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ISLAND CARS:
A HUNDRED-YEAR HISTORY

CARS HAVE BEEN AN ESSENTIAL PART OF CUBAN CULTURE SINCE BEFORE THE LAST CENTURY. EARLY ENTREPRENEURS WHO SAW PROMISE IN THE SELF-PROPELLED, FOUR-WHEELED CONTRAPTION IMAGINED MAKING RICHES FROM THEIR IMPORTS. BUT, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THOSE ENTREPRENEURS PUT THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE—OR, IN THIS CASE, THE CAR BEFORE THE ROAD.

MANY WHO ATTEMPTED TO IMPORT CARS INTO THE COUNTRY WENT BROKE BECAUSE OF POOR TIMING: CUBANS NEEDED VEHICLES, BUT THEIR “ROADS” WERE IN SUCH A HORRID STATE THAT THEY COULD ONLY BE DRIVEN SHORT DISTANCES. OFTEN THEY WERE NOTHING MORE THAN NARROW, MUDDY GOAT PATHS.

In the 1950s, GM in general, and Chevy in particular, sold more cars in Cuba than any other brand. Tri-Five Chevys, like this 1955, are still some of the most popular cars on Cuban roads today. Courtesy General Motors Archives

Cadillacs have been imported to Cuba since the company’s earliest days. One-cylinder models like this 1904–1905 model once traveled on Cuba’s crude dirt, gravel, and limited paved roads. Library of Congress

Because of their extremely low prices, Model T Fords eventually became the best-selling automobile in Cuba. Library of Congress

We found this original Ford in a garage in Santiago de Cuba. The owner lives in Miami, but laws prevent him from removing his vintage racer from Cuba.

The first recorded car to enter Cuba was called a Parisienne, a French vehicle that arrived in Havana in 1898. The two-horsepower vehicle was capable of a top speed of 7 miles per hour and cost US$1,000, the equivalent of more than $28,000 in 2016, when adjusted for inflation. Because of its high price and the limited areas in which prospective customers could drive it, it made for a tough sell to Cuban citizens.

The second car appeared a year later, in 1899, and was a Rochet-Schneider. Also built in France, the five-seater car was priced at US$4,000 (equivalent to more than $100,000 in 2016), but when compared to the Parisienne, it was a virtual speed demon: the eight-horsepower engine had a top speed of 12 miles per hour, nearly double that of its predecessor. Later that year, four bus-type vehicles were sent to Havana in the hopes of establishing regular commuter routes.

Today we drive faster than 12 miles per hour in an average parking lot, but in Cuba at the turn of the last century, that speed was faster than a horse pulling a wagon. And cars, unlike horses, only needed to be fed when they were used, so the attraction of self-propelled vehicles was obvious.

In 1900, another Parisienne was shipped to Havana. Later that year, two Locomobiles were shipped from New York. The first car to arrive in Cuba’s second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, came in 1902. It was another Locomobile and was powered by a steam engine.

All these vehicles were owned by businessmen who hoped to capitalize on the new four-wheeled phenomenon that was sweeping other modern societies. But with the horrible condition of the roads—well, horse paths and trails—they had the right idea, but too soon.

Initially, American brands such as Oldsmobile and White had a hard time getting a foothold in the Cuban market because wealthy families bought European brands such as De Dion Bouton, Panhard et Levassor, and the already mentioned Rochet-Schneider. In 1905, Cuban businessman Germán López secured the franchises for both Fiat and Locomobile, and Cuba’s first car dealership opened. López built a shop large enough to work on six cars at once, the first of its kind in the country.

The following year, 1906, the first vehicle accident resulting in a fatality occurred in Cuba. The driver of the car had apparently been drinking and hit a pedestrian. That accident, in part, resulted in the institution of a Cuba’s first drivers’ licenses.

By 1913, there were more than four thousand motorized vehicles on the island. And while the most popular brands were still built in Europe, American brands were beginning to make headway. Packards, Chevrolets, Cadillacs, and Dodges were appearing on the streets more often, but it took Ford Motor Company to begin pushing the European brands out of the limelight.

The Model T eventually became Cuba’s best-selling car, spurred on by its simple design and low price. While most European cars were selling for thousands of dollars, a 1913 Model T sold for just US$550. The next year the price dropped to $400, and by 1916 customers could purchase a brand new Model T for just $365! Suddenly cars were not just for the wealthy but within the grasp of the middle class as well.

In 1914, Ernesto Carricaburu, a one-time chauffer and race driver, bought ten Model T Fords and began Cuba’s first recorded taxi service. In a letter notifying his managers in Dearborn, Michigan, of the purchase, Ford foreign manager E. C. Sherman brought his US colleagues up to speed on Cuba’s economic scene: “Cuba’s population is 2.5 million people, and 80% of those are poor,” he wrote. “It is estimated that 50% of the population cannot read or write. There are 2,000 miles of roads in Cuba that can be driven year round.” He went on to say that much of the island transportation was still by means of mule or horse, “because the trails are too narrow for an ox-cart, let alone an automobile.”

Cuba, where ten thousand cars were plying the roads, was certainly the largest Latin American automobile market in 1917. At the time, Cuba was the ninth-largest Latin American country in population, but between the government and individuals, the country was responsible for buying more cars than much larger nations, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

By 1922, of the 5,117 cars imported to Cuba, 4,722 were American made. Travel within the cities of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and a couple other urban areas was getting better, but most people who traveled from one end of Cuba to another traveled by sea. The roads along the 750-mile island were still in horrid condition.

Ford outsold all other American brands until the mid-1930s. In 1936, Chevrolet exported 1,076 cars to Cuba and Ford shipped 1,069, a difference of only 7 cars. But GM cars increasingly dominated car sales in Cuba until the 1959 embargo.

More Cadillacs per capita were sold in Cuba than in any other country, including the United States, before the embargo. It is suspected that many of those were sold to mobsters who ran gambling and prostitution operations on the island.

In 1946, 16,258 cars were registered to individuals in Cuba, but only six years later, in 1952, that number jumped to more than 77,000. In that year, of the 14,725 automobiles imported to Cuba, 95 percent were built in the United States. That translated to more than US$25 million worth of sales to dealerships at wholesale prices. Added to that were 7,800 trucks sold on the island, adding another $13 million to the bottom line.

“Most of our dealers have been making a lot of money,” wrote C. M. Dolittle, general manager of Havana’s Ford branch, to R. I. Roberge, export manager in Michigan.