Sugar and Slaves

At one point in history sugar was a valuable commodity and countries producing it prospered accordingly. Especially when the labor used in the production was free (e.g. slavery) profitability was astonishing. This is precisely when Trinidad saw its peak (the price of sugar high – and the practice of slavery unrestricted). Later things turned more difficult as slaves started to demand certain rights (such as freedom) and started revolts (e.g. burning down the plantation). Consequently the Cuban sugar production was relocated to more submissive areas.

Being integral to the country’s history I wanted to see such an old plantation and it so happens that there remains a train in service taking passengers along the ancient route passing through abandoned plantation and small villages. Not surprisingly there are two distinct trains (both following the same route) one for tourists and one for locals, one costing 0.10 USD the other 10 USD. Coincidentally no one seemed to have knowledge (or rather wanted to disclose it) of this local train. But further investigations revealed that the local train cleverly leaves at 6am and 6pm rendering it practically useless for tourists. It further turns out that despite promised punctual service, the train was broken and in repair for the past week(s). Of course this you are not told when making the reservation but 30 minutes after departure time when the train is still not in sight.

So I decide to improvise and rent a bicycle and follow the old train tracks nevertheless. In retrospect it turns out to have been the better decision anyway (well, except for the heat and seat perhaps). It is amazing how much more of a place one sees when casually bicycling along rather than looking out a bus window. Every 10 minutes I pass a horse pulled wagon (which does not seem to have changed much since the sugar days). I exchange greetings with people waiting by the street (who look at me curiously). Trucks pass me (unlike in most countries, in Cuba the majority of trucks are used to transport people who usually stand on the back like stacked up bushels of corn) and its passengers wave friendly. The bicycle trip by itself was far more rewarding than seeing the plantation remains because not much remains that could give an idea of how life here must once have been.

I take a seat under a big tree on a hill overlooking this luscious green valley. The heat is scorching and there continue to be a number of sugar fields in use today, but not one worker is in sight, yet there are 5 workers staffed behind the tourist post card stand, another 5 at the admissions booth at a scenic tower. It suddenly strikes me that 200 to 300 years ago these people as well as the innumerable people I passed along the way (waiting or napping in the shade) would have been working under brutal conditions and be rewarded by the whip. Frequently over the past years I have been upset by the way global politics have evolved. But putting things in perspective and comparing these well fed, educated and leisure-time-rich slave descendents to the miserable existence of the ancestors, gives me renewed hope that perhaps little by little (despite its painful setbacks) the world is gradually becoming a better place, not just for the few select but also for the impoverished masses.