24 hours in Havana, Cuba

The Cuba of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara

I think back to the days of the revolution, to Fidel and Che Guevara – figures who enjoy an almost mythical status, not only in Cuba but throughout the rest of the world. I think of the time when organised crime from the US, led by Meyer Lansky and Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, tried to gain a foothold here in the 1940s and 1950s. Cuba as the colonial jewel of the Spanish Empire. The eternal struggle that Cuba, as a socialist stronghold, wages against its neighbour, the United States of America, which left the Cuban people virtually completely isolated from the Western world for many decades. In Havana, I almost always feel immersed in these illustrious times, which are precisely what make the city so fascinating.

I turn off and walk towards the Hotel Sevilla. The stately building is now a shadow of its former self, but if only its walls could talk. In the early twentieth century, this hotel was considered the most luxurious and prestigious in Havana. In 1939, Amleto Batisti y Lora, a mafioso of Italian-Uruguayan descent, bought the hotel and opened a casino there, turning it into a haven for many leading figures from the American mafia scene. Nothing has changed in the hotel and everything is still exactly as it was back then, so when I walk through the lobby, I feel as though I might bump into Meyer Lansky or Al Capone at any moment.

History brought to life through art

I make my way through the lobby, exit the hotel at the other end and head for the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the National Museum of Fine Arts, where I have an appointment with the curator, Sussette Martinez. She takes me on a trip of the museum’s collection and, using the artworks and the hidden messages that various Cuban artists sought to convey through their work, tells me about the history of Cuba from the period just before the 1959 revolution right up to the present day. You can see that the artists’ outlook shifts from hopeful to critical, to cynical and rebellious.

After Fidel and his followers took power in 1959, most Cuban artists, like the rest of the population, were full of hope, and Fidel therefore embraced Cuban art as a means of spreading his message. However, when the first voices of dissent began to emerge, those in power decided that Cuban art should only support the revolution, thereby banning critical works. Nevertheless, the creativity with which the artists managed to convey their critical views through their works without it being immediately obvious is extraordinary and, in my view, synonymous with the high degree of creativity that characterises the entire Cuban population.

It’s remarkable to see how the average Cuban has to do their best day in, day out just to make ends meet, whilst, on the other hand, I don’t think there’s a single country where the general intellectual level of the population is so high. It’s a fascinating walk past some very interesting Cuban artworks, through which I’m learning more about recent Cuban history from a less conventional perspective.

The promising and creative Vedado district

Afterwards, Sussette takes me to the studios of some promising young Cuban artists, who are based in the Vedado district. The Vedado district emerged in the early twentieth century, when Havana’s more affluent residents sought to settle outside the city centre and chose this area rich in natural beauty, where building was initially prohibited. The neighbourhood lies right next to the city centre, but the houses, built in an American style from the 1930s and 1940s, are much more spacious, surrounded by lush gardens and situated on leafy avenues. Incidentally, there are also a number of attractive small-scale boutique hotels here, which are ideal if you want to explore Havana but, in between sightseeing, wish to enjoy some peace and quiet whilst reading a good book in a lovely spot in the garden of your accommodation.

In the first studio, I meet Daniel Rodriguez Collazo, a promising Cuban artist who creates charcoal drawings of Cuban architecture. I also visit the more established Cuban artist Ibrahim Miranda. He uses maps as the basis for his art and now exhibits in leading museums all over the world. There’s a very positive energy in Vedado. An energy that I find comparable to the energy and positivity I experienced in Medellín, Colombia. This, too, is a city with a turbulent history where a veritable explosion of creativity has now erupted and where the predominantly young population has set about working on socio-cultural projects in the fields of song, dance and art.

An open-air museum

Havana is an amazing city, with a variety of distinctive neighbourhoods, each with its own identity. Exploring the Cuban capital is, at times, like a journey back in time, allowing you to pause at a number of key moments in history. With its classic American cars and the diverse architectural styles that define the streetscape, Havana is a veritable open-air museum. With the right guides, you can immerse yourself in the fascinating stories that bring to life the country’s illustrious history and its captivating capital. As the icing on the cake, on every street corner in Havana you’ll hear the sweet sounds of Cuban salsa and rumba music, and just outside the city, on a wooded estate, the former home of the American writer and Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway, where everything remains just as it was when he last closed the door behind him.