Sam put me onto this site and I have enjoyed
reading all of the messages. Brings back muchos memorias
del pasado. I was one of the Korean vets that the
school was beginning to dislike. They were promoting
WCIM and liked the young innocentes from the midwest.
We did too! I shared an apartment in the city, first
on Calle Kant and later on Mariano Escobedo. I
remember that one of my room mates was from Coos Bay, OR.
There was also a blond guy from Ohio who ran some
buenos juegos de poker at his pad where we played till
the wee hours of the manana. I was a frequent guest
of "El Acuario" and "La Mosca" due to bad habits
that I acquired while in the service. I remember our
rum by the garofon(sp.? cost 35 pesos and a bottle of
Carta Blanca at el super was only $.04US. Donald Lent,
who drowned in Acapulco in 1960 was a room mate also
for awhile. In September while we were on break in
Acapulco, I got pneumonia and was nursed back to health at
Radomski's house. He lived with his parents, as his father
was employed locally. His father was John but I
cannot remember his first name...maybe someone can jog
my memory. I do remember the little guy in the beret
who is R.C. Gorman the famous painter and I also
remember the guy who came to school on a burro. Nice to
hear from fellow estudiantes despues tantos anos de no
oyer nada. Ron Thompson, Naples, FL

Bienvenido a Ron!  About time we got a "downtown" guy in here ;-)

Hola Ron! (Potosi o Bacardi?)
Bienvenidos!<br>Anyway, I just got back from 12 days in and around
Tenochitlan; yes, I went to Sanborn's and stayed downtown! at
the Hotel Gillow (Isabel la Catolica y 5 de Mayo),
two blocks from the zocalo, and also went up to
Cuajimalpa and past the old MCC campus several times. MCC,
now, C.I.D.E., has armed security guards standing in
front and seems like a closed camp...on one of these
trips, I'm going to get off the bus and see what it's
like around the old campus...if they'll let me
in.<br>When I have recovered from the shock of being in a
high-altitude Calcutta, I'll write more about this latest
journey to the edge of the volcanoes...Saludos a todos,
Jed

Hola Nuevos Amigos! Yo soy ron Castillo o como
quiere. Todos los rones de Mexcio son buenos.<br>You may
think that I am suffering from brain fade because I
will turn 70 in Sept. but that is not the case.
Demsiado bebidos fuertes en los 50s. I think that my
drinking came to a new height in 1958, mi ano en Mexico.
For the life of me, I cannot remember many names of
my classmates and teachers. I need all the help that
I get. My two favorite teachers were both PHDs from
Espana. I think one was named Arias, but not sure. He
taught English lit and was educated in Edinburg,
Scotland. The other was my Spanish teacher. She was a
little older and she taught me how to roll my rs by
repeating ferrocarril. One of her favorite sayings: "Es eso
un "v" de vaca o un "b" de burro. She was a great
teacher.<br>I attended MCC all four quarters in 1958,
graduating in December with a BA in English Lit. I ran out
of funds and owed them money before I left for LA.
Once I paid them, I got my diploma. Oh yes, I now have
two diplomas, one from MCC and another from
Universidad de Las Americas. They are both hanging in mi
oficina.<br>Muchas gracias por todo de las memorias de los anos
pasados.

