The Good Road

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[music playing] Can looking back, push us forward?

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Billie Holliday.

Will our voice be heard through time?

Can our past inspire our future.

Absolute act of concern.

[music playing] The forbidden holds an allure, unlike the merely remote.

Cuba, 100 or so miles from Florida, might as well be another planet.

[music playing] The wars of Independence and the revolution have taken its toll on Cuba, but they have also empowered it with a national identity like no other.

Cuba is not defined by the US embargo that has contributed to its woes since 1958, but it is certainly scarred by it.

Fidel Castro's shadow, ever looming, is fading.

Change is in the air.

Yes, everywhere you look, you can see the retro cars, and beautiful but crumbling colonial architecture.

But if you look a bit deeper around a corner, behind a closed door, there's something much more vibrant, much richer at work, a social tapestry and culture that transcends political and economic conflict.

A people striving to connect to the world.

[music playing] Cuba is a labyrinth of texture and color.

Everywhere we go is a photograph waiting to be taken.

We're struggling to find Chaiky, our contact for Los Datway, a Cuban dance group.

Our lack of phones and internet, another product of the embargo, doesn't help.

But as we turn down a Central Havana Side Street, our destination becomes clearer.

[music playing] Los Datway was started in 2015 by Chaiky with just a few friends from the Barrio.

They have since risen to some fame on Instagram.

But being digital creators in Cuba is hard.

The internet is barely a decade old here, so uploading content takes forever.

Getting paid by social media companies due to the embargo laws can take even longer if you can find a way to do it at all.

Chaiky and Chameleon take us into a neighborhood residence-turned studio art collective and practice space.

There we met Osmar, the choreographer, and some of the dancers.

The vibrance and optimism of youth abounds.

[music playing] Director.

Director.

You're the director?

Filmmaker.

Filmmaker.

Choreographer.

Y ustedes han sido amigos desde Everyone knowing each other since you were little?

Del Barrio No, hablas ingls muy bien .

When we were filming out there, there were people just coming through on motorcycles.

We filming the children are playing.

Yeah, they're playing football.

And the people in the Barrio, they like that you do this in the streets?

Si, la gente del barrio... nos apoya.

So they support you guys on this?

Yeah.

So what did they think about the group?

Nostoros nos somos con la almo de la cuardra You're the soul of the Barrio.

No, it sounds like it's a big success because everyone seems to love you guys.

En ocasiones como s si ahorita pudieron ver que no haban muchos.

So you'll let the young kids come in and they enjoy it as well and they participate.

Cuando crecen entran tambin.

So maybe years later, these little kids become those kids, the reserve.

Yeah, that's awesome.

That's really.

So what makes Cuban music or Cuban dance different than Puerto Rican, as the Brazilian?

Sandunga o sea, los otros gneros Musicales de otros pases latinos no est pero... un Politico, si (laughter) Azcar!

Azcar... You love music from other Latin places.

And it's all good.

You say it's all good.

So what is Sandunga mean though?

Sandunga is like-- Sandunga.

It's like Sandunga.

That's Sandunga.

[laughter] How many people are in the group?

17 ballerinas, pero tambien se inclua el filmaker de los videos.

So 17 dancers.

But you have producers, filmmakers.

Como se llama esa?

Irene.

Are you from this Barrio?

Viene de este barrio?

Tampoco no?

El Cerro OK, both of you, yeah.

From the same neighborhood.

What barrio?

What neighborhood do you come from.

[speaking spanish] Oh really, finally, someone from here.

Everyone else?

Afuera pero tu eres de aqui, no?

Ah, perro, el dice el ba (laughter) So everyone is like friends.

Everyone is amused.

We are like a family.

You can tell that you spend a lot of time together.

Nosotras enseamos todos los dias Todos los dias, ah Monday, como Friday.

Friday.

Friday.

Friday.

Y los Sabado And Saturday.

It's Saturday.

Sunday.

Y lo Domingo Monday through Friday, you practice.

Saturday, you film.

Sunday you have a show.

And who did all this great art on the back?

Its all graffiti artists By various artists Various artists.

Este lo hizo Fabian.

Ah, Fabian.

Fabian, as well.

Why is what you do-- why is it important?

Por que este lo que haces ustedes importantes?

Es importnate para nosotros Porque nos luta, sabe.

