Salon Nights

Cubans don't have much. They barely have what they need and don't have much else. Because of this, their version of fun is pretty simple, usually involving friends, music, dancing, and a little rum. José, Johandy, and Rubén all work security at night at a beauty salon. Why they need security at a beauty salon to make sure no one steals the shampoo and curling irons I'm not sure, but it made for a good hang out spot. From the beginning, this became the place to go to either meet up before heading out for the night, or to stay and party for the night. Every time we were greeted with hugs and smiles, even if we had seen the boys just a few hours before.
Our salon nights consisted of dancing, dominoes, movies, conversations about Cuba, lots of laughter and sometimes tears. We danced to all types of Cuban music and some random American music, the repertoire ranging from Van Van and reggaeton to Destiny’s Child and Michael Jackson, whatever happened to be dug up that night for our listening pleasure. Although us awkward, rhythm-less Americans couldn’t dance quite up to par with the fluid hip movements and natural rhythm of the Cubans, we definitely tried. I must say that after numerous nights of spinning, un-dos-trés-ing and working on moving from our hips and not our shoulders, we improved a lot. We probably would have learned much more if our wonderful teachers danced with us more often instead of with each other and their reflections. But that was even more entertaining so I’m not going to complain.
So who knew that little worn out tiles with black dots on them could be so entertaining? I mean, we have dominoes in America but it is nothing like Cuban dominoes. This game is one of the most popular pastimes for Cubans of all ages. Someone once told me that the favorite activities of the Cubans can be counted on one hand: 1. Rum 2. Tobacco 3. Pelota (Baseball) 4. Dominoes 5. Lovin’, all of which are shamelessly practiced and make up a large part of Cuban culture. So dominoes. Anywhere you go, walking down the street at night you can hear the familiar clinking of tiles as they are shuffled or slammed down on the table with enthusiasm and swearing. For a relatively simple game, the tournaments can get intense. As
we quickly learned, it takes time to learn the ins and outs of the game. There is quite a bit of strategy and skill needed to be a true champion, as I realized after my three day winning streak quickly started going downhill. There are things you just need to know, such as don’t kill your partner, “No me mata!”, where they mean the partners lines of tiles but can lead to misunderstandings. After my experience with Cuban dominoes, yelling, laughing, drinking, and slamming tiles with your best friends, I’m thinking that this game is much better than any complex video game and maybe we should start a trend in the states?
On our lazy days at the salon, we cuddled up on the hard leather benches and settled in for a movie marathon. Unfortunately our friends were boys so this usually consisted of some strange, disturbing made-for-television American movies about something like werewolves or murder that they thought were great. But some days we got lucky and got to watch a Cuban movie or normal American movie. Mostly we would borrow someone’s movies. The Cuban television which is obviously run by the government would play a couple movies each night. They were usually old Cuban films, weird old American films, bad new American films, or an occasional American hit. One of the weirdest movie nights was when we watched Superbad. Watching such an American movie with so many slang terms and cultural jokes in a beauty salon in Havana with Cubans was the strangest feeling. We could relate to the film but at the same time felt at home in our current environment and could also understand the reactions of shock and disbelief of our Cuban companions.
Most of our Cuban nights took place in some part at the “Instituto de Belleza” on Calzada entre A y Paseo and it was here that we learned what it truly meant to be Cuban, and, I like to think, found our Cuban selves.