HOLA A TODOS:<br> Well, this really isn't from
Mexico City, it's from Salinas, where we are now
enjoying the blessings of a sunny day and relative quiet
and calm after a rather stormy 11 days in and around
the Mexican capital. <br> Everything is relative,
right?<br> We flew into DF on Sat. 2/24 in the early evening
on a non-stop flight from SFO on United (the only
non-stop from this area on any airline...interesante,
no?), a pleasant trip that included a somewhat humorous
movie, that significantly, I can't remember anything
about at all...what could this mean?<br> Admitedly, we
were apprehensive about going to El Capital after our
tense, uncomfortable experience in 11/97 and having
decided not to go back until things improved--but the
death of Maria's sister, Luz, precipitated this
trip--and coming out of customs seemed to set the tone of
the whole sojourn...there were hundreds of Mexicans
all stacked up at the exit (waiting for people
arriving?) and it was necessary to push our way through
them, luggage in hand, to a narrow, cordoned- off
corridor that ran down the terminal in both directions,
filled with people who all looked like street thugs
and/or pickpockets...in short, a semi-organized gauntlet
of bedlam, in which we needed to change dollars to
pesos and one of the money exchanges (the sharks
watching the minnows count their pesitos!), and secure a
cab to the hotel at the official taxi station. As I
was paying for the cab, a man sidled up to me and
just stood close to our suitcases without saying
anything and I told him to move away, which, of course, he
didn't, so I said, "Saquese!" (which is mostly used to
yell at a dog, as in, "Move it! Get away from me,
etc.") and he was most displeased, complaining but
moving away to "hang" with other cronies in the
doorway...

(continuation)<br> (If there was a mantra to this
trip, "Saquese!" was it. Not just to people pressing in
for something (to grab), but to germs, noise,
garbage, filth, poverty, dispirited and sickly appearing
masses, endless beggars, endemic boom boxes and sound
pollution, reckless drivers, and the ugliness of grey
buildings in all directions as far as the eye could
see...)<br> We tried out a new Hotel this trip, the Gillow,
highly recommended in Frommer's guides, and centrally
located (as is our previous favorite, Hotel Canada). The
Gillow, somewhat historic, is more upscale, has
interesting statues and marble floors...Don Quixote and
Sancho Panza (which may have been harbingers)...and much
larger rooms, almost suites (if you chose the king-size
bed as we did, or the double-bed ones). We had a
balcony, four stories up, overlooking Isabel la Catolica
and the nearby intersection with 5 de Mayo, two
blocks from the zocalo, where a huge open-air exhibit of
photographs re the Chiapas Zapatista movement filled the
square, in anticipation of the peace march to arrive any
day now (gracias a Dios that it didn't arrive while
we were there). During the night I was awakened by
what sounded like the methodical "THUNK" of a
piledriver and opened the room door...and, no, it wasn't
coming from inside the hotel....went to the balcony, and
almost unbelievably the "thunking" that was actually
causing the mattress springs to vibrate was coming from a
disco a block away and across the street...and it
didn't stop until 6:30am! Thank God for earplugs
(necessities for me when traveling if I want to sleep) and
that it was only open on Sat. nights...

...<br> The next day--our 41st anniversary--we
made the trek up to Cuajimalpa. First a cab from the
hotel down the full length of the Paseo de la Reforma
(almost empty on Sunday and somwhat of a treat to
re-experience) to Tacubaya and the small buses that chug up the
hill to Cuaji...where we bought flowers and visited
Luz's grave, first kissing in front of the City Hall
where we had married in 1960. The town center was
packed with booths and entertainment, games, etc. as
Mardi Gras was the coming Tuesday. Afterwards, we
visited with Maria's family and got more of the details
of what had happened with Luz and how it all had
affected them. It was dark by the time we re-traced our
steps to Tacubaya, this time taking the Metro (not
anywhere near as packed in the evening as during the day),
and collapsing into bed.<br> We went back to Cuaji
and spent the day with Maria's sister, Teresa, who
had been ill, but was on the mend, and then left the
next day for our "vacation" part of the trip...3+ days
in Ixtapan de la Sal, a spa town about two hours bus
ride to the State of Mexico/Guerrero border. As if on
some sinister cue, I got sick the minute we entered
the Hotel (Maria Isabel), a really neat place with
colonial furniture, three excellent meals, all for 140
pesos per person per night (about $15 U.S.), a great
bargain and only a block away from the municipal hot
baths ($2) and 30-40 minutes massages (Swedish and
Reflexology) for $6 (highway robbery!). My fever peaked at
close to 104, while Maria lolled in the hot baths and
had a massage each day...anti-biotics....a change in
anti-biotics...and ironically I was feeling better the morning we
had to come back to Mexico City. I had taken one hot
bath in the mineral springs and made Maria miserable
with worry while I spaced out with a fever that broke
no fewer than four times and then each time came
back all over again!!! Literally, I had forgotten how
lousy you can feel with fever, chills, joints aching,
etc..... Now it's all fresh in my mind....and, no, we
didn't eat in the street from any of the vendors of
unidentifiable tacos, etc. A mystery...but the bottled water in
the Gillow always tasted funny...so, ???

