Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 15 December 2022 — The big attraction in Havana at the moment is the Christmas tree recently erected in the Fe del Valle park in central Havana, next to Calle Galiano. The fir tree, tall and not very bushy, becomes alive at night time, when its decorations are lit up.
Dozens of people, many with children, crowded around it on Wednesday, smiling and trying to get the best pose for a photo. “I know why, because we’re not used to this,” commented a woman sitting on a nearby park bench.
In all of her 45 years she had never seen such a Christmas tree like this here on a Cuban street, something so common in any other part of the world.
The German tradition of decorating a fir or a pine tree with those shiny global decorations — something which became popular throughout Europe in the nineteenth century and which was made even more universal via American culture, though with strong German roots, was not looked upon kindly from the very beginnings of the Cuban Revolution.
Those born before the beginning of the last century know very well that to have a Christmas tree in the house was seen as some kind of “ideological deviation,” a bit petty bourgeoisie, and a bit dangerously close to the ’imperial enemy’.
In 1995 the government even put out a dictat which prohibited the installation of Christmas trees in any official or governmental buildings (an event which gave rise to the naming of Jose Ramon Machado Ventura as the “Christmas Tree Man”). However, reality does prevail and though there aren’t many independent shops that don’t have these festive decorations on show at the end of December there have not been any public displays on the streets until now.
From all that then, comes this week’s surprise in the eyes of Havana’s citizens, on seeing this giant tree in La Galiano. “Come here, you’ll look better!” “Yeah, yes that’s better!”, the people shout delightedly as they pose and take photos. The Christmas Tree in the Fe del Valle would seem to be the only shining light at this dark time of year on the Island, where inflation is making it so difficult to put any festive food on the table, and where there is so much sadness drowning families who have lost relatives through emigration.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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