Poverty, music imbue Cuba





	A man uses a donkey cart to collect garbage in a residential neighborhood in Cuba. Courtesy Eric Baker (click for larger version)

September 23, 2009 | 04:04 PM
Cuban-born Danays Cruz Zambrana graduated from the University of Havana with a chemistry degree and began working in a laboratory testing water quality. After two years of earning 198 pesos, or $16, per month, Cruz Zambrana obtained a visitor visa and came to the United States in 2002 in search of a better life.

Now a Mount Sinai resident, Cruz Zambrana, 34, explained that Cubans are able to apply for permanent U.S. residency exactly one year and one day after landing on American soil, "no matter how." Since becoming a permanent resident in 2004, Cruz Zambrana has begun a new life on Long Island with a family of her own.

"I liked it here better," she said of her decision to remain in the U.S. "In Cuba, there's no opportunity to make a good life."

During her first year in the States, the Cuban native said she obtained a work permit and rented a home in Port Jefferson, which became her "favorite part of the Island." Even though it was "scary" at first being in a new place, "I loved Port Jefferson right away," she said.

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On her most recent trip to Cuba in July, Cruz Zambrana was accompanied by her husband Eric Baker, owner of Ecolin Jewelers in Port Jefferson, and their 19-month-old daughter Sophia. Baker, originally of Stony Brook, said he visited Cuba for the first time in November 2008 after the birth of their daughter gave him visitation rights by providing him with a "direct bloodline" to the communist country. Cuba has opened tourism to many nations but has excluded the U.S.

Even though the couple was married in 2006, Baker, 34, said he was unable to meet his wife's parents until the 2008 trip. Her parents, an electrical engineer and a teacher, can't travel to America because professionals are not permitted to leave Cuba until they finish working for the country, according to Cruz Zambrana. Also, "Since every Cuban is considered an immigrant, it's very hard to get a [visitor] visa," she said, noting that the waiting period for a visa interview is over two years.

After traveling to Cuba twice with his wife, Eric Baker said, "I absolutely love that place." Even though "everything is impoverished," the jeweler said Cuba is "one of the most beautiful places" he's ever visited. Noting the high temperatures and humidity during his recent trip in July, Baker said, "Cubans that are well off have fans. No one has air conditioners." With sodium lamps lighting up the streets, he also pointed out that "everything's yellow at night."

In the family's Mount Sinai home, Cruz Zambrana said she teaches her daughter Spanish and prepares Cuban dishes like arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and moros y cristiano (rice and beans). And even though she is able to talk to her family in Cuba very often, Cruz Zambrana said she misses salsa dancing — "There's music playing all day long," she said — and "idiosincracia cubana," or the idiosyncrasies of the people in Cuba.

When she first arrived in America, Cruz Zambrana said she "spent three months not talking at all" and watched a lot of television. Even though she took a few English classes in Cuba, "it's not the same," she said, adding that she really began to grasp the English language when Baker hired her to help out at Ecolin Jewelers. As she continues her life in the U.S. with her husband and daughter, Cruz Zambrana said she hopes to visit her native land at least once a year. "Everybody sees Cuba is run down," she said, "but the people are great."

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