Nosotros, as veces cuando estamos en la casa tenemos que descansar.

First and foremost, it's most important for you first, and then it's for everyone.

But for you first.

So important for you and then important for the community.

Guys, it's amazing.

OK, Gracias.

Gracias.

[music playing] Los Datway is using the art of dance to try and reach out to the world.

Now we're going to meet someone who's bringing the world to Cuba.

[music playing] Welcome to the San Isidro arts district in the historical center of Old Havana.

We took a walk through the old neighborhood with a Adan Perugorria.

Adan is a musician, entrepreneur, and restaurant owner.

His Yarini Habana sits on top of the Gorya workshop and gallery, a community gallery and neighborhood workshop for the arts.

Adan is working with artists from all over the world to create an arts district and revitalize a once vibrant neighborhood decimated by the closing of the commercial port, less than a kilometer away.

And these have always been like a port neighborhood.

All the warehouses are like a blocks from here.

So you have all these it used to be warehouses.

They legalize prostitution in the beginning of the century of the last century to be able to control it.

And when the republic began, then after the revolution, that all the businesses stop in the port and everything.

A lot of people started living here.

And then the neighborhood changed and was, this is the historical center of Havana.

But this part doesn't have very important building for the historical office to restore.

That's when we came with the idea to present this neighborhood and transform it through art.

And I already see a lot of art around.

That was everywhere you look.

Yeah.

This is a graffiti artist from the US that is very, very famous in Miami specifically.

What's up?

So this is all the murals that we've made.

We made festivals every year.

And then we change the murals because we don't have more walls.

So we are sharing the big walls.

We have to change every year.

It's like being in a gallery for street art.

So that's interesting.

These have been here for two years, three years.

But normally all the other ones are from last year.

A little bit about this tree.

This tree is right now the oldest Sabha that is in the historical center.

They have more than 150 years old.

And this is a very important tree for the Afro-Cuban religion.

So this is like the tree of mother nature.

So, for example, every time that the city has a birthday, they all walk around the Sabha for good luck for the next year.

This is like nature's art.

Yeah, nature's art.

Totally.

Here is Fabian, 2 plus 2 equal 5 that you must have seen in the city.

All around the city.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's an amazing Cuban artist, street artist that I've been working with us for a long time.

And this is Mr. Miel.

That is the one that is in the other side.

That is one of the first muralist.

These are incredible.

Yeah.

I can't imagine.

World-class.

What is the community like?

I mean, the art community?

Cuba have changed a lot, especially in the past 10 years.

The first thing that I think that changed Cuba is the access to internet.

Right now, everyone is connected, that's something that we dream about it.

And that changed for good and for bad and for everything that make the internet changed the country.

So we have so much talent in the island that we are trying to promote that young talent.

Because normally here, for example, you don't have a market for selling art.

So it's difficult to be an artist without selling.

What was the vision?

And then really what has actually happened?

This neighborhood is like it was not growing as fast as the other part of Havana because we thought that the only way to transform this neighborhood was through art.

Are you kind of finding that the community is accepting?

So have been living here for 10 years almost, and it's like my neighbor also.

So everyone at the first is like they don't know what is happening.

But then the people love what we have done and they love the art.

Whenever artists come here and stay here, they are very warm welcome from the neighborhood.

Man, I love this story.

Is it selling?

Yeah.

And they are telling a lot of Cuban stories.

You feel identified with a lot of the things that are put in the walls.

[music playing] Where are we at in the process?

Are we halfway done?

No, no.

We're still like 10%, 20% or less of the dream that we want to build here.

Because they view you as an artist.

They view you as a community activist?

Is a mix, I think because I'm an artist also.

I study piano and I have a band with my brother.

But we have played a lot here in the street for free for everyone on the other side that I have the restaurant there, and I have a lot of people working with me in the restaurant and in the project that are from the neighborhood.

So it's like I have a very complicated vision about me, I think, because it's like a messy.

They cannot really know exactly what we do.

This is a shirt that is right now in reconstruction, but inside it's all the walls and the ceiling, everything is hand-painted.

[music playing] I notice there's one bar down there, the Jibaro.

Jibaro.

There is.

One of the owners is right there.

Oh really?

Yeah, if you want to-- Let's go say hi.

Let's go say hi.

[speaking spanish] Awesome Congratulations.

2017.

Actually our background is not like in hospitality.

