GREAT LEAP : COMMUNITY : CUBA

Yoga in Cuba-Lifting the Embargo on Our Hearts
A Festival of Yoga and Music

Some of the 65 Americans present for the Festival

Being in Cuba is like hearing Cuban music, it’s rhythms and colors a shot of adrenaline, making you move to maximum capacity. It breaks through the bleak and white images of beleaguered escapees and hard talking tyrants the US government and media likes to paint. And being with Cubanos and while doing Yoga magnified the experiences for all of us. On November 25th to the 28th, about 65 Americans, were joined by over 150 Cubanos during the 4 day festival held just outside Habana at Cojimar, where the Pan American Games were held. Conceived by Purusha Hickson and produced by Krishna Kaur and the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, the purpose of the festival was to bring Americans and Cubans together to lift the embargo within our hearts. That we did, at least for those few days.

Eduardo Pimentel, President of the Yoga Association of Cuba &  wife Elsa
 with Nobuko

It started on the evening of Thanksgiving, a fitting time for this short and intensely concentrated period of learning and sharing. Eduardo Pimentel, president of the Cuban Association of Yoga, gave us a hearty welcome, sharing the many ways Cubans utilize and relate to yoga, in that warm and balmy night when the rain politely waited to fall until the last note was sung and the closing prayer was done.

On Friday morning we began, Americans and Cubans meditating together. Then we were exposed to classes of a variety of yoga styles, including: Astanga, Egyptian, Kripalu, Kundalini, Rechaka and Vipassana influenced yoga. In the first day over lunch many of us struggled to overcome our language barriers with smiles and gestures. Then, in the afternoons, we steeped ourselves in more workshops in yoga, meditation and also ways that Cubans used yoga, for psychological disorders, sexuality, etc. We were amazed at the dedication and discipline Cubans approached yoga. And they were hungry for more knowledge.

Conjunto Folklorico performance

The evening programs always started with chanting and inevitably ended with dancing and an inspiring prayer by Agape Church’s Rev. Michael Beckwith (he’s a yoga practitioner too!). In between, groups such as Conjunto Folklorico and a Yoga Sutra, who came all the way from Germany, would dazzle us with their music and dance.

Egyptian yoga presentation 

But also there was a discourse, such as Rama Jyoti Vernon talk on Raja Yoga. One that stood out in my mind was Rev. Lucius Walker speaking on Karma yoga. The Reverend has taken many caravans to Cuba, starting with bringing medicine and bibles, then computers, and even a bus. Each caravan was a challenge to the U.S. Embargo. Each designed to raise the issue of the injustice and the inhumanity of this embargo. But that night, Rev. Walker challenged us as well. He made us aware that each person in Cuba was practicing a daily hard Karma Yoga, just to survive. He made us look at our responsibility in bringing light to the unjust treatment of the Cubans by our government. He made us look at yoga in a different way. Not just as a means to improve our own health and beauty, but as a serious practice to strengthen our spiritual consciousness and determination.