As soon as we got back to the Gillow, Maria got
sick with the same crud...first fever and chills, then
later all the unpleasantness in other areas of the
body...but by now we had the right anti-biotics zeroed in
and she was only ill for about 24 hours, with it
lingering in the background until after we returned on
Tuesday 3/6.<br> Regardless, it was a successful trip;
multiple family visits took place, including a breakfast
with Maria's fellow alumnus from law school, Alicia
Rojas, and a lunch with Maria's counsins and families.
There was even a brilliantly clear day on Saturday 3/3,
the aftermath of a big rain storm (lots of snow on
the volcanoes and surrounding mountains) and high
winds the day before that cleared all the smog out to
Ixmiquilpan (joke for Don Porath).<br> Mexico City College,
now the Centro for Investigation of Economic
Development (a front for the CIA?), is like an armed camp,
the wide open large portals of the college campus are
all covered over and there is a small entry way with
armed security guards on either side of it, a high
metal fence runs the full-length of the "campus."
Bearded and sandal-shod beatnik students are now
DEFINITELY not welcome, Personas Non Gratas! <br> The
highway beyond Kilometer 13, where the city used to end
with the big Syntex plant, now winds its crowded way
(it's packed 24 hours a day, in spite of a parallel
toll-road) past high-rise modernistic condomimiums and
LA-sized corporate offices and huge shopping centers, many
of them in the Santa Fe gravel pits to the left of
the highway. The building boom continues right over
the crest of the valley at 10,000+ feet at Las Cruces
and on towards Toluca. There isn't a cornfield or a
maguey "fence" to be seen! Buses run directly from
Cuajimalpa through Chimalpa to Huixquilucan now, where there
are huge shopping malls...

For those who lived in the city years ago,
Cuajimalpa is now more crowded and noisier than Tacubaya,
and Tacubaya is like a scene out of one of those
refugee movies, with hordes of huddled masses trudging
endlessly in all directions on a sea of refuse that has
been squashed right into asphalt and concrete to form
a sticky, smelly, rotting carpet...<br> At times,
during the trip, the odors were almost
overpowering....<br> Perhaps one conclusion that can be gleaned is
that even staying a nice hotel, using taxis for most
of our transport, being careful what we ate and
where we ate it, we still couldn't avoid being exposed
to more germs, bacteria and God-knows what else than
we had in all the last three years combined...we
were out-gunned, guys...<br> The flight back was
smooth, with Maria sleeping most of the way, still
experiencing some nausea, fatigue and discomfort...which has
since dissipated. Perhaps as we become senior citizens
the rigors of Distrito Federal is a tad too much for
us....clearly, we spent a week at the Cabos last year with nary
a sneeze...so it ain't Mexico perhaps, but rather
El Capital...<br> I have great respect for the
Chilangos (Mexico Citians), they adapt day-in, day-out to a
hostile environment that it over-crowded and contaminated
beyond imagination and do so with flair and
non-chalance...the flipside being that perhaps it is not in human
beings' best interest to be able to adapt and flourish in
such unhealthy living situations...<br> Happy to be
back!!!<br> Love to all, Jed y Maria<br>PS For those in the
MCC club; does anyone know how to copy/patch material
into the message area? It never seems to work for me
and I'd like to post this as a message...???