I'm nuclear engineer and he's an economist.

I'll tell you.

So you just had a bad idea and you said one day too many mules and you said, oh let's do this idea.

Adan's friends are like him, navigating the complex issues of private enterprise in Cuba, where most things are still state-owned and run.

Entrepreneurs have to stick together.

So of course, we had a drink.

And they even made a mocktail for Craig.

With a big smile.

[laughter] After a brief tropical rain, we settled in back at the bar of Yarini Habana.

And Adan explained where the name Yarini comes from.

This is the name of a very famous character from Havana from the beginning of the last century.

He was a guy that used to be a pimp, and he was killed here in the corner of the street, like 50 meters from here.

He was Cuban.

He was Cuban.

And the other part that ran the prostitution here in the area, it was from France.

So they have disputed about one prostitute that he fell in love and then they kill each other at the same time because of that woman.

I think it talks a little bit about the changes of this neighborhood.

Is also where our Apostol nacional Jos Mart was born.

Oh yes.

That's interesting.

Like 100 meters from here is his house.

Why is Jos Mart so important?

Jos Mart was like the thinker of Cuba, justice, equality for everyone.

Like, he was a very great thinker and he participated in the wars in Cuba.

He was killed in the last war.

And this space here hasn't always been like this?

No, no, no.

So I started here when I was 17 years old in the making the holes to put cement to be able to grow the columns.

And I got up to here.

So far, so good.

I don't know how much higher need to get.

It's amazing.

You've gone into an area that overall wasn't the most visible, and yet almost now, it's starting to become one of the most visually interesting places in the whole city.

Yeah, the idea was to be able to transform through art, the neighborhood, to give a light through the art that I think that art has the power of transformation in people and society and in architecture and everything.

Yeah.

So where did that come from?

You said you started at 17?

Yeah, because this is a prayer that I have with my father.

My father, I think that is the one that has gives me and my brothers and my whole family a vision to work and try to transform with art.

So my father is an actor and movie producer and a director and a painter, and so he's always trying to help.

And that's his vision.

And that's what he has passed to us.

You and your three brothers, all of you kind of are inside of the arts.

And you guys are close as a family.

You studied piano.

It's maybe not that big of a leap to say we're going to create a space, a space where this can happen, where people can convene, where community can happen.

We are very connected to music.

We make like two or three concerts a week in the restaurant.

And we have the DJs, the new music scene.

Also, we try to promote alternative part of art in Havana, non-mainstream art.

How important is this community versus other communities inside of Habana?

We give it visibility to this forum and the visibility of the potential that this park can have, because no one wanted to invest here.

And you can change that through innovative ideas or creative space of art.

Is that a metaphor for Habana, overall?

Totally, I think so.

It's interesting because you were talking earlier too.

I think we can pay with cryptocurrency, right?

Yeah.

We can pay with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, totally.

Let's pull out.

I'm fresh out of Bitcoin.

I would not-- honestly, I would not have imagined that.

For the embargo laws, they doesn't allow us to use banks other places.

So it's difficult, the financial system for the private sector here in Havana and cryptocurrency is outside of that.

Like you say, the internet comes, there's a desire to connect, to connect not only community inside, connect with the rest of the world externally.

Cubans are resilient and innovative.

It feels like they'll always find a way.

Always.

I think that we are in a very interesting point right now because there have been some new opportunities for the private sector.

And I think that when they let us do one thing, we do two.

So I think that the Cuban way of thinking is going to promote a lot more change.

When you think about the future, you feel optimistic.

I feel that everything is for doing here.

So saying that we have a lot of opportunities here, but opportunities are not for everyone.

You have to find your way in it to create a business.

It's difficult anywhere.

Here is different, still difficult and different.

One thing we in life is that everything changes, right?

Totally.

Figuring out what the changes need to be and then addressing those.

Totally.

That's the thing.

I mean, see the opportunities and grab it.

Well, I mean, if I was to go into business with somebody, I want somebody that is not afraid to do hard things and complicated things, and I think that's the brand.

And it's not easy to explain to my friends.

No, yeah.

I don't try to explain even to myself.

I just try to keep going and find my ways and try to do it.

From the outside, you can't tell what this is here.

And that's a lot of Habana.

Behind the door, there's something.

Everything can happen there.

Everything happens.

Anything and everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would say.

