| Pinar
del Río is Cuba's westermost province. The region is
heavily agricultural, with tobacco being one of the most important
crops. The city of Pinar del Río is about two hours from La
Habana by auto. |
|
| The highway. This is Autopista A-4, the road from La Habana to Pinar del
Río. Four lanes, but not a lot of traffic. The speed limit is 80
km, or about 50 mph. You share the road with bicyclists, horseback
riders, hitch-hikers, ox and horse carts, vintage autos, buses, etc. |
|
| The Hotel Pinar
del Río. The hotel where I stayed is
across the street from the University, at the end of Highway A-4 from
La Habana. Note the 1950's era car on the street, a relic of the days
when Cuba was essentially a US colony. Despite the longstanding US bloqueo
(embargo), people keep these cars runnning as long as they can. |
|
| The University of
Pinar del Río. The university opened
in 1972, and is named for the brothers Saiz Montes de Oca, two Pinar
del Río youth who were killed in the Cuban Revolution. This is
the Edificio Docente or teaching building, which houses the
language laboratory and where most language teaching goes on, and this
is also where the Conference I attended was held. |
|
|
José Martí. Martí is the secular patron saint of Cuba, and his
likeness is everywhere. This bust is on the second floor of the Edificio
Docente...
...and this billboard overlooks a street
intersection. Note the horse-drawn cart.
|
|
|
A wall in the student residencias
(dorms) has posters featuring quotes from Martí and Fidel
Castro. Martí's (far right) reads "An educated people will
always be a free people."
Castro's quote (left) reads "Create wealth with
conscience and not conscience with wealth."
|
|
| Pinar del
Río. Here a new friend and I stand on
the glorieta looking down Calle Martí toward the
University. |
 |
| The Natural History
Museum. |
|
| Mural on the side of
a building. |
|
| One mode of
transportation in the city is by carro de caballo, or
horse-drawn wagon. |
|
| Fellow passengers on
the carro de caballo. |
|
| Elementary school
children. In Cuba, education is free through university. |
|
| In addition to
vintage cars, new cars, buses, horse carts, and bicycles, Cubans also
sometimes make use of these passenger-carrying tricycles for transport. |
|
| Viñales
Valley. A small group from the conference
took a tour of the nearby Viñales valley, a national park
dominated by strangely shaped limestone hills called mogotes. |
|
| The tour group... a
Dutchman, an "American," and four Cubans... at the overlook at Los
Jazmines. In Cuba, as in most of Latin America, the term norteamericano
is usually used for people from the US; americano could refer
to anyone from the Americas. |
|
| Looking down on some
farms in the valley from the Los Jazmines overlook... a secador
or shed for drying tobacco can be seen in the center. In addition to
tobacco, people were growing maíz (corn), caña
(sugar cane), malanga (a root crop), as well as raising cattle,
goats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. |
|
| The mogotes
are the remains of a vast cave system which collapsed as the land mass
of Cuba rose. There are still caves which people can explore, and
there's even one you can ride through in a small boat! Our vehicle, a
Toyota Land Cruiser, was a gift to the university from the United
Nations. |
|
| The Mural de la
Prehistoria (Mural of Prehistory) was painted on the side of a mogote
by a student of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. |
|
| A street corner in
Viñales, the main town within the valley. |
|
|
The Conference.
This is the conference program cover.
|
|
| A Cuban conference
participant discusses the use of local words and expressions in public
announcements regarding conservation and welfare, using Powerpoint. |
|
| Here I give my
presentation: "Creole English on Carriacou, Grenada: A linguistic
perspective." I used a low-tech overhead projector. |
|
| Conference
participants take a break between sessions. |
|
