(gordita)

as promised, i am writing about asses. again. it’s not my fault though because i am in a country where they are obsessed with them. round ones, high ones, fat ones, gigantic ones. they love an ass and for a gal like me (con un culo grande), it’s perfect. i couldn’t have picked a better country to learn how to love my body. for those who know me, they know that at times my choice of clothing can be on the provocative side. well, here in havana, i often hear “hmmmm, your clothes could be a little tighter. your skirts a little shorter. your tops a little lower”. if I didn’t believe in heaven before, i have most definitely stumbled upon it now. don’t get me wrong, for every cuban man on the street who covets your fine round ass there will be a cuban woman who stares you down with the devil in her eyes. why that is, i’m still not sure but it happens to me. a lot. i am convinced that every cuban woman on the street hates me but i’m going to try and be positive and think maybe she’s just too shy to ask me where i got my sparkly headband or how can she get her hair so shiny? this notion of body image, in a country like this really fascinates me. there is every single shape and size on this island and the majority of the women, and men (especially), celebrate it heartily. the boobs are perched high and bounce delightfully when they walk the streets (something cubans do a lot of), their asses high, proud and begging to bust out of the constraints of their lycra pants, their round bellies happily free to hang around and out…..and you know what? they look beautiful. and more importantly, they FEEL beautiful. they don’t make apologies, for anything. that is what i love about the women in this country (and it’s a topic i plan on writing about a lot because they totally fascinate me), these strong women have to survive (more on their many, many struggles in future posts) and they don’t have time to obsess about their bodies like we do in north america. in fact, in this country, the fatter you are, the better. i am actually starting to get used to being called a ‘gordita’ (fat girl) on a daily basis – for people to literally gasp when they hear that i don’t really eat meat because it’s simply not possible to be as fat as me when you only eat fruits and vegetables (they don’t know about my many trips to baskin/robbins). the first thousand times i was called a fatty i turned many shades of red, pulled at my shirt, giggled nervously and started calculating how much money i had spent in therapy to prepare me for this very moment. now, 5 trips to cuba later, i excitedly say ‘gracias!’ when somebody calls me a gordita because I know it’s a compliment. a big one. if you’re fat, it means you’re healthy. and if you’re healthy it means you are eating. and if you are eating it means you’re happy and not struggling like so many of the people here do. so, i now welcome the gawks at the size of my ass, i revel in the fact that they stare at it like it’s a pig on a spit (and believe me, the cubans seriously dig a pig on a spit), and I will, without guilt and with sheer delight, eat yet another fried plantain and allow the worshipping of my voluptuous bod to continue.

fact: there is a serious food shortage in cuba right now. getting worse every day. with the new regime (more on how raul is making things so much worse to follow) comes greater struggles, especially with regard to food. i will write about the food situation in greater detail as i get a better understanding of how it works but in the meantime, i can tell you that people here are starving. the desire to work is so low (you make so little most people think ‘what’s the point?’), the production is down so much that there is virtually no food to be had. anything imported (and the relations are so bad there is very little) is so expensive that the average cuban could never afford it and anything grown that’s half decent is used for tourists. before it was more about what people could afford, could they make the food that they get on their ration card last the month (virtually impossible) but now it’s not about what people can buy, it’s what they can find. and right now, it’s very little. it now makes pretty perfect sense to me ~ that being able to feed your children is more important to obsess about than ‘does my ass look fat in these pants’?

want more? well, stay tuned and find out about……

• what the dogs in the street will do to/for you for a bone

……and even more!