Hola,<br>Special thanks y muchas gracias a Sam
Ormes for taking the time and trouble to break down my
long--hopefully not too long--Letter From Mexico City into five
capitulos and copy/pasting it into our messages space here
at the club (I had circulated it to some club
members as an email).<br>Or, the flipside, if you want to
blame someone for all the Distrito Federal blather it's
all Sam's fault (as in San Andreas) !!!! <br>Saludos
calurosos a todos, Jed

Jed...thanks for writing it!  If you took photos while there, please post some
here.

Hola Sam y miembros:<br>No, hopefully, I painted
word pictures...I was advised not to take a camera on
this latest trip...too attractive a
"nuisance"?<br>Speaking of word pictures, or "attractive nuisances,"
while I got several responses to my "Letter from Mexico
City" in private emails, yours was the only one posted
in the club message section...??? <br>If we want the
club to develop, then it would seem that the messages
should be posted here and, hopefully, a "thread" would
develop...<br>Saludos, Jed

Jed...you painted some very vivid "word pictures"
and we few are grateful. Regarding
membership/activity, it might help if Mike Porath would just put up a
graphic at the top of the Founder's Message column. Most
Yahoo clubs have one, and I even sent Mike some that
could be used. I experience the same limited attendance
at my high school site and am reaching the
conclusion that "age" is a factor. Most grads are around 70
and recent statistics show that Internet use by those
over 65 is at 15%. I'm glad I am 18 going on 68! :-)

I believe Sam is right on ref age being a factor
with the MCC Club membership. Also, doing a search of
Yahoo Clubs does NOT turn up the MCC Club: 13 listings
for Mexico City Clubs, (Sex & Romance, Vampires, you
name it clubs) but NO MCC Club!! We are hard to find.

Sam: I still cannot locate the MCC Club via
Yahoo.com home page, and searching "Clubs," as well as
searching the "Education" catagories. For someone searching
blindly for the MCC Club, I think it may be very chancy.
What's the secret?

Amigos: You may find it interesting to use
FastSearch; url: <a href=http://www.alltheweb.com
target=new>http://www.alltheweb.com</a> which has a feature
that allows you to choose "the exact phrase," and I
put in "Mexico City College" (without the
quotes)...it got 309 hits, including quite a few biographic
notes, among them the movie star, Vic Morrow, who
participated in MCC stage productions in 1950 while a student.
He is deceased in a tragic accident...which brings
up Sam's point that our age group is
cyber-challenged, -marginal, whatever...beyond that, a lot of us
are...DEAD...or haven't you noticed how many individuals younger
than yourself show up in the obits page? So,
celebrate, we're still here to raise hell...well, a tad of
purgatory at least.<br>On a serious (this wasn't serious
enough?) note, those of us who are more cyber-smart (not
me!), could get the club listed on various search
engines and indices...no? I think there are some free
services that do that, although Yahoo is a world to
itself.. Saludos, Jed GTSBA (Glad to still be alive!)

Jed: I just finished using Google's "exact
phrase" search and apparently came up with what appears
to be similar hits that you got (14 plus pages, of
which I have gotton thru only 8 so far).<br><br>Sam:
Got your "Click here: Yahoo! Clubs." <br>But how does
someone, searching blind for the first time, navigate the
Yahoo home site to find the MCC Club. I am still
trying, but have not been successful.

