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CNN Sunday Morning
Cuba Gets Taste of American Food Products
Aired September 29, 2002 - 10:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: For the past few days, people in Cuba have been eating M&M's, Jiffy peanut butter and Jell-O. That's just a sample of the American foods distributed at a food fair in Havana. For the Cuban people, it's just an appetizer, we hope. They want more; they want to re-focus attention on the U.S. trade embargo. CNN's Lucia Newman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four decades ago, American brand products disappeared from Cuban stores and markets. So does anyone still remember them? You bet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Corn flakes.
NEWMAN: "Corn flakes. I was delirious about it." "Quaker oats. And in toiletries, Johnson's baby powder." "Gerber's baby food." "I remember Libby's canned fruits."
The list is endless. Virtually everyone born before the 1959 revolution remembers American products. Most, like Leopoldina and Maria Antonia Gonzalez (ph), with great nostalgia. They still hang on to their Halida Rubenstein (ph) beauty tips book. They also long for American cream cheese.
"We wish we could have everything back we had before," says Leopoldina (ph). Her wish, or at least part of it, is coming true. Already, Cubans are able to purchase American rice, chicken and even eggs with their ration cards, at prices subsidized by the Cuban government. Many more items, including American butter and crackers, are now available at Cuban dollar stores.
All this part of the Cuban government's buying spree of American food and agricultural products, recently authorized by the U.S. government as an exception to the embargo.
(on camera): Cubans purchasing everything, from this once forbidden fruit from Washington state to chicken feed and even chewing gum, an item that until not so long ago, Cuban schoolchildren were prohibited from eating at school, because it was considered a capitalist vice that led to ideological deviations.
(voice-over): Forty years after they last saw Wrigley's chewing gum, Cubans are lining up to get re-acquainted, at the first U.S. food and agro business fair held in Cuba since the revolution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have excellent brand recognition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Uncle Ben, the rice.
NEWMAN: For younger Cubans, of course, this is all new. And for those a little older, it's a taste of the past, which they hope they won't be forced to have to forget again.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 29, 2002 - 10:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: For the past few days, people in Cuba have been eating M&M's, Jiffy peanut butter and Jell-O. That's just a sample of the American foods distributed at a food fair in Havana. For the Cuban people, it's just an appetizer, we hope. They want more; they want to re-focus attention on the U.S. trade embargo. CNN's Lucia Newman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four decades ago, American brand products disappeared from Cuban stores and markets. So does anyone still remember them? You bet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Corn flakes.
NEWMAN: "Corn flakes. I was delirious about it." "Quaker oats. And in toiletries, Johnson's baby powder." "Gerber's baby food." "I remember Libby's canned fruits."
The list is endless. Virtually everyone born before the 1959 revolution remembers American products. Most, like Leopoldina and Maria Antonia Gonzalez (ph), with great nostalgia. They still hang on to their Halida Rubenstein (ph) beauty tips book. They also long for American cream cheese.
"We wish we could have everything back we had before," says Leopoldina (ph). Her wish, or at least part of it, is coming true. Already, Cubans are able to purchase American rice, chicken and even eggs with their ration cards, at prices subsidized by the Cuban government. Many more items, including American butter and crackers, are now available at Cuban dollar stores.
All this part of the Cuban government's buying spree of American food and agricultural products, recently authorized by the U.S. government as an exception to the embargo.
(on camera): Cubans purchasing everything, from this once forbidden fruit from Washington state to chicken feed and even chewing gum, an item that until not so long ago, Cuban schoolchildren were prohibited from eating at school, because it was considered a capitalist vice that led to ideological deviations.
(voice-over): Forty years after they last saw Wrigley's chewing gum, Cubans are lining up to get re-acquainted, at the first U.S. food and agro business fair held in Cuba since the revolution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have excellent brand recognition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Uncle Ben, the rice.
NEWMAN: For younger Cubans, of course, this is all new. And for those a little older, it's a taste of the past, which they hope they won't be forced to have to forget again.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
