{"id":92310,"date":"2017-05-02T14:52:44","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T18:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oncubamagazine.com\/?p=92310"},"modified":"2018-03-02T13:42:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T18:42:01","slug":"an-americans-first-may-day-in-havana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/an-americans-first-may-day-in-havana\/","title":{"rendered":"An American\u2019s First May Day in Havana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Looking down Linea at 5 am, I stopped for a moment to watch trucks and buses dropping off workers for the Primero de Mayo (May Day) parade. As an American student at the Universidad de La Habana for the semester, it was my first time going and a day that I had been looking forward to for a while. I had expectations founded on news, pictures, and even fictional movie scenes about how a major celebration would run in a Communist state. And by 6 am on Monday, I was already surprised.<\/p>\n<p>Paseo, where the parade was staged, seeped with the pride of workers marching with their offices and industries. Although some were forced to come with their companies, others slept outside the night before so they could walk the mile with their co-workers. When people saw my camera, after asking me to take a group photo and they would tell me about their industry.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_92312\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92312\" style=\"width: 755px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Marita-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-92312\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Marita-1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Andrew Plotch\" width=\"755\" height=\"503\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-92312\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Andrew Plotch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The event\u2019s communication did not feel as if it was driven by the state, but by the 100,000s of Cubans who went. Despite my expectations, the speeches were not a major portion of the Day. As a matter of fact, they were not even audible to the vast majority of workers there, those who were waiting in the parade lineup. Government directions mandated offices to bring posters, but homemade signs and posters also dotted the crowd touting messages such as \u201cAbajo al Bloqueo,\u201d \u201cRaul es Fidel,\u201d \u201cViva el Primero de Mayo,\u201d and \u201cTodos Somos Fidel\u201d (\u201cDown with the Embargo,\u201d \u201cRaul is Fidel,\u201d \u201cLong Live May Day,\u201d and \u201cWe are all Fidel.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>After weeks of seeing billboards shouting \u201cTodos a la Plaza. Primero del Mayo\u201d (All to the Plaza. May Day), I had expected a larger presence of overt state messaging. Yet, there was no need for it. Over half a million Cubans, with signs, chants, and energy, brought with them powerful messages cultivated by the Castros over decades: the importance of the working class, fierce nationalism, the evils of American actions, and the power of unity.<\/p>\n<p>Those who do not agree just stayed home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking down Linea at 5 am, I stopped for a moment to watch trucks and buses dropping off workers for the Primero de Mayo (May Day) parade. As an American student at the Universidad de La Habana for the semester, it was my first time going and a day that I had been looking forward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3507,"featured_media":92311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13944],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33952,13503],"class_list":["post-92310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba-usa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An American\u2019s First May Day in Havana | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/an-americans-first-may-day-in-havana\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An American\u2019s First May Day in Havana | OnCubaNews English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Looking down Linea at 5 am, I stopped for a moment to watch trucks and buses dropping off workers for the Primero de Mayo (May Day) parade. 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