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You may already know about this, but if not, there is a movie that you can rent at any Blockbuster Store titled "The Buena Vista Social Club" which was filmed in Havana a few years ago by Ry Cooder which shows the deterioration of what was once the Most beautiful City in the Caribbean. The movie is about a Band made up of the old Musicians of Cuba from the 40's and 50's. The music is incredible. They try to show off Havana, but you can see the disrepair of the City throughout the movie. What a terrible shame about what happend there over the last 40 years!

I saw the movie when it first came out and have seen the Buena Vista Social Club live, in person twice. Once at Jones Hall in Houston and once in Austin at the "Austin City Limits." They play good music. However, it should be noted that regardless of their talent they are all hard-line communists. The actual members never see a dime of the money they have made. It all goes into Castro's coffers. Their only "take" is the luxurious lifestyle they lead while on the road. I suppose Castro figures that is payment enough.

However, I find it disturbing that after Ry Cooder made them world famous and very much in demand then the very first thing they did is to kick him out of the band.

I am in almost daily contact with people who are still in Cuba. They are limited in what they can say because absolutely all email is monitored but they hint at the disaster that the whole island is. The whole island is dying a very slow, painful death.

But you are correct. The entire island, not just Havana, is in total disrepair.

Oh, and BTW, yes, I do speak, read and write Spanish but not totally fluently. I do have to occasionally ask my wife questions about vocab, tense, etc. She fled Cuba in 1959. It was either that or death because her family had ties to the Batiste regime. Her mom actually worked in his gov't as his education minister or in charge of the free lunch program in schools.....something like that. My wife's story alone gives me chills. When I think about the millions of lives Castro has ruined.....