L.A. Times Goes to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

October 1, 2015
L.A. Times Goes to Cuba

by Rip Rense

The L.A. Times sent one of its managing editors to Cuba a few months ago, to report on the status of the society, culture, etc. Good that they sent a big gun, instead of just a run-of-the-mill reporter. Here are two of the stunning findings from this report. Brace yourself!

If you travel to Cuba, be prepared for a squash fest. At every lunch and dinner, we were offered pumpkin soup or cooked butternut squash or squash stew. It was rarely bad but never great, which was true of much of the food we consumed.

Annnnnd…

Cuba doesn’t have the agriculture, the infrastructure or the economy to support anything resembling the flatbreads, house-cured pastrami and vinegared cauliflower that we’ve come to expect in Venice or Los Feliz or DTLA.

Well! That darn Cuba! Here the USA has reestablished relations, and Cuba does not even have the goddamned decency to offer squash stew that is “great.” Sheesh. Harrumph! How dare those tyrannized, dirt-poor people! Good thing the LAT sent one of its managing editors to get this scoop. I mean, think of how an inexperienced reporter might have handled the assignment!

And then we have the vital, earth-shattering news that Cuba does not have the “agriculture, infrastructure, or economy” to produce “flatbreads, house-cured pastrami, and vinegared cauliflower that we’ve come to expect in Venice or Los Feliz or DTLA” (the new “hipster” way of referring to downtown L.A..) Darn that Cuba again! Here Obama went to all that trouble to let American citizens haul their fat asses down there, and my God, those Cubans don’t have the courtesy to produce pastrami as good as Venice, Los Feliz, and “DTLA.” Unforgivable! Didn’t they know that U.S. citizens with big, rumbling guts and discriminating palates were coming? Thank God for this hard-hitting, incisive, pithy, empathetic, moving account of life in Cuba under Castro! Can a Pulitzer be far off?

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/01/l-a-times-goes-to-cuba/

Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016133495

[Demeter]

1. Because it's all about Californian sensibilities

I'm waiting for the Big One to fix what's wrong with that part of the country.

[flamingdem]

2. U are toootally wrong about us Californians!

Sticking up for us as being the ones that really pushed cultural exchange with Cuba from the late 80s.

Californians were in there creating relationships with musicians and dancers and bringing thousands of people there with and without government approval.

Compare that to Florida!