Amigos y los otros:<br>In the attempt to start
blindly from scratch to see if I could a Mexico City
College club or alumni group on the Internet, I ran a
search for Mexico City Club on Google ("Exact Phrase")
and turned up 14 plus pages.
(<a
href=http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Mexico+City+College%22&hl=en&lr=&safe=of\
f&start=60&sa=N
target=new>http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Mexico+City+College%22&hl=en&lr=&s\
afe=off&sta
rt=60&sa=N</a>) Scanning the first 7 pages, I came across the
following of interest to the MCC anthropology
students:<br><br>1. John Paddock, antropologo (1918-1998), by Paul
Schmidt
Schpenberg<br><a
href=http://morgan.iia.unam.mx/usr/phuman/156/Columnas156/Schmidt.html
target=new>http://morgan.iia.unam.mx/usr/phuman/156/Columnas156/Schmidt.html</a>
<br><br>2. And here's a reference to Mike's (and
mine) late anthropology prof,
Horcasitas:<br><br>Igancio Bernal (1910-1992)<br>Eminente antropólogo, jefe
del Departamento de Antropología del Mexico City
College durante 13 años,. . . .
<a href=http://info.pue.udlap.mx/colegios/bernal/historia.htm
target=new>http://info.pue.udlap.mx/colegios/bernal/historia.htm</a><br><br>Fern\
ando Horcasitas also made his contribution: he
gathered the stories that Doña Luz had told and published
them in the first Nahuatl-Spanish bilingual edition of
De Porfirio Díaz a Zapata, memoria náhuatl de Milpa
Alta (From Porfirio Díaz to Zapata, Nahuatl memoir of
Milpa Alta), which renders this indigenous woman's
childhood and understanding of the Revolution; in 1979, 44
of her stories were published in both Nahuatl and
Spanish in Los cuentos en náhuatl de doña Luz Jiménez
(Stories in Nahuatl by Doña Luz Jiménez); and in 1972, a
bilingual Nahuatl-English version of Memoria náhuatl de
Milpa Alta (A Nahuatl memoir of Milpa Alta) was
published.
<a href=http://www.unam.mx/voices/1997/oct/villa.html
target=new>http://www.unam.mx/voices/1997/oct/villa.html</a><br><br>Note: It was
prof. Horcasitas and students who compiled
the first (and to my knowledge still the only)
dictionary of the Nahuatl language, published under the MCC
Press. I fondly remember the field trips where
Horcasiotas would take us into the isolated village
pulquerias and he would converse with the patrons late iinto
the night in their native tongue, Nahuatl. My ancient
maid, Julia, in Cuajimalpa, was Otomi, who spoke almost
no Spanish. I have a photo of her somewhere; I'll
dig it out and post it.<br>Quinn<br><br>3. And for
the Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy buffs (remember
that close-mouth student wearing a trench coat, dark
glasses, and, to hide his cover, sandals and long hair . .
. .that was George Wing . . ):<br><br>"Buckley, as
Hunt's advance man, went to Mexico City to recruit
informants for the CIA's soon-to-be Mexico City station.
There, Buckley met and recruited a 28-year-old Spanish
student from Philadelphia, George Gordon Wing, as an
informant among the left-wing student groups at Mexico City
College. Hunt arrived soon thereafter and arranged for
Wing's CIA payment, which was disguised as a student
grant. . . . ."
<<a
href=http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/rmblr_frwrd.htm\
l>
target=new>http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/rmblr_frw\
rd.html></a>

Joe..I also checked Google. Lots of hits there
but the weirdest was the first one...by
AstroZombie.<br><br>Click here: The Mexico City College boys hung out in a
bar called the Bounty where I once shot a mouse with
a .22 pistol. In M <br><br>I don't recall The
Bounty, and the guy's site contains merely photos (mostly
bad). No email address given. ???

Upon reflection, AstroZombie's captions (the
first one mentions MCC) are probably quotes from Jack
Kerouac.<br><br>"The Mexico City College boys hung out in a bar called
the ..."<br><br> www.astrozombie.com/aa6.html

