Cuban Souvenir

I get to my mother’s house on Christmas day. She shows me a present given her by a friend of a friend here from the island. I hold it in my hand and realize it is a souvenir like any you find around the world. It stands about four inches tall and is made of different woods. Someone has taken a thin marker, maybe even a pen, and written Cuba 2007 on the base. I realize that some ordinary Cuban probably supplements his or her meager living by hawking homemade souvenirs to tourists. I start to feel amusement. Then I think of the average tourist picking up the trinket for a song, never giving a thought to its creator. Said tourist going home and telling friends, “It was so unspoiled, even the souvenirs were handicrafts the natives made.” Then the longing stirred up by the rough little figure mixes with sadness for the creator who might well be a doctor who finds it more profitable to use hands trained for healing to carve his items of tourist kitsch.

Posted by rsnlk at December 26, 2007 11:16 PM

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