Yosbel Sosa drives his Chevrolet Impala 1959 through the streets of Havana, Cuba. Picture: AFP/YAMIL LAGEHalf a century since its founding by Spanish colonists, the Cuban capital Havana has become a byword for Latin American romance and revolutionary nostalgia.
“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.” Roberto Molina is one of the many people who sit on the Malecon with a fishing rod dangling in the Atlantic. Crowds gathered on the Malecon to protest, Molina recalls. “Then he came along,” he says, miming the shape of a beard on his chin to refer to Castro. “And everyone went home.”
Beatriz makes handicrafts and stands dressed as a silver fairy in the busy Calle Obispo, a street of shops and restaurants, where tourists give coins to take photos with her. Gonzalez looks after some of Cuba’s 2,000 centenarians. The island’s 11.2-million people have an average life expectancy of 79.5 years — comparable to that of the rich world.