Just 90 miles off Florida's coast, Cuba has loomed large in American history, for better or for worse. In the months leading up to our departure, President Trump had hinted at plans to restrict travel to the islands, though, given the administration’s usual hot air, we decided to take a risk and book our tickets anyway. Fortunately, our plane touched down in Havana hours just before the administration announced new restrictions for American travelers. Clearly, we weren’t the only people concerned, because our whole plane erupted in spontaneous applause.
Welcome to Havana
Originally a Spanish colony, the U.S. first involved itself in Cuban affairs during a bloody revolt against Spanish rule. As a country similarly founded on freedom and liberty, the Americans supported the revolt and sent in military aid. The resulting Spanish-American war not only saw Cuban liberation, but also the U.S. occupation of Spanish territories in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, built by the Spanish to protect Havana from pirates and invaders
Suddenly free from the Spanish, Cubans found themselves rolling in American money, which proved particularly useful in monetizing the island’s plentiful crop of sugar cane and tobacco. Back in Havana, where American diplomats had helped rewrite the island’s new constitution, government buildings were built to channel Washington D.C.’s Capital Hill, in turn creating an interesting juxtaposition given the wealth of Spanish mansions. By the 1950s Havana was well-established as a playground for the rich and famous, with lavish hotels and casinos opened by enterprising gangsters like Myer Lansky and Charles “Lucky” Luciano, some of which still stand today.
Capitolio Havana, built in 1929
For revolutionaries like Fidel Castro, the social injustice stoked by prostitution, gambling and alcohol rankled. Castro would go on to wage a guerrilla war against the corrupt U.S. backed Cuban government, eventually becoming D.C.’s enemy number 1. In 1959, Castro’s revolutionaries occupied the newly-built Hilton Hotel in Havana, renaming it Habana Libre. From the top of the penthouse, the self-declared leader of the world’s newest communist nation would reclaim the island’s American-owned businesses and name the Soviet Union the island’s most important ally.
Classic Havana
Facing billions of dollars in losses, America declared an island-wide trade embargo, hoping economic ruin might collapse Castro’s fledgling government. Instead, the revolutionary’s popularity only managed to rise, stoked by his ongoing tirade against Cuba’s latest imperial aggressor. When Castro’s economic policies failed, he blamed the CIA or American-backed saboteurs, all of which provided scapegoats for the island’s ongoing economic crisis. Meanwhile Cubans, who were forbidden from trading with their larger, richer neighbor, slid even deeper into poverty. The decades since the revolution have also been marked by clashes, such as the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the incident when the CIA sent Castro a pack of explosive cigars.
The revolutionary museum in Havana presents a very Cuban view of history
Sadly, this widespread poverty still defines Cuba today. Even before Hurricane Irma tore through the island in 2017, Havana is a city where artfully crumbling buildings abound. This is a place lost in time, with little industry to speak of, tightly controlled internet and lacking in cell phones and other modern communication. Transport is limited to Soviet-era buses or ageing, classic American cars.
Classic American cars ply the streets of Havana
Perpetually short on money, the Cuban government has looked to tourism to raise funds. Resort towns like Varadero, a 20km stretch of beach on Cuba’s north coast, have been developed to attract Canadian and European tourists. Amazingly, Cuban travelers weren’t welcome here until 2008, fueling rumors of a “tourist apartheid.”
Varadero beaches
Fidel Castro finally relinquished control to his brother Raul in 2008, before finally passing away in early 2016. Modest reforms followed. Cubans were allowed to open private business, including restaurants and homestays known as casa particulares, which are scattered all over the islands. Far more interesting and cost-effective (and often outnumbering) than actual hotels, the casas are an important source of income for many Cubans; a boon for budget- and socially-minded tourists like Jen and myself, they’re frequently located in gorgeous colonial buildings.
Trinidad
On the island’s south central coast, Trinidad — like much of Cuba — is a city preserved in time. The cobbled streets, churches and brightly-colored mansions were built by Spanish sugar barons, though the sugar cane fields would ultimately be destroyed in the 1850s war. Today the area has been reborn as a tourist hotspot heaving with bars, restaurants and galleries. Similarly to the north, a turquoise bay and historic buildings lend the charming city of Cienfuegos a classic elegance.
Cienfuegos
As a centuries-old fusion of Caribbean, Spanish and revolutionary traditions, Cuba has developed into something truly unique. Though economic embargoes and communist rule continue to stifle economic growth, the island also offers a lost-in-time sort of charm increasingly absent in an era of growing globalization. Cubans preserve what they can and endure, but it remains to be seen whether the changes proposed by the Trump administration will have any positive effects (don’t hold your breath). The more likely scenario is that ordinary Cubans will face further hardship as fewer tourists visit the islands. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irma has only inflicted further devastation on a poverty-stricken island that was already hanging on by a thread.
By Tom Mountford