Cheers.

Thank you for inviting us in and for your success.

[music playing] We had just enough time for sunset cocktails on the roof as the band started to set up.

Now, nicely done.

Wow, with a dragon and everything.

[music playing] As the music began, the restaurant, completely empty before, filled up with a mostly foreign crowd.

Many Cubans simply can't afford the extravagance of a private restaurant.

[music playing] Our last stop for the night was La Carpinteria, where our very own fixer and translator, Gaby, was hosting what was likely one of the first drag King shows in Havana.

La Carpinteria is an event space in Downtown Havana and attached to Clandestina, a fashion brand and store started by a lesbian couple and now a hub for the LGBTQ community.

[music playing] I've never actually seen a drag King show ever.

You're going to kick this off.

And I'm going to kick it off.

And I'm going to be in and out.

I've never done drag in my life, but yeah.

Are you nervous?

A little bit, yeah.

But it's like a good nervous.

Yeah, I mean, you're part of the community.

You know these people.

You guys are all friends.

Yeah, so I think the best thing about this is that we have, like, all ages and kind of like all backgrounds.

So we actually have four drag kings who have experience are the ones that have done it underground.

And so we're pairing them with a bunch of new people like me who have never done it before, a little bit younger.

So we have a bunch of really famous salsa songs and like boleros, and like this romantic music mixed with reggaeton and like, I'm singing a song by Bruno Mars.

I had to bring in something from the US just to dip into that.

So you're Cuban-American, but you really identify as Cuban.

I really appreciate the fact that I have these different cultures that kind of dictate like my personality and my background and my history.

And how has the LGBTQ community viewed here in Cuba?

It's like a pretty tight-knit community.

And I think everyone is always like really willing to just support each other.

I play on an all women's soccer team.

There's a lot of gay spaces in Havana, and so I think we're trying to uplift like a more inclusive space for just more people.

And I think just Cuban culture, in general, is so warm and so inviting and just there's a lot of camaraderie between everyone.

And that just seeps into the queer community, just by default.

How is it in terms of identity for you personally?

So Cuba, in general, is machista.

There is a lot of sexism, I think, all over Latin America, but I think I just get catcalled, for example, more for being a woman than for being a lesbian.

And there are a lot of spaces here that try to uplift the queer community.

And so, honestly, I don't feel like in danger.

Yeah.

Or in pressure, like pressure or anything to be being a lesbian.

I mean, if there's one thing that we've noticed is there is a lot of diversity, and it feels like there's a lot of mixtures of cultures and identities and things like that in Cuba.

I mean, that's one of the things that feels like, are really being celebrated in a lot of ways.

But doing something like this, which is still pretty brave, I mean, what does this represent?

Bringing into the spotlight people that have been doing this for years that have not garnered enough attention or that are not at the level of drag Queens, and then just showing that there's more to drag in general than just men dressing up as women in dresses, or there's a lot more to that culture.

And it's a celebration, right?

It is a celebration, yeah.

Drag is a celebration.

I mean, in the US, the drag Queens have gotten so much attention.

But the drag King idea?

Yeah, even in the US it's really difficult to-- Honestly, I've never heard of it before.

Honestly, I never-- I've never have.

And we've spent a lot of time around different communities and stuff like that.

The fact that we're actually doing it right here in Havana, potentially for one of the very first times in here, I mean, it feels like we're lucky.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, and I feel super lucky to be a part of it.

And I think y'all are to have a really good time.

So, yeah, I'm super excited.

We can't wait.

This is going to be good.

It's going to be real good.

Don't screw it up.

No.

[music playing] We had ideas about Cuba when we came here.

But it's safe to say we were blown away by the ingenuity, optimism, and creativity of the incredible people we met.

The more we connect and engage with the people of Cuba, the richer everyone's world becomes.

[music playing] Funding for The Good Road has been provided by-- Can, looking back, push us forward?

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Billie Holliday.

Will our voice be heard through time?

Can our past inspire our future?

Complete act of concern.

[music playing] What makes a good road?

Blazing a trail.

Making a difference.

Being unafraid to take the path of most resistance.

Toyota has a beyond zero vision for a carbon neutral future that lets you find your own good road with Toyota's electrified lineup, including battery electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles, designed to get you where you want to go.

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Toyota-- Let's Go Places.

[music playing]