One Week in Cuba: April 2012

La Habana. This section begins photos of Havana, April, 2012. For more, click "Older Posts" at the bottom of a page.

After four days in Santiago and the Oriente [eastern Cuba], we flew out at night on this airline to Havana. The flight was packed, including at least one beefy security guard. Cuban Regional Airlines connecting to the Caribbean.

Restored cars in Havana. The shiniest ones are used as special taxis for tourists.

Another form of transportation for tourists are these gas-friendly three-wheeled football helmets.

Old Cars in Cuba. Restored? Not so much.

Monuments to the Revolution

This enormous outline of Camilo Cienfuegos is located around Revolutionary Square, where Fidel gave his historic - and frequent - hours-long speeches. "Go well Fidel."

Some politics from Wikipedia:

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (February 6, 1932 – October 28, 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.
In 1954 he became an active member of the underground students movement against Dictator Fulgencio Batista. This involvement led him to be wounded by firearm on December 7, 1955, during a popular protest organized to honor Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo. After being harassed by police and without a job, he decided to leave Cuba and travelled again to the U.S., in particular to New York. He was later expelled from the U.S., when his residence permit expired, and relocated to Mexico.
During his stay in Mexico, Camilo met Fidel Castro, who was organizing a revolutionary expedition that would return to Cuba to fight Batista. Thereafter Cienfuegos was one of the 82 revolutionaries who set sail aboard the boat Granma in November 1956. Allegedly, he was the last one to board the boat and was only allowed to join because of his thinness.

This is the outline of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "Always to Victory."

Statue of José Marti and Monument to Marti. Opposite Revolutionary Square. A disturbingly "familiar" incident occurred in 1949. Three crew members from the U.S. Navy ships visiting Havana urinated on a monument of Marti, Cuba's most venerated patriot.

Edificios. Buildings. General photos of all types.

ACCORDING TO LONELY PLANET, THERE ARE MORE THAN 900 BUILDINGS OF HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE IN HABANA VIEJA, old Havana.

Restored façades around a plaza. Notice the upper sides of buildings are not painted fresh.

More Edificios. Buildings.

This may be a hotel.

This state-owned restaurant is in the site of a former newspaper publishing business. La Imprenta=the press.

Don't know what it is.

A special day for this teenager.

People live throughout the city in these beautiful unrestored buildings.

Maternity Home.

A Russian structure of distinct architecture.

Edificios. Ornate Buildings. Cuban educational policy.

Most Ornate, in Plaza Central.

Same as above.

Entry to the University of Habana, also showing water delivery truck.

Government policies for child rearing and education:

Mothers are expected to nurse their babies for one year and are given maternity leave.

At age one, the babies go to day care. The family is provided with condensed or powdered milk for a child from age one to seven. From age seven to eleven, soy yogurt is provided.

Rations to all Cubans, regardless of financial status, include rice, beans, salt, sugar, chicken, and pork, equal amounts for whatever age. Only if there are children or elderly, is beef provided.

The educational system is free and compulsory, with nursery school followed by primary school. Junior high is grades 7, 8, and 9. After 9th, the young person may choose a trade school or a high school; also art school is an option.

For college, the high school graduate may choose to apply in as many as 5 professional areas, and then must take tests in all of the five, such as engineering, medicine, law, architecture. There are 50 colleges in Cuba, but the University of Havana is the most prestigious, and for acceptance, you must have the highest scores. At the present time, no one has been wanting to go into agriculture and live in the countryside, so the government wants to encourage that. About 10 to 20% go to college after high school, including full-time day students, but also night students who work during the day. There are currently five unfinished schools of the arts, as funds ran out.

The Cuban government has promised to restore ALL historic buildings, but the process has been taking decades, due to the lack of funds. The interior restorations are performed by the occupants and/or owners of the buildings at their own expense.

In this plaza, the facades have been restored.

Artist Alley

This Artist's Alley in Havana is called Callejon Hamel, after the artist Hamel, and is filled with fascinating paintings and sculptures of found objects.