The MCC CLUB is listed on Goggle, page 12 (using "Exact Phrase" search). Quinn

Hördur Karlsson-Iceland/Artist/Art4Seasons/the
artist <br>An Icelandic artist who studied at MCC, neat
art!<br> JACK CASHIN <br>Another student, who has a
website, including his candidacy for
governor!!!<br>Jacinto Quirarte Oral History Interview Conducted by Paul
Karlstrom for the Archives of American Art, 1996 <br>Momma
Mia! This is the Dean of Men who was author of the
famous "foot-sniffing note" that when posted on the
bulletin board got Lewis Segal expelled from MCC around
'62. He is also the Dean who told me that I was
"persona non grata" for having a beard (I picked up my
mail at the post office on campus...and continued to
do so, proud of my PNG status!). He comes across as
a Bohemian in this interview...is there a moral to
this (every Bohemian has at least a little Fascist in
him?)<br> Mexican Adventure; Student <br>Interesting
website of a 60's MCC student, in English and Spanish,
including his ID card...(BTW I've emailed everyone here
that had an email address, telling them about the
club)<br>Untitled Document <br>Dr. Ray Lindley's obit...knew you'd
want to read it...<br> Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson: LATIN
AMERICA<br>Extensive bibliography of works relating to Latin America
<br>Best,Jed PS: the hyperlinks didn't copy onto this, and if
they don't show up on my copy of this email, I'll
email them directly to list members.

Some good research going on here. I even found a
Chinese MCC page at alumni.net. It shows(in English) the
link to the Yahoo MCC Club that I posted on alumni.net
a while back. I'll try to paste the link below,
although that seldom works.<br><br>Click here: Mexico City
College Alumni Registry

Gee Sam, We didn't know you were literate in
Chinese! Neat! (Or is it all Chinese to you?)Reminds me of
the CAFE ROMA, one of my hangouts (for a comida
corrida) down in the ciudad during my students days, a
Chinese restaurant that served neither Chinese, nor
Italian food...!!! Saludos, Jed<br>PS A couple of former
students who I contacted by email have responded and
hopefully will check out our club and join, of course!

Another article on the Kennedy Assassination Plot
involving a MCC student and a host of other wierd
characters (see my posting no. 93). The original article is
long and convoluted; the following excerpt appears
about 1/10 the way down. (This may explain why Jed hung
around the campus long after he was declared "persona
con
grata."):<br><br><br><br><a
href=http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/rambler4.html
target=new>http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/rambler4.\
html</a><br><br>A page of biographical information included with
Wing's 1961 doctoral dissertation states that he was at
Mexico City College from 1949 to 1950. The next listing
puts him at the University of California beginning in
1952. This two-year gap following his stay at Mexico
City College is intriguing for several reasons. 1950
was the year Hunt hired Buckley to work with him at
the CIA's Mexico City station. Hunt hired him
because, as he recalled, "I knew the student situation in
Mexico City was crying out for some corrective
attention, and I thought here was a young man just out of
college. I was going to be in the embassy myself, and I
needed somebody on the outside who could make contacts
and deal with the younger people." Besides Wing,
another student who was reportedly at Mexico City College
in 1950 was Fidel Castro.503<br>An associate who had
worked with Wing considered him to be a "very weird
person."

Ref Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos as
being ex-MCC prof.<br><br>"Over the years, the
government has tried unmasking him, declaring him to be a
former Mexico City college professor named Rafael
Sebastian Guillen. Even though that seems to be true, it
didn't seem to dent the persona of Marcos; nobody calls
him 'Professor Guillen.'
"<br><a href=http://www.users.skynet.be/kola/archive/010601-12.htm
target=new>http://www.users.skynet.be/kola/archive/010601-12.htm</a><br>By Kevin
Sullivan Washington Post Foreign
Service<br>Saturday, December 9, 2000; Page C01

Kong Hee Fatt Choy! is about all I remember from
4 years in Asia based in Singapore...means Happy
New Year :-) Nope, I stumbled across the site doing a
search on MCC. I posted a message there (in English)
inviting our Chinese classmates to come to the club. No
response yet.

For those who are new to the club or just
visiting, I'm sure Joe Quinn is joking when he offers the
possible explanation of me sticking around the MCC campus
after Jacinto Quirarte told me I was "persona non
grata," (I was picking up my mail as I had an Apartado in
the campus correo), but it is an intriguing
idea...Like MCC wouldn't have me around, but the CIA would?
Or was I supposed to be in league with Fidel? (Note:
Around Mexico people would yell out "Castro Ruz" at me,
leaving me somewhat bewildered at first, until I found
out it meant Fidel (his last two surnames), because
of my beard, so I started yelling back, "No,
Venustiano Carranza!" which was good for a laugh...

