Show Notes
Without a free market for over almost 60 years, Cubans have been forced to make do without most things. Turns out your average Cuban is pretty ingenious. Randy Batista, Jorge Lavoy, and Gabriela Azcuy, decided to start collecting examples of how Cubans have repurposed almost everything into something. From turning Soviet washing machines into lawnmowers and electric coils into water heaters, the collection highlights how hardship forces creativity. Produced by Rob Rothschild at Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville, Florida.
TRANSCRIPT:
Intro: 0:01
Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade a podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Richard Miles: 0:39
Necessity is the mother of invention. And one of the places in the world that has had to be the most inventive is in Cuba, for about the last 60 years and here as our guest today , uh, where it's a pleasure to have Randy Batista , uh , long time local. Randy, you've done a little bit of everything. So it's hard to describe. We also have , uh, Gabby Azcuy , who's the curator of the exhibit , um , that we're going to be talking about and Jorge Lavoy. Uh, welcome all of you.
Randy Batisa: 1:11
Thank you.
Richard Miles: 1:11
First of all, let's tell listeners what we're actually talking about. There is an exhibit called, Cuban Ingenuity, the Artistry of the Everyday Inventor. It is opening soon, or at least a sneak peek on March the ninth, and it's going to run through the end of the year. And , um , basically I'm going to let Gabby give a very short description , uh, before we talk about it more in detail, what exactly is this , uh, exhibit about and what are people going to see when they walk in the door?
Gabby Azcuy: 1:38
So Cuba Ingenuity is a compilation of videos, objects , and graphics that will be in the West Gallery in the Cade Museum. We will have around 45, 50 objects of different sites, medium, small, and , uh , some , uh, videos that will project the reality in these days in Havana.
Richard Miles: 1:56
So , um , Gabby, just to clarify you and Jorge , um , did you personally select or curate all of these , uh, all the objects in the exhibit?
Jorge Lavoy: 2:04
Yeah, that's, that's correct. We , um, we did three trips to Cuba to find and bringing all these objects from there. So was a really hard task for us because we have , uh, as Cubans, we don't think that , uh, we have like awesome inventions or , uh, um, appealing objects to, you know, to maybe , uh, people from, you know , um , U.S. or countries that have a lot of , uh, progress medicine , you know, big, big countries with , um, you know, a bunch of tools and resources. So as Cuban's, you have , uh , the idea of , uh, just invent and it's normal for you. You spend your whole life doing that. So it was really hard to , for , for us finding , uh, the, the good example of ingenuity, because for us, maybe we have our washer machine model converted in a lawnmower, and maybe we think that this is normal people don't to see these like a cool thing. So for that reason, we have Ann Gilroy , she's a curator of the Tomo Center and she was all the time, like our U.S. eyes seeing the other part, Oh, there bring that one too, because that that's going to be cool. That's going to be, you know, interesting, and that was a whole conflict with curating and finding the right objects.
Richard Miles: 3:44
And I guess for , for our listeners who may be unfamiliar with recent Cuban history, I mean, essentially this has been a condition, as I mentioned, that's gone back for over 50 years. I mean, in 1959 you had Fidel Castro come to power and kind of the disappearance of a market economy, you went to a socialist command economy. And then over time, Cuba became very dependent on the , the old Soviet Union for all sorts of things, everything from oil to , uh, spare parts and so on. And then the Soviet Union goes away in 1991 and things even get tougher for Cubans because now the main source of a lot of those things go away. And at that point , um, Randy, Cubans had to become really inventive, right? Because essentially , uh, their access to new products was almost non-existent or spare parts extremely limited. So you pretty much had to make, do with what you had. Give us an example of maybe a couple of the objects in the exhibit that demonstrate that inventiveness.
Randy Batisa: 4:49
A real quick example would be a water heater, you know, for heating water in a bucket, they would just get a stick. They would carve out the stick to , and then they would roll up a piece of wire , copper wire. They would put it through the stick and then they would drop that stick with has wired and it just plug it into the wall and then they would just hit the water. I mean, that's just a very small example.
Richard Miles: 5:12
It doesn't sound real safe.
