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CARS AND CASTROS REVOLUTION

CARS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN FIDEL CASTRO’S RISE TO POWER. IN RICHARD SCHWEID’S EXCELLENT BOOK CHE’S CHEVROLET, FIDEL’S OLDSMOBILE, HE DESCRIBES SOME OF THE VEHICLES THAT THE YOUNG CASTRO, HIS BROTHER RAÚL, ERNESTO “CHE” GUEVARA, AND OTHER KEY REVOLUTIONARY FIGURES USED BEFORE AND DURING THE ASSAULT. CASTRO WAXES ON NOSTALGICALLY IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, FIDEL: MY EARLY YEARS, ABOUT HIS 1950 CHEVY, WHICH SERVED HIM WELL IN HIS PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE ASSAULT.

Despite the broken window, this tidy red 1952 Chevy sedan stands in sharp contrast to the building’s weathered façade. Dan Gair/Getty Images

Fifty years later, Americans have long forgotten Castro’s revolution, but Cubans live with the US embargo every day. Here a woman displays the flag of the revolution from her apartment window.

Cuban citizens are reminded daily of the revolution.

It’s hard to escape images of the revolution wherever one travels throughout Cuba. This tank, along with other vehicles used during Castro’s takeover, is on display at the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.

Uninspiring apartment buildings like these are remnants of the three decades that the Soviet Union had a heavy influence in Cuba’s economy. They are similar to buildings the Soviets built in Poland, Eastern Germany, and other former Eastern Bloc countries.

“I covered some 50,000 kilometers in a little car I had, a Chevrolet 50-315 [sic],” wrote Castro. “I bought it on credit; they were always taking it away from me.”

Apparently the car had burned two days before the actual revolution began, but by then many of the cars used by his revolutionary army were rented. During the actual revolution, Castro drove a green 1959 Oldsmobile equipped with a V-8 engine, a Hydramatic transmission, and power steering. Younger brother Raül used a 1951 Chevy as his transport during the time he and fellow revolutionaries were planning and executing their revolution.

Guevara’s choice of wheels was a deep-green 1960 Chevy with a white top, powered by a 283-cubic-inch engine and a Powerglide automatic transmission. The car was apparently one of the last new models sold by Ambar Motors, Havana’s major GM dealer, before shutting down as a result of the revolution. It is now on display at the Depósito del Automóvil car museum on Havana’s waterfront. (There is no record of the whereabouts of Fidel Castro’s Oldsmobile.)

One of Guevara’s assistants appropriated a Jaguar from its wealthy owner who had fled to Florida during the revolution. Guevara roundly criticized him for driving a car that did not represent the people and gave the assistant—who loved the car—just two hours to return it.

One of the remnants of the Soviet era in Cuba is the occasional viewing of a Russian Chaika limousine, the staff car of choice for Russian political figures of the day.

As Chaikas are not particularly attractive, it’s obvious that Russian designers stole styling cues from some of America’s most forgettable vehicles, especially Chrysler and Mercury.

JANUARY 1, 1959: THE DAY EVERYTHING CHANGED

Probably never imagining the impact his takeover would have on his country’s industry, commerce, and infrastructure when he claimed himself leader of Cuba on New Year’s Day, 1959, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz threw the country into an economic suspended animation that persists today.

The United States promptly responded to Castro’s rise in power by placing an embargo on all trade relations with Cuba. This meant the United States was denied Cuban cigars, rum, and sugar, but Cuba was denied so much more. US-based companies—Coca-Cola, Frigidaire, Chevrolet, and hundreds of others—ceased doing business on the island, and that embargo was still in effect at the time of this writing.

Cuba’s capitol building is nearly an exact replica of the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The building has been maintained and remains one of Cuba’s most beautiful.

The Statue of José Martí, father of Cuba’s Independence from Spain, occupies the center of Parque Central in the historic district of Havana.

Statues of American heroes, including this of President Abraham Lincoln, have been displayed in front of the capitol building for more than half a century.

A photo of the newly restored opera house taken from the roof of the Hotel Parque Central. One by one, many of Havana’s significant buildings are being restored.

Not quite Concours: these three vehicles—Plymouth, Ford, and Rambler, all in rough condition—seem to have been painted with the same brush.

Ladies in colorful Cuban garb will pose with a cigar for you for 3 CUCs.

Dick Messer, former director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, enjoys the company of one of these famous “cigar ladies” of Havana.

It’s not uncommon to see collapsed buildings throughout Havana. The entire country’s infrastructure needs a half century’s worth of maintenance and repair. It is said that one building collapses every third day.

Oxen-drawn carts are still in use throughout the Cuban countryside, mostly to haul produce to market or water to irrigate the fields.

Once part of a beautiful city, these buildings are now overcrowded and falling down. Some tenants even raise chickens and pigs on their balconies.

One by one, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and Rambler dealership owners shuttered their storefronts and escaped to America, South America, and beyond. For the first few months, or maybe even a year or two, life continued pretty much unchanged for the Cuban citizens who were forced to remain on the island. But as their cars started to break down, the supply of spare parts started to rapidly dry up.

It was like the world’s cruelest joke: Cubans were driving thousands of American cars just 90 miles from Key West, Florida, yet they could source no American parts to keep them in good running order. Instead, motorists were forced to adapt parts made in Russia and Czechoslovakia, many of which were designed for trucks and tractors, slowly converting their cars to automotive Frankensteins.

Over time, the car owners of Cuba have become, by necessity, possibly the most competent mechanics on the planet.

This 1951 Buick convertible from the NostalgiCar taxi company takes a tourist past one of Havana’s many crumbling buildings. Holly Wilmeth/Getty Images