Coals are spread on top of the box.
Just after flipping the pig over...
Ready to eat at last!
Raphael - Master Chef. His work is done!
Tato and his lovely wife.
Papa, Mama, and Susan
Eduardo, Manuel, and Mama
Mama, Susan, Eduardo, and Walt
Tato, on his 28th birthday.
Friday afternoon, Tato invited us to a party at his house in celebration of his birthday on Saturday.
Tato is part of the Cuban family business led by Eduardo, Papa, and Mama, whom we engaged to lay the beautiful new flooring aboard "Kingdom". They did an excellent job, and are now working on repairing the dry-rot we found in the aft bulkhead of our Master Stateroom. We have learned to love this wonderful family! We have become friends, even though we don't speak much Spanish, and they are still struggling with English.
Papa, Mama, Eduardo, and Tato all emigrated from Cuba in the 90's in small boats. Papa told me that he was in a 21-foot boat with 10 other people and two babies for seven days before reaching Florida. This is a very common experience with this generation of Cuban immigrants. Many then had to spend up to a year or so in internment camps before being released to the general population here. Tato's father-in-law spent 21 days at sea in a 17-foot boat with 8 others aboard before making landfall in Florida. All of them detest Fidel Castro.
Their descriptions of life in Cuba are harrowing: Extremely low wages prevent earning enough to support their families; Not enough food or milk available for the children and old people; rampant corruption. You have to be desperate, to make the attempt to reach the US under the conditions many of them underwent.
Susan and I are completely in awe of the Cubans' resilience. We have experienced them as hard-working, skilled, ethical, dependable, and honest. In addition, we admire their family values and can-do spirit. They came to the US under the harshest of conditions, and are determined to make their own way to success. Nobody in this family is on any kind of government-funded welfare program. Everybody works long and hard for their living. No matter what work they do, they want to do it well, and be proud of their work. At Tato's party, we met family and friends of the family who are bakers, auto mechanics, electricians, groundskeepers, as well as medical technicians, doctors, and entrepreneurs.
Susan and I were the only non-Cubans invited to this particular party. We were treated as honored guests, and felt welcome and comfortable with everyone throughout a long, happy, day.
Tato had told us to come anytime after noon, so Susan and I arrived around 1:30 pm, thinking we would be there for an hour or so, have some cake and ice cream, and go about the rest of our day. That's not how the Cubans do it!
When we first arrived, we found massive amounts of food, and even more massive amounts of beer on hand, though there were only a half-dozen people on hand. Susan and I worried that there was far too much food for the gathering we could see.
Outside, we discovered Raphael just starting the coals for the "barbeque". This was unlike anything we had seen before. An entire pig, split horizontally and lying on its back in a rack enclosed in a wooden box lined with galvanized tin. The box was covered with a sheet metal lid, topped by a steel grill. This outfit is called a Chinese Box, and is apparently manufactured specifically for this type of cooking. Charcoal briquets are spread on the grill atop the box, and kept burning for about three hours. Then the box is opened, the pig is flipped over, and cooks another hour or so, or until the Master Chef declares it is done! No spices, basting, or sauce of any kind is used in this process. The meat cooks in its own juices, and it was indeed juicy and tender as anything I've ever eaten.
Dinner was served at about 11:oo pm. Besides the roast pork, there were big platters of rice and beans (unlike any I have ever tasted, and much better too!), rice and shrimp, salad, yucca (looks much like potato, but isn't), several dishes I couldn't name, but devoured just the same, and birthday cake!
Susan and I spent about ten hours at this wonderful party, helping as best we could with the decorating, and chatting with the other guests as they continued to arrive throughout the day and evening. As one guest told me, "Cubans love to eat, drink beer, talk, dance, and listen to loud music, all at the same time!" That is the perfect description of the party we attended. As the beer flowed, our Spanish slowly began to improve, and our hosts' command of English got better, too!
Thank goodness, Papa served us tiny cups of Cuban espresso at about 4pm, or we would never have made it to midnight, when we finally departed. I should also say that the party was only beginning to get into high gear when Susan and I went back to the boat and our bed. The men were just starting to play dominos!
In many respects, this party was a perfect example of why we have chosen the cruising life. We feel we have made new friends, become part of a larger human family, and experienced a small slice of a culture previously unfamiliar and largely unavailable to us.
We hope you enjoy the photos.
ps. Though I did not take photos of the interior of Tato's home, it is gorgeous! Inlaid wood floors, beautiful tile work, and tasteful high-quality furnishings selected by his wife, attest to his craftsmanship, and their combined creativity, imagination, and hard work.
Walt and Susan
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