Randy Batisa: 5:14
It's not trust me. And then, you know , just another quick one, it's like taking a shower, r ight? No hot water. So they had these rigs that y ou'd have a switch on the wall and the shower head was wired to heat the water. And so sometimes as you were taking a shower, you would feel a little tinge of electricity running through your body. That's just a very small example of what you can really, you know, and it, Richard, I mean, I can't tell you it's everything. It's not just, you know, it's, it's everyday life. It's about pencils. It's about paper. It's about using a magazine. The first time I went to Cuba t hat, u h, I was handed a piece of food that has been fried in t he, in the market, i n the street a nd the park and they r ipped a n ice piece of paper off of magazine and then they h anded tme my, my yuca, my fried yuca on a piece of, y ou k now, a magazine page, you know, and i t w as s o, I mean, the interesting thing about Cuba, like t he recycling is just, there's nothing thrown away. I mean, somebody's garbage. Someone will pick it up and they'll do something with it. And it doesn't matter what it is.
Richard Miles: 6:19
I managed to get a sneak peek at some of the installation this morning. And I saw there that , um, it was explained to me that the, the old Soviet wash machines had these incredibly powerful motors, the rest of the washing machine wasn't really built that well. Right. So essentially the washing machine itself would fall apart, but , but then Cubans figured out a way to repurpose those powerful motors. And there's one that looked like it was a lawnmower? I mean, somebody had taken it and t urn i t into a l awn m ower with a machete underneath it.
Gabby Azcuy: 6:48
Yeah. And , uh, the back, the bottom part is , uh , old drawer and some recycled wood. And the wheels are from that toys, baby carriage.
Richard Miles: 7:00
Let, let me ask , um, is it your impression that, that this , uh , situation forced all Cubans to become more inventive? Or did you just have, you know , like the local guy on the block, who's just really good with his hands and he's the one that figures this all out, or is this like, everyone's g ot t o step up?
Gabby Azcuy: 7:17
I think for all of us, it was a journey of this, of this project, because we discovered that since I were born, since we born, we have been around ingenuity and innovation all the time, but we didn't know. So, we were like two years without to come back Cuba. We came back because of this project. So for us, it was also this idea that every thing, everything in our houses was ingenuity. So maybe I grow with my mom, so maybe my mom wasn't so much ingenuity, but everything in my house, even the fish tank, where they hid the water heater. Trying to get foreign channels, everything was ingenuity. So I learned stuff that I didn't know that I was creating innovation and Jorgito was much to me because he grew up in division. They had to make even more inventions.
Jorge Lavoy: 8:07
It's kind of a mindset. You know, you, you just grow up with that and you , um, you have that in your mind and the way that, you know, your behavior is always with ingenuity, it's not just about creating a tool or something to, to do whatever is, is , uh, also the way you think, the way you take a boost, the way you , uh, I don't know, go to school, you are always trying to figure that out. You know, you are, your mind is always, you know, trying to find a solution for something because you always have a problem.
Gabby Azcuy: 8:48
Yeah. We said to that in Spanish and Cuban , we said , uh , invent that, invent that so it's like a normal thing we said, Oh, you have to invent.
Randy Batisa: 8:56
Well, the things you learned about talking to any Cuban, the first time I went, it was like, as you sat there talking to them, if they heard, if you heard this phrase "no es fácil", once you heard it, 30 times within a span of three minutes, because it is not easy, you know , and the phrase means it's not easy. And it's like, it was, it was just flow out of them as if it was water. I mean, it's just like Randy, "no es fácil tu sabes" You know, and I think that's, you know , like Jorgito was saying, you know, the, the interesting thing is that it's , it is such a part of their life. Uh , the ingenuity at reinventing everything that is to them, it's like, they were saying, you know, to them, it was like, okay, this is an everyday occurrence. But to us to see these items and the museum, it's like, holy smokes, these guys have just really gone way either. And for them to try to bring these into these, you know , these inventions over picking them because they were so accustomed to it, this , that this , that that's nothing. But to us who have not lived with that and see, Oh my God, this is really, really cool. You know? And I think that's, what's interesting about this show is that it really depicts the struggle and the ingenuity that these guys have, these individuals have done the community and that's in the country.
Richard Miles: 10:07
Whose idea was this? How did this come together? Randy, were you the one that sort of woke up one day and said, this would be cool? Or you know? Actually tell me how this came.
