Kauai Voices did so much more in Cuba than perform with choirs. Here are some of our favorite memories:
• Classic American cars used as taxis, primarily Buicks, Chevrolets, Dodges, Fords and Cadillacs, from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, painted in a rainbow of colors: bright green, blue, pink and red. Some are band-aided well enough to run, others are restored beautifully, including a 1928 Ford.
• Stunning architecture throughout Havana, some buildings beautifully restored, many others waiting their turn.
• Dancing to traditional Cuban and Latin jazz music played at restaurants and at clubs such as Club Havana, Tropicana and the Buena Vista Social Club, by musicians skilled enough to play with any of the United States’ most talented.
• Visiting the Havana campus of the Universidad de Las Artes (University of the Arts), where Cubans who qualify study music, painting, sculpture and other arts at no cost to them. The university is open to non-Cubans for a small fee.
• The look of sheer amazement and disbelief on the face of a children’s chorus member when she understood that Kauai Voices member Dennis McGraw was gifting her with a trombone he brought specifically for that purpose. (She had been chosen by her teacher to receive the trombone based on her musical aptitude.)
• Standing two feet away while workers hand-roll cigars that retail for $7 to $20 apiece, and learning those employees earn the equivalent of about $18 per month, very low even by Cuban standards. (One cigar-maker, having no idea our group was coming in that day, had hanging from his work station a T-shirt with the saying, “Mucho aloha, bro.”)
• Poking our heads into a one-chair barber shop in the front room of a family’s small house, being invited immediately into their home, then being treated to a spontaneous four-piece percussion jam session in their living room.
• Impromptu singing during lunch in an upscale restaurant, greeted by the pianist’s huge smile. The pianist said it was the first time patrons had ever sung in that restaurant.
• Feeling the pride Cuban people take in their country and their independence.
• Our tour guide and bus driver, so touched by Kauai’s aloha spirit, fighting back tears at the airport as we were departing.
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Pam Varma
