After landing in Havana, I wasn't sure when it would first really hit me that I had finally arrived, an American in Cuba, with all of the historical significance that comes with such a rare and generally forbidden voyage. It didn't take long to undergo the first experience of scrutiny by the revolutionary state as the immigration official took a long, hard look at my visa and asked what kind of a researcher I was. I sheepishly admitted that I worked in television news and she gave me such a look, as if I'd been trying to sneak something past her, but after what felt like a very long moment, she slid my passport back under the glass and waved me through to where my brother was waiting. Even before leaving the airport grounds, a visitor is faced with a series of propaganda billboards celebrating Cuba's efforts against global warming, praising the superiority of the Communist system and emphasizing the similarities between Hitler and Senor Imperialista Bush. I suppose it could be a little off-putting to immediately confront such harsh criticism of your own head of state, but coming from a very blue city in a very blue state, I think I've probably already become accustomed to much worse criticisms of the president in my very own backyard.

Of course, this very fact is what demonstrates the enormous freedom of expression we have here in the good ol' USA and it was reinforced several times over the following week. I spent a morning at the May Day parade surrounded by anti-American banners and slogans only to relax afterwards in front of satellite CNN and a fervent commercial arguing the futility and wrongheadedness of the current administration's policy in Iraq. I don't think we even realize how significant it is that these advertisements even exist. In seven days of wandering around the residential neighborhoods of Havana, I did not see one bit of graffiti that strayed from the official manual of acceptable slogans...Long Live Socialism...Long Live Fidel...Country or Death. I mentioned this to a slightly cynical Cuban national that works in the US Interest Section in Havana and he wasn't remotely surprised, but he did add that I must not have looked long enough to see the messages of support for the city's baseball team, Los Industriales...those are apparently okay too.