Randy Batisa: 10:15
It's Phoebe's fault, your wife .
Richard Miles: 10:21
Well that's the default answer to everything.
Randy Batisa: 10:23
Yes. As you well know, I did your wedding many years, a few years ago. I'm sure it was 10 years ago. Right ?
Richard Miles: 10:29
You still did wedding photography. I'd put a plugin for you, but you don't do it anymore.
Randy Batisa: 10:32
No, no, no, no, no. Not only that, it was only black and white, which was an extreme case.
Richard Miles: 10:37
I think we were your last wedding . I don't know what that says about us.
Randy Batisa: 10:40
No, no we were thrilled. We went out on a good note. Um, so anyway, so Phoebe and I kept in contact and she, I, I told her about my travels to Cuba and that I'd been really seeing all these incredible inventions and ingenuity that these people had been done. He said , well, you know, when we build the museum, you know, I'd like if we have an exhibit of the photographs of the exhibit, well, fast forward two years ago, G abby and Jorgito, u m, came to Gainesville to do a 2017, w ill you go on a n event? And they were just fabulous human beings. And so I told t hem a l ittle about t hat. You know, Phoebe has talked to me about doing this event and i t says, and they said, well, why don't we just bring t he instruments over? I said, dude y ou're off. And so that thing just kicked off and it has been a journey of just absolute joy. I mean, it's you just go, Oh my God. You know, to bring these items over here to, you know, it was, has been an unbelievable scene.
Ricard Miles: 11:34
You n otice what he just did? He just blamed this on y ou g uys. Yeah. Anything goes wrong, Jorge and Gabby. I t was totally their idea.
Randy Batisa: 11:41
I w as j ust a , y ou k now, i t's just the c atalyst i nstrument.
Richard Miles: 11:43
So , so tell me your personal stories. U h Gabby and Jorge I mean, w e're, u h, both of you were born in Cuba.
Gabby Azcuy: 11:50
Yeah . Havana.
Richard Miles: 11:51
In Havana, and , u m, when did you come to the States?
Gabby Azcuy: 11:53
Uh , we came like three years ago. Exactly. And we born in the special period at that time. So we grew up with all the dissolution of the utopia of the revolution. We grow up with that falling apart. So we are that generation that is completely apathetic . We can send that. So it's not, we are not like race and that , that political , um, program that they have from the beginning, like my parents. Yeah.
Richard Miles: 12:22
Where your parents are , your parents still in Cuba?
Gabby Azcuy: 12:24
My parents. And Jorgito's, Dad. His mom was living here.
Richard Miles: 12:29
And how, how, what were the circumstances of your leaving? How did you get permission to leave or?
Gabby Azcuy: 12:34
Yeah , so I think almost the 90% of my, of our generation is outside Cuba, not just in us or on the world, in every place , every place that you can think they are their are Cubans. So I think what's , um, professional and economic thing was like , uh , in Cuba we work a lot in filming in arts, in galleries, but I think was a top for us. We wanted to do more. And the US was the easiest step because we, before two came here, we were working in US like for two years coming back and forth, working in different. Yeah. So was that th e, the ea siest s tep, I think, was the natural step to continue. We want them to learn English. We wa nt t h em t o learn how, you know, how, how the system works in internet or any, a lot of stuff that we don't have there. So, u m , b e cause I was working with, u m , i n US f or like two years, I had a cultural visa. So I, at that time was ope n th e , t he law that Obama removed la ter and he r Jorgito had a Spanish passport. So we were able to come here easily without any trouble.
Richard Miles: 13:46
Did, did both of you , um, train as artists, or is that what you studied in school or how did you kind of move into that, that area?
Gabby Azcuy: 13:54
So we have different backgrounds that in some point they are the , they are linked, but I study our history at Havana University. And after that, I aspire , I specialize in contemporary art. So I was working always in galleries and museums.