True. I was joking ref Jed and the CIA, etc. Nor
do I hold any credence in the Kennedy Assassination
Conspiracy plots involving MCC students I've stumbled
across, and posted. I suspect every generation has its
expatriates, and the late 50s and early 60s era of MCC was no
exception with its own Hemingwayish canvas, and Damon
Runyon characters in every corner of the campus. History
and memory adds the mystique.

An added note to the Kerouac-Kennedy stuff: I too
was a bearded student and more than once was called
Castro-Russ. I do remember a guy/fellow student who talked
about going to join up with Castro. I don't recall his
name, but it was in '61 or '62. I also considered
myself an expatriate and seeing how poor the average
Mexicano was, thought of us gringos as being spoiled and
wasteful. The first time I went to Mexico was in July 1960,
at the age of 20, on my way to the Canary Islands to
take an editorship at the Canary Island Sun. By the
time I got to Mexico City I realized I didn't
understand the language very well even after just taking 5
months of daily intensive Spanish classes at El Camino
College. My plan, naive as I was, was to take a bus to
Brazil, cross over to W. Africa and take buses up to El
Aiun, then a little boat to Gran Canaria. I went to a
travel agent to ask for bus tickets to Brazil, and he
laughed at me saying there's a Darien swamp which no
buses cross to S. America. A plane ticket was what he
offered. Seeing I only had $550 I decided to take a
friend's advice and go to Vera Cruz and try to get a job
on a ship to Spain or somewhere near las Islas
Canarias. After 2 weeks of asking around I got a work-a-way
on a Norwegian freighter. After stopping at Tampico,
next port was Havana. I thought, as a journalist I
could get some good shots of Castro's Cuba. When we
docked the captain told me that I couldn't take my
camera ashore after work, and that if anyone asked I was
Norwegian. He was holding 500 of my dollars and I only had
20 to spend. But at the waterfront bar I was told to
give the bartender my 20 U.S. dollars and he would
give me 40 Cuban dollars. Well, the Cuba Libres were
only 35cents Cuban, and the ladies weren't much more,
so I was doing well. A fellow shipmate, who spoke
Spanish, and I went to a more expensive bar away from the
port, and as I was telling him that I thought the
former president was named (at this time I can't even
remember)???, then a Cuban who overheard me came over and said
we don't mention??????'s name anymore. When we left
to return to the port, two soldiers carrying
tommyguns followed us. And when we entered a waterfront
bar, talking with the prostitutes, they sat at an
adjoining table, watching and listening. One of the women
who said she was Polish, wanted to return to Poland,
but only had 12 dollars. I had noticed walking down
the street that some people gave me the high sign or
salute, and others looked at me like they wanted to kill
me. I attributed it to my beard, thinking they must
think I'm one of the Castro boys. I did read in the
paper that the last of the Americans had been arrested,
but more fascinating was the article saying that Cuba
now had missiles for its bases, on this the first
anniversary of the revolution, July 1960. As a
student/journalist I thought that this might be news to the U.S., so
when the ship docked in N.Y. I fully expected to be
questioned by customs, and was ready to tell them what I had
seen and heard. They passed me through with no
questions, and didn't even inspect my 1899 era Indestructo
Steamer Trunk. My thought at the time was, they must have
people in Cuba telling them everything and I didn't
really have anything to report. It wasn't until October,
1963, that I realized maybe I did. And it wasn't until
years later that I matured enough to realize that most
people, U.S., Mexico, or wherever, are alike in that they
have the same values; they love their children and
want the best for them, and none of them deserve to
have bad things happen to them, especially by
governments. And I can vouch for Jed. He's no "red dope
beatnick." His major ambition since I've known him(he was 19
when I met him) was to help people. He's spent his
whole life doing just that. Hope I haven't gone
overboard in this little mini-comedy/drama. Photos to
follow. Ricardo