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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsThe Cars of Cuba
Curiously, the streets of Havana, Cuba are lined with American classic cars from the 1940s and 50s. We explore the history behind Cuba’s unique car culture.
Cuba’s Classic Cars
It is a historical irony that the one place you can go to in the world to get a sense of what a street full of 1950s American cars looked like in person you must travel to modern-day Cuba. Part time capsule, part living museum, the streets of Cuba are renowned for their American classic cars. These relics have been kept running for over 60 years, despite the US trade embargo, thanks to the tireless ingenuity of their owners and Cuban mechanics. It is thanks to that trade embargo that these cars have remained in service. Without many new cars coming in, and an economy hobbled by decades’ worth of sanctions, Cuba’s car owners have had to preserve and repair what they have, namely a lot of classic American cars from the 1940s and 1950s.
Revolution and Embargo
Following its independence from Spain and US occupations, Cuba saw a succession of coups, reform movements, and revolts through the first half of the 20th century. By the 1950s, under the Batista government, Cuba was growing economically, thanks to sugar exports and a burgeoning tourism industry. But rampant corruption within the Batista government helped win converts for the communist revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro, who, in January of 1959, seized power.
Shortly after, Castro aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union and nationalized all US held assets in Cuba. In turn, the US Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act effectively imposing a trade embargo against Cuba that has persisted ever since, the longest lived of any US sanctions regime.
The embargo banned the importation of US automobiles and parts, bringing an end to the flow of some 140,000 US cars brought to Cuba through the 1950s. For a time, Cuba had been the biggest importer of Cadillacs in the world.
Ingenuity Keeps Classics on the Road
The combination of a communist economy and US embargo have weighed heavily on the Cuban economy over the decades. Today, less than one percent of Cubans own a car, most sufficing with public transport buses, horse drawn carriages, and motorcycles.
Most of Cuba’s classic American cars have become family heirlooms, passed down through the generations. The lack of resources from the US has driven ingenuity among Cuba’s mechanics. Even the best maintained US classics have become amalgamated, cobbled together from whatever is at hand. The body work on many of these cars is especially impressive as the contours of 50s classics are recreated with homemade tooling and a great deal of skill.
Cuban mechanics are known for improvising part and components to keep cars running. Examples include using silicon-based shampoo for brake fluid and soaking innertube rubber in diesel fuel to make tire dressing. The concept of a junkyard is a foreign idea in Cuba where non-running cars are pieced out to contribute components to keep other cars on the road. Still, some parts from the US make it to Cuba via the gray market. However, these are often prohibitively expensive and difficult to procure.
Sanctions from the US prevented American cars from being imported, but Cuba’s relationship with the Soviet Union allowed for Cuba to get Soviet cars and tractors. Ladas, Volgas, and Moskvitchs are a common sight in Cuba. These cars are frequently used as parts sources to keep American classic cars running. It is common for an old Buick or Chevrolet in Cuba to carry things like a diesel engine from a Russian tractor, a Nissan distributor, and the suspension from a Volkswagen.
Cuban Cars Old and New
Travel to Havana, Cuba today and you will find the streets populated by American classics, some in better shape than others. The best maintained American classics are frequently used as chauffeured rides for tourist, often brightly painted, with pink a particular favorite. The drive along Havana’s Malecon esplanade, a famous coastal road that runs along the sea wall, is a popular and picturesque route. Driving tourists around historic Havana is a good business in communist Cuba for those lucky enough to own a classic American car.
For those few Cubans of actual means, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, a well-maintained American classic car is a conspicuous luxury. Classic car clubs are common, as owners gather to show off their rare rides. And while well-preserved classics are carting around tourists, more dilapidated ones are pressed into service as taxis for the local population.
Cuba offers a kaleidoscope of cars from the 1940s and 50s cars. Buicks, Ford Fairlanes and Falcons, Pontiacs and Studebakers, Chevy Corvettes and Bel Airs. Among all the American cars you will also find European cars: FIATs and Alfa Romeos, Mercedes-Benz SLs and Volkswagen Karmann-Ghias, as well as those Soviet-era Ladas and Volgas. For classic car spotters, a trip to Cuba is liable to result in a trip to the chiropractor for whiplash treatment.
There are some new vehicles that have made their way to Cuba. The brief thawing of relations between the US and Cuba during the Obama administration saw an uptick in imports bringing in Kias from South Korean, Geelys from China, Volkswagens, Audi, and Mercedes-Benzs from Germany, and Peugeots and Renaults from France. These, however, are the province of the few Cubans of considerable means, priced five or six times what they would sell for elsewhere in the world.
The classic cars of Cuba offer a compelling window into motoring’s past. At the same time, they are a living testament to the ingenuity of Cuban mechanics and to the devotion of their tenacious owners who have kept them on the road all this time.