Jorge Lavoy: 14:10
And on my part , uh, um, first I started , uh , music , uh , for elementary school. And then I went to national school of arts for drama, having , working on TV and films since I, I was , um, eight years old. So it's like almost 16 or 17 years working on Cuban television and films. Then I started, like, I opened the kind of , uh , uh , producer filming agency. You can say, because you're not allowed to do that in Cuba. But I mean, so we started working together because I started like , uh, producing , uh, chore films for on , um, just media, you know, photos or whatever, to help other artists and galleries that don't have maybe their budget or the viability to, to , uh , produce that. So that , that way we started working together. And then we started like , uh , curating things together. Um , for the reason we leave our first show in , uh , Washington DC and the , um , a museum , um, that was like our first, you know , uh, shock we've realized that maybe we can do something bigger. Maybe we can figure things. And after we saw all the way, the, the, the world uh, works on, not Cuba is like, you're isolated. You don't have credit cards, you don't have, you know , uh , online , uh , way to get information. We started watching YouTube videos on how to create stuff . And we don't have that in Cuba . We have to ask to the neighbor, if the 100 currency, I mean, the, the 10, yeah, 110 , uh, you know, the electric .
Richard Miles: 16:02
Oh, it doesn't matter. Just plug it in. Right. Yeah,
Jorge Lavoy: 16:05
Yeah, exactly. So that was our, you know, we decided, okay, we need to, we need to do something about our cell phone . We need to move forward. Right.
Randy Batisa: 16:14
I mean, I'll have to tell you guys have done exactly that these guys have been instrumental in just stepping up and creating, you know, exhibitions that are just really fabulous. The first one was at the Thomas Center. And then now this one, which is going to be just, you know, something to be hold, because it's just so well curated and, you know, so much thought went into it, you know, and it 's j ust sort of nothing that when people walk in there, they'll understand that, you know, there's a process of really appreciating what the Cuban people have gone through. Right. And these guys have made this possible. And you know, th ey've b een here two years and their English is like, unreal.
Richard Miles: 16:49
Tell me this. When you went, u m , wh en you went to Cuba to certain looking for these artifacts, did you already have sort of a list in mind of what you wanted or did you just stumble across things like, Oh my gosh, we got to ha ve that and let's buy a suitcase and put it in.
Gabby Azcuy: 17:05
Both! I mean , we had a list of, you know , um, things that we thought, but I it's a whole reality once you get there. And we used, I mean, Gabby was saying that we spent like two years without a comeback. And then we realized once we, Just getting into the airport.
Jorge Lavoy: 17:24
We realized that, Oh, this is engineering too . And that one too. U m, what about that one? I was like, yo u k n ow, a pandora's box.
Gabby Azcuy: 17:31
The thing is that we wanted to bring up. Does that really mean something for the people to use , to have it? So we, we create a relationship with these people. I was, we'll learn a lot because sometimes people they're love objects because sometimes objects, are family have been with them for 34 years. So it's like giving, give it to you. That object means a lot for them. Yeah . So in many cases they didn't want money or anything. They just wanted an object.
Jorge Lavoy: 17:55
Or replacement .
Richard Miles: 17:56
I see.
Gabby Azcuy: 17:58
And know that the object will have a nice.
Richard Miles: 18:00
A nice home.
Gabby Azcuy: 18:00
Yes.
Richard Miles: 18:02
Um, Randy, so, you know, I'm just guessing here, but I think you're maybe of a different generation then Jorge and Gabby. It's hard to tell, I guess, barely started going out on a limb.
Randy Batisa: 18:14
I had a big birthday last week when I was in Cuba. So yeah.
Richard Miles: 18:18
But as we know, as you know, well, you know, every, every generation of Cuban has a different story, right? So , uh, you know, your , your Cuban background, tell us what your story is or your parents' story. Um, and, you know, have it give us a nutshell of how did Randy Batista become Randy Batista? How'd you end up in Gainesville and how'd you end up back in Cuba.
Randy Batisa: 18:38
if I gave you all of my real names, when you know exactly my history, but we will go past that . Um, so my situation was that my dad attended University of Florida and he got his master's degree in soil science here. He was one of four kids that his parents sent h im to Philadelphia to go to high school. Then he ended up getting his m aster's here, met my mother from, u h, through her brother who was attending university as well i n, and she was in Tampa and six months later, they were married, madly in love. U m, my dad was doing a research work on soil science and Belle Glade, and he was doing it with sugar corporations. And so we would travel, they would travel back and forth. U m, one of the interesting th ings t hat my dad did was that, u m , w hen my mother, I w as conceived in Cuba, but when my dad realized that, you know, it was time to give birth, he shipped my mother both times to the States to make sure that both kids were born American citizens. So we d id that little event , that little event made a major difference.
