Old Havana is falling into ruins

[TM]

Pick up a copy of this book: The Havana Guide: Modern Architecture 1925 - 1965. Just a wealth of great architecture from the Golden Era to Modern.

http://www.amazon.com/Havana-Guide-Modern-Architecture-1925-1965/dp/1568982100/ref=sr_1_1/104-3987195-0024709?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174702516&sr=8-1

Tony

 

[Lincsong]

Reuters is only now figuring this out! What turnip truck did that reporter fall off of?lol

 

[Tango Yankee]

Cars?

Isn't Cuba also supposed to be a treasure trove of old American automobiles?

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Lincsong]

Vegas treatment? You mean as in putting a lighted canopy over the Malacon like Fremont Street?lol lol I just hope it doesn't get the Tijuana treatment.

 

[