lopez/