Richard Miles: 19:30
So at the time, your , uh , just so I'm clear, your dad and , and your parents were living in Cuba, but he had studied in Gainesville or had they already moved to the Cuba? He would, he had studied at University of Florida. Then once he goes master's degree, you went to Belle, Glade, worked at experiment station, and then he was traveling back and forth to Cuba. All right , we'll do it.
Randy Batisa: 19:48
But he was, he was born in Cuba. He was Cuban. He was one of 13 kids. Okay. A ll r ight. And so I was a five years old when we moved over there. And, u m, w hen I got there, they c alled me at "El bobo" , which means an idiot because I couldn't speak Spanish. And then I left in 61, you know, i t's a Spanish I got here. And of course, I didn't know any English. So I had to relearn that, you know , in the process. And it was interesting because at that time that I left in 61, so they had just started going from socialism to decide to communism. My dad pulled me out of school because they had started to teach communism. And so they shipped me, they shipped . And basically I was one of the Peter Pan kids, one of the Pedro Ponds . Right. Right. And then I ended up with my grandparents in Tampa, and then I came to the University of F lorida here. And, u m , b ut you know, our generation is a ll a d ifferent ge neration. There was a lot of the pa rent, the kids wh o h a d t he parents who came over the cream of the crop wo uld l eft Cuba, you know, lawyers, doctors back in the late fifties and early sixties, you know, we 're o f a different mindset versus what you've go t n o w t oday, which is yeah, 60 years later, there's a whole different dynamic of what they're really enduring and living through.
Richard Miles: 20:58
where y ou we re a p art of it k ind of a distinguished elite club. The Peter Pan generation actually did pretty well for itself . I mean, in the state department, I knew several ambassadors that were part of that generation Cuban Americans , that same story. It came over, you know, at very young age, without their parents and ended up doing quite well in the US system. Tell us now , uh , this exhibit of the Cade Museum is part of a larger , um, program that , uh, is that you're doing as well. Are you culpable ?
Randy Batisa: 21:27
Well, I am culpable.
Richard Miles: 21:29
Tell us a little bit more about your crazy idea . All right . Tell us what , what that is, what it means.
Randy Batisa: 21:33
Bulla Cubana , um, came about because when I was traveling to Cuba , um , doing my documentary work for since 96, I noticed that regardless of what people had, one of the things that you noticed i s that art culture was just rampant. I mean, they just live for that. And it's, so it became like a lollipop to exist. Literally. I mean, they may not have any pencils. They may not have any food there , you know, drinking sugar, water, or frying plantings, but that culture and that art resonated without even blinking. So I decided after coming back and I think in 2016, I asked , uh , uh , ponds over at the conference center about doing an exhibit at their gallery. And he said, yeah , absolutely. So that opened the door to doing an exhibit there of a naive artist. And then when people found out that I was doing this, all of a sudden, all of the institutions ended up joining us . We had Harn Museum, we had Thomas Center, we had the Florida Natural History Museum , uh , Phillips Performing Arts Center. And the interesting thing to me was that for the first time ever this community had embraced an event that they would all collaborate. Cause that had never existed before. And to me, that was a mission that really will, Bulla Cubana was instrumental in doing, and hopefully this will be a stepping stone to really setting a future for, you know , what I hope to become, you know , and the committee does for Gainesville to become an art city for the arts, you know , a destination for the arts. And so that's what we're really, that's our final goal. And so we're now already going on 2021, we've got all five of the major institutions already signed up to travel to Cuba and look for talent. And , um, we're gonna have an exhibit at the Cade Museum with a very fabulous collector in Tampa who has a beautiful, and the guy who owns the studio say single-dose car that's right behind you. That tell us a little bit, tell us a little bit about that car because these guys are the ones that have been really.
Richard Miles: 23:23
Just so listeners are aware . We have this really cool car sitting back at the Cade Museum, but there's something very distinctive about it. I'm going to let Gabby or Jorge tell us about it.
