Blending innovation with nostalgia

Recently I saw a newspaper report that in the Cuban capital, Havana, roads are changing with the adaptation of electric bikes and vehicles. This will change life in Havana which has been starving for decades for motor cars, motorcycles and buses. This is due to long impositions of trade and other restrictions on Cuba by the United States since Fidel Castro's time. Still, Havana is famed for colourful vintage American cars made in the decades of the fifties and sixties that can still be seen puttering around its streets and a popular attraction for visitors and tourists. Cuba is one of the few countries in the world where most automobiles are older than their owners.

Due to the trade embargo by America, one can see a fleet of colourful ageing American cars such as Ford, Buicks, Pontiacs, Dodge, and Plymouth in the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba. These very old cars are still functioning because of the ingenuity innovation and technical capacity of Cubans who are forced to become creative due to a shortage of spare parts. Many of their geriatric cars have been reconfigured and hybridized. A 1955 Chevy may be hiding the engine of a Russian Lada or parts of a Mexican truck underneath. A state-run company runs these renovated vintage American cars to ferry tourists around large cities of Cuba maintaining the old grandeur of these vehicles manufactured in 1940 to 1960. These vintage cars are very popular among tourists as vehicles take them into that old grand era when such cars were luxuries. One can also find very old British and Russian cars One can still see British cars such as Hillman or Harold fitted with other engines but Russian Lada cars are still with original parts. In 1970, Lada cars were given as gifts to some Communist Party members for their good work. Owing a Russian Lada is a status symbol in Cuba.

The newspaper reports say that Cubans seem to be happy with the changing scenario and shifting quietly to electric scooters made with Chinese parts. Until recently, Cuba’s roads have changed little in six decades since former leader Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959 with old cars puffing sooty exhaust. Between 2020 to 22 Cuba Cuba-based companies produced more than 23 thousand electric vehicles. This will also reduce the petrol-starved Iceland nation from a heavy burden of transportation through old cars and over crowed buses. However Cuban cities continue to remain a major tourist attraction due to their vintage cars and way of living. In one of the Bond movies “Die Another Day”, James Bond in Havana rides a Vintage car and calls his girl Halle Berry, Mojito, a Cuban drink.

When I visited Havana to Cover the NAM summit under the regime of Raul Castro I was astonished to see various contradictory facts about Cuba. The Cubans have learned to live happily under decades of sanctions on their country by America and Western countries and impositions of restrictions have not dampened their spirits. Though hundreds of Cubans fled to the US as fade up of Communist rule, still majority were still happy to be there as the government took care of their basic needs of food health and education. The Cubans have established a well-known and prestigious institute called The Latin American Institute of Medical Sciences with the latest and most advanced research in the world. It houses students from the world over especially the Third World. Whenever there is a medical calamities or epidemic Cuban team of doctors reach first. This happened during Covid. Fidel Castro would always say “The US sends its Army to take sides but I send my doctors to help humanity.”

American may not like Cubans but Cuban Cigars are very popular in the US. Cubans loved and liked and always respected American Nobel Laureate celebrity writer Earnest Hemingway who was a regular visitor to Cuba spent long times there and penned his famous novels during his stay. He would spend his evenings in the restaurant called Floridita with his female friends enjoying Mojito and Daiquiri drinks. The restaurant has installed a big bust of Hemingway on its bar. The long Communist rule has brought a unique equality among the public. There is hardly any difference among black, white or coloured people. The marriage among them is also mixed colours. There is no complex with status either. My interpreter was a doctor who married a motor driver. Cubans are singing and dancing people. At every corner of Havana, I found musical bands with musicians playing tunes and singing Spanish songs performing Flamenco dances in the afternoon or evenings for self entertainment. It surprises me that despite shortages of worldly many luxuries why Cubans are so content and happy in their world and their country continues to exist as an eyesore to a great power America that too under its nose under heavy sanctions.

Views expressed are personal