Vintage U.S.-made cars on the streets of Havana provide a common
representation of Cuba. Journalist Richard Schweid, who traveled
throughout the island to research the story of motor vehicles in
Cuba today and yesterday, gets behind the wheel and behind the
stereotype in this colorful chronicle of cars, buses, and trucks.
In his captivating, sometimes gritty, voice, Schweid blends
previously untapped historical sources with his personal
experiences, spinning a car-centered history of life on the island
over the past century.
Packard, Studebaker, Edsel, De Soto: cars long extinct in the
United States can be seen at work every day on Cuba's streets.
Havana and Santiago de Cuba today are home to some 60,000 North
American cars, all dating back to at least 1959, the year the Cuban
Revolution prevailed. Though hardly a new part has arrived in Cuba
since 1960, the cars are still on the road, held together with
mechanical ingenuity and willpower.
Visiting car mechanics, tracking down records in dusty archives,
and talking with car-crazy Cubans of all types, Schweid juxtaposes
historic moments (Fidel Castro riding to the Bay of Pigs in an
Oldsmobile) with the quotidian (a weary mother's two-cent bus ride
home after a long day) and composes a rich, engaging picture of the
Cuban people and their history. The narrative is complemented by
fifty-two historic black-and-white photographs and eight color
photographs by contemporary Cuban photographer Adalberto Roque.