Gabby Azcuy: 23:32
Okay. The car, the name of it's a sculpture. The title is Hybrid of Chrysler was made in 2016 for the Cuban artist, by the Cuban artists ( inaudible). He has been working with these hybrids for a long time. And this car have been, we can say the flying around the US and Europe was first on the Tampa Museum of Art, then traveled to the banners , PNL then traveled to Washington DC to the Kennedy Center. And now is here at Gainesville in the Cade Museum.
Richard Miles: 24:04
But you have to describe maybe, this is radio, right? Yeah. So you got to describe what does a car look like?
Gabby Azcuy: 24:10
Okay. So it's a 1953 Chrysler limo with wings. So it's when you see as a huge sculpture, that seems like it will fly, but really doesn't.
Jorge Lavoy: 24:23
So you know, that 30 feet wings on top of our Chrysler, 1953, 18 feet wide, right ? No , the wings are 30 feet and sort of like simulated a little jet engines. Two a jet , uh , both sides. And I mean the same, you know, the same color of the car is a kind of blend the whole scene, like real wings coming out of it .
Richard Miles: 24:46
I got to say it looks very realistic. So I'm guessing that how many people ask you if it's a real flying car?
All: 24:53
Oh yeah. All the time, right ? Yeah.
Gabby Azcuy: 24:56
This car , this is the second car that he did. The first one was submarine. So c an he was moving the submarine into Havana. The police s topped him because, so that was a r aft t o leave the country.
Jorge Lavoy: 25:09
Yeah. That's on video. Right ?
Richard Miles: 25:12
So elicit planes and submarines come to the Cade.
Jorge Lavoy: 25:17
One of the s cenes, when we s tarted thinking about the, the Cuban Ingenuity exhibition, we, I mean o ur, after we moved to Gainesville, we s tart thinking, w e really s tart thinking about bringing value to Gainesville because we really i t's the first sign that we feel like home after we moved t o, t o US in general. So we, u h, had like the opportunity of this exhibition to bring that car and just start traveling around Gainesville and b ring all that press that, that always, that car has, you know? U h, so that was like the first idea after we think about the, the exhibition. Okay. Let's bring the, the hybrid and put it somewhere i n the Cade Museum. So, you know, that way we can make some more noise about Bulla Cubana.
Richard Miles: 26:06
Well, I really got to say, you know, Gainesville is very lucky to have you, Gabby, and Jorge. I'm just a little bit afraid that you're gonna become too successful on near Gainesville is gonna be too small for you to go for the big city, the big life .
Jorge Lavoy: 26:19
We have been like hearing a lot of histories about people just having success all around US, and then coming back to Gainesville to , you know , uh , being here.
Richard Miles: 26:29
There's like a 30 year interlude for that.
Randy Batisa: 26:32
We're going to put the shackles on it .
Richard Miles: 26:34
Very good.
Randy Batisa: 26:34
So real quick, Richard, I have to tell you, we are so proud to really be involved with the Cade Museum. You guys have set a standard for this community that I it's outstanding. Uh , what you brought to the community to share with us is marvelous. And for us to be a part of this. Yeah . It's just brilliant. And thank you so much for you guys or what you do with that museum, because it truly is a fine piece of art, and it's just a wonderful instrument to really talk about inventions and what we can do. So thank you both.
Richard Miles: 27:06
Well Thanks Randy for hearing that. And , uh, and I'll make that check out to Randy Batista. So , um, but thank you all of you for coming on to Radio Cade, it's been a great discussion and , and really strongly encourage listeners to come by and take a look again. We have a sneak peak on March 9th and , uh , but we'll have the exhibit on Cuban Ingenuity through the end of the year. So thanks very much.
All: 27:25
Thank you.
Richard Miles: 27:26
I am Richard Miles.
Outro: 27:30
Radio Cade would like to thank the following people for their help and support Liz Gist of the Cade Museum for coordinating interviews. Bob McPeak of Heartwood Soundstage in downtown Gainesville, Florida for recording, editing and production of the podcasts and music theme, Tracy Collins for the composition and performance of the Radio Cade theme song featuring violinist , Jacob Lawson and special, thanks to the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida.
