Havana turns 500: four reflections on life in the capital of Cuba as it chalks up half a millennium of history
- ‘Havana people are cheerful,’ says a fisherman on the Malecon. ‘Everyone knows one another,’ says a woman who gave up school to earn money posing for tourists
- Ordinary residents talk about the good and bad sides to life in a city that’s a byword for romance yet has struggled under a US embargo for decades
Since its founding by Spanish colonists, the Cuban capital, Havana, has become a byword for Latin American romance and revolutionary nostalgia.
With the city celebrating its 500th anniversary on November 16, four Havana residents whose lives reflect its history and its recent changes talk about their experiences.
Yosbel Sosa, 33, drives what he calls a “time machine” – a black Chevrolet Impala with red and white seats, dating to 1959, the year of late leader Fidel Castro’s revolution. In it, he drives tourists around the city’s historic sites: the restored dome of the Capitol, the colonial mansions, art deco buildings, Revolution Square and the picturesque Malecon seafront promenade.
“It helps to have an old-fashioned car,” he says. “Tourists want to visit the old part of town and learn the history of what happened 500 years ago.”
