By the time he realised his dream visit to Cuba in 2023, Delhi-based journalist Ullekh N.P. had been reading extensively about the exotic archipelago for years. The result of that 'sabbatical' visit, on a journalist visa, is Mad About Cuba: A Malayali Revisits the Revolution, a travelogue-cum-political commentary-cum-history lesson.

Ullekh's longtime fascination with Cuba owes from his late father, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, and relatives in the leftist movement. Growing up, he was drawn to Marxist literature, Castro and the Cuban revolution, and the works of Bogota-born Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was close to Castro.

Ullekh was heavily influenced by books about the revolution, in Malayalam, including Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Motorcycle Diaries. A journalist who began his career in the late 1990s, he re-examines his teenage passion for the country. On visiting Cuba, he is "overcome by an intense sense of deja vu" (p. 201).

The book draws significant parallels between Kerala and Cuba, noting that both, along with West Bengal (where the Left Front ruled from 1977-2011), have a strong leftist tradition. The Communist Party of Kerala's electoral triumph in the late 1950s coincided with the Cuban revolution.

Governed by socialist ideals, both countries have high literacy rates, free healthcare and education, a higher ratio of educated women, zero population growth, produce highly qualified doctors, innovative treatments and pharmaceuticals. Their health outcomes outrank those of developed countries.

Moringa seeds from India

There are other similarities. Castro, like many Malayalis, loved moringa, a key ingredient for sambar, a south Indian staple. The 2010 Haiti earthquake prompted Castro to accelerate his goal of providing nutritious food for the poor. Dr. Concepcion Campa Huergo, founder of Cuba's Finlay Institute, visited Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, leading India to ship tons of moringa seeds to Cuba for cultivation. Today Cuba uses moringa to produce oil, animal fodder, and in its pharmaceutical and food industries.

Cooperation between Kerala and Cuba continues. Kerala plans to set up a vaccine-manufacturing facility using technologies from Cuba.

The book also chronicles the genesis of the colonial interests and imperialism in Cuba by Britain, Spain and the US, especially the sanctions imposed by the U.S., resulting in shortages and insufficiencies of daily supplies in some areas.

The last chapter traces Cuba’s painful history of colonial powers since the late 15th century, revealing that American aggression predates Cuba's 1959 communist revolution. It details the unfair and cruel attempts to punish Cuba for over six decades, for choosing a socialist, communist government.

Cuba offers a compelling case study of capitalism’s triumph and socialist’s decline. Ullekh intertwines significant events of the early revolution, like the 1961 Bay of Pigs U.S.-sponsored invasion, the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the 1967 killing of Che Guevara, with post-Castro Cuba, and Washington's continued reluctance to lift the embargos.

As a Bangladeshi, I am aware how the U.S. punished us in 1974 for being in the communist bloc and trading with Cuba, however miniscule. The US withholding food aid is considered one of the reasons for the devastating Bengal famine that year.

While Obama in his second term made significant efforts, subsequent administrations have reverted to Cold War-era policies, writes Ullekh. Sensational, provocative accusations like Senator Mark Rubio’s false story about his family’s escape from Cuba and accusations for Cuba sheltering Chinese spies, have jeopardised the Obama-led detente.

The sanctions and potential US retribution deter several nations from trading with Cuba. Yet Cuba has thrived, argues Ullekh. China, India and other countries continue to engage with Cuba, which excels in research and development and distributes technology in Africa and South America. In addition to its universal healthcare, Cuba has strong biotechnology, genetic engineering and molecular immunology industries.

American tourists visiting Cuba during the Obama detente 2015-2017, found stark differences between the propaganda and the reality on the ground. Meanwhile Cuban researchers have ingeniously developed treatments like a lung cancer vaccine and a drug from sugarcane wax to reduce blood cholesterol.

“Since 1959, the little nation has withstood the might of the American empire with its plots to engineer regime changes, assassination attempts on its top leaders, especially Fidel Castro, and the cruel sanctions to crush the spirit of the nation,” writes Ullekh (p. 23).

Cuba, he argues, "is in transition, braving the blockage by sheer willpower and ingenuity" (p. 134).

Busting myths and misinformation

The writer counters the myths and misinformation surrounding communism and capitalism -- and the idea that private investment drives innovations. In reality, public sector institutions have fostered technological innovations like the Internet, GPS, and biotechnology.

Ullekh compares Cuba to Taiwan, facing the wrath of a superpower neighbour. Having prioritised literacy, education and medical care, Cuban society, he notes, is far less unequal than Taiwan that focused on electronics and military preparedness.

He examines Cuba’s experience alongside China and Vietnam, highlighting how economic blockades combined with socialist, distributive economic policies have impacted Cubans living standards, with reduced rations, restricted water and electricity supply, especially in remote regions. The shortcomings of a centralised system include government ration stores, inadequate supplies, and outdated improvised motor vehicles.

Ullekh found that Cuba's young generation does not widely share the patriotism of their seniors. Seeing higher quality commodities in capitalist societies, they aspire to those standards, oblivious to the inequalities within capitalist systems.

It is only human to chase aspirations and desires. Will Cuba be able to transition to a market economy, asks Ullekh, amid growing discontentment with their growth and career prospects.

Rum and cigars

No book about Cuba would be complete without vivid portrayals of its cigars, rum and joyful lifestyle through music, dance, cuisine and classic cars. regardless of economic conditions, mostly stemming from U.S. sanctions.

Ullekh shares his experiences of visiting cigar plantations and tasting various food and drinks in spectacular detail. He tries a daiquiri, a cocktail reportedly favoured by the legendary journalist-turned-author Ernest Hemingway who lived in Cuba on and off between 1939-1960. He writes about a dream he had about the Malecón, a long stretch of scenic coastal boulevard in Havana. In his dream, he rolls down, unseen by "the forever alert bartenders in the bar along the left side of the lawn or the enthusiastic waiters at the restaurant on the right that serves heavenly Cuban food."

"Neither the performing musicians nor the guests in the hotel roaming about or dancing away notice me roll past. The cannon that fought the empires sees me. So do the chairs and the doors and the green grass. They conspire with me and don’t raise an alarm while I allow myself to fall to the road. It is a painful fall, but I am prepared for it. I jump into the sea and swim. The water is neither cold nor hot, and I enjoy floating on the mellow waves of the night” (p.177).

I also learnt that the Spanish conquest nearly wiped out the indigenous Taino people who introduced hammocks and contributed the roots of words like barbeque, canoe, hurricane. Supporters of the Cuban politician Eduardo Rene Chibas who founded the Orthodox Party in 1947 denouncing corruption, brandished brooms to clean up governance -- long before India’s Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party in 2012.

An entire chapter devoted to Che Guevara explores the revolutionary leader's contributions to Cuba, Latin America and Africa, highlighting Che’s ideology and industrialisation plans, resistance to Soviet economic proposals, and the alternative policies he tried to develop.

“...Guevara is the most admired person in the country, perhaps much more than even Castro...notwithstanding concerted efforts to demonise him as a sadist who mistreated his prisoners (often based more on hearsay than any information from primary sources)...” (p.146).

Mad About Cuba is short and entertaining, with substantial, well-argued facts to support the political commentary. Ullkeh makes a strong case to lift the embargo, and paints a complex political history of a nation trying to transition to and integrate with the rest of the world without giving up its sovereignty or heritage.

Mad About Cuba: A Malayali Revisits the Revolution
By Ullekh N.P.
Penguin Random House, 2024
256 pages, USD26 (Paperback), USD17 (Kindle)

(The author is a Bangladeshi public sector policy analyst and adviser based in Australia.  By special arrangement with Sapan )