quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Fascinating - and quite beautiful! I've heard about the time-warp cars but have never seen pictures of them. Love the architecture, love the stories about your family.

Thanks!

Steve, I have a few more pics with the cars.

Modern cars are available to tourists and certain licensed taxi drivers only. Even if you could afford it, the government does not want anyone showing outward displays of wealth and you have to apply for a permit to purchase a new car. Unless you are in the tourism industry the application will be turned down. Equality between Cubans at all costs.

We rented a car and drove 3 hours to Cienfuegos. The "expressway" was a wide, 6 lane cement-paved road with median, no lanes painted, and so many serious, car-damaging potholes that I spent the entire drive weaving left to right trying to avoid them. No others vehicles were on the road except for the occasional truck with open back which would stop and pickup or drop off groups of people waiting for a ride on the side of the road, or a horse-drawn wagon or trailer also packed with people trying to get somewhere.



A street view from the capitol in Havana




A more "modern" car

And I thought my car had to I wanted my car to last a long time.

This has been so educational for us, Elena.

Why do most all doors and windows have wrought iron on them?

It is amazing that they can keep those older cars running. Maintenance costs must be rather high.

Do you know why with all that agricultural land available that they are not farming it?

If, in the future, you could share pics of Spain, it too would be appreciated!

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This has been so educational for us, Elena.

Why do most all doors and windows have wrought iron on them?

Traditional urban Spanish architecture always put wrought iron on the ground floor doors and windows. I think it is for both aesthetic and safety reasons.

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It is amazing that they can keep those older cars running. Maintenance costs must be rather high.

Isn't it impressive? They cannibalize from cars that unsalvageable and sometimes they will build parts from scratch. Necessity is the mother of invention.

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Do you know why with all that agricultural land available that they are not farming it?

A mixture of communist rules and bureaucracy and lack of access to transportation fuel.

You might find these interesting:

Wiki article

Raul Castro seeks to boost food production

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If, in the future, you could share pics of Spain, it too would be appreciated!

Oh dear, I'm afraid I don't have many that are terribly interesting of Spain since I live here!

I have older ones but they are not digital and I don't have time to scan them these days.

I will try to go out with my camera one of these days and take photos of Madrid for you.

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I was born in Tampa, Elena, and Ybor City looks a lot like your pictures. A lot of brick buildings, balconies, cobblestone streets, and courtyards. Like Steve said though, what I notice are the cars.

Never been to northern FL, other than Gainesville. Considering the early Spanish influence in the State I wouldn't be surprised.

When I first moved to Madrid I couldn't believe how similar parts of it felt to walking the streets of Old San Juan, PR's capital.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ybor_City

Isn't Saint Augustine the oldest settlement in the US? I'll have to look that up.

Gainesville is definitely in northern Florida. Tampa I would say is in the middle. Technically, it's considered south Florida, since the university there is the University of South Florida. Strange thing is I'm a native of Tampa and we consider Miami south Florida, not us. Large Cuban population in Tampa, used to be the heart of cigar production in US.

Burb from "Saint Augustine" at Wikipedia.

"It is the oldest continuously occupied European and African-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States.[2]

Etc.

St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish under Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565.[2]"

Wow, what an amazing thread. I've been fascinated by Cuban culture since I saw the documentary Buena Vista Social Club a few years ago. It's wonderful to read your account and see the pictures. I would love to visit there someday. Hmmmm - how about a piano party in Cuba!

thank you Elena.. they are fascinating photos.

I have a niece who writes and she married a Cuban in Cuba. We've seen many glorious pics of her travels and marriage/wedding celebration. One thing i noticed is the vintage American cars in every photo practically.

you might enjoy her anthology which she wrote on Cuba if you come across it.

What an interesting thread, both for the visit to present-day Cuba and the reminiscences about the past. I am very glad you chose to share all that with us, Elena.

Big Al

thanks for the brief political history. deeply interesting!

I love this thread!

Thank you Elena!

My grandfather kept my Mom's car at his house for her...we loved to ride it in when we were kids...it was just like this one..



See other thread of my birth certificate 50 years ago!!!

What resourcefulness to keep cars that old going and going and going....

It is a lesson to us here in the 'throw away' society.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ybor_City

Isn't Saint Augustine the oldest settlement in the US?...

St. Augustine has made that claim forever. I remember reading that claim in Weekly Reader when I was in first grade. BUT, that doesn't make it true. And it isn't. There's another place in the U.S. three decades older--Villa Nueva, New Mexico, which was established in 1538 by members of Pizarro's 2nd expeditionary party, at the northernmost point they reached in their exploration. In that year, they established a mission church on a hill in the middle of a secluded valley along the Pecos River. Members of the party remained there and their descendents live there still today, worshipping in that very same mission church and living by communally farming the valley floor as they always have, with ancient stone aqueducts that channel water from the Pecos through their rich fields.

I lived there in a 500-year-old house for a summer in the mid-70s. Recently, the owner of that house agreed to sell it to me.

It's a beautiful place that time has forgotten. Life there is very much now like it was always. The small village has no more than 300 inhabitants, all of whom speak a rare Basque Spanish dialect. The people there are not worldly nor exposed to tourists as they're truly in the middle of nowhere and not on the way to anywhere else or anything. They're quite poor, with little interest in making the sort of claims St. Augustine has made for some time while cultivating tourism through history. Nevertheless, Villa Nueva is nearly 30 years older and *has* been continuously occupied for all of that time.

Some years ago, National Geographic did a spread on the place, documenting the history of the place, with special focus on the mission church there which depicts the history of the village and all its families from the beginning to the present in a series of paintings that circle the chapel.

I love the place. If it were not for the very few rustic electric poles and a handful of cars, one could step outside and probably not see the difference since its earliest years.

That point aside, I really enjoyed the pictures and your family history, Elena. I can see your father in your own face, in the eyes and the smile.

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I lived there in a 500-year-old house for a summer in the mid-70s. Recently, the owner of that house agreed to sell it to me.

hm. looking for a caretaker? sounds like a great place to write a novel.

This reminds me of my thread complaining that New York isn't part of New England. It turns out that it once was part of the political entity that defined New England (thanks, Matt). And thanks, Rick, for this explanation.