The world is loaded with well-wishers who have visited communist Cuba as tourists, and marvelled at beauty of the island, the sultry enticing laid-back culture of the people, the music, the ease of life, the apparent lack of materialism, the supposed universal health care, and other illusions.

Over at Killcastro, a fine blog by Cuban exiles who have actual experience of Cuban life beyond the tourist spots at Varadero and central Havana, and who currently have some of the deepest contacts and connections inside the real Cuba, they printed a smuggled-out letter from a Cuban inside Cuba, that tells the local story of what it is like to live there. It’s not a unique experience, nor is it anything we haven’t heard from other Cubans – all of whose letters bear a disturbing similarity of descriptions. But it is different from the Cuba that western tourists so marvel at. Some excerpts are here:

“I was born in Cuba….

I was born in Cuba where a foreigner has more rights than me…

I am free; but I can’t speak my mind or live my own dreams…

I live in a democratic society where there is only one party, one point of view, and only one ruler…..

I am free to vote in the elections where there is only one candidate…

My education is free; but I must give up my time in the school year to work at our labor camps so I will not be excluded and expelled from our system of free education….

My education is free, yet, I am not free to choose my education…….

Due to the official blockade imposed by the USA, we suffer a lack of basic needs; but somehow, there is plenty of everything and no embargo for our tourists….

Mi mother said in years past, with other regimes, there was hunger here, people ate corn meal all the time….what in the world is corn meal????

My medical care is free, but there is no medication in our local hospital, our doctors are now taxi cab drivers to make ends meet, our nurses are prostitutes working the streets all night, therefore, they need their rest and sleep during the day….

I own a television set, where I am only allowed to watch two channels, both with the same people in it….

He speaks of his longing for democracy by the end of the piece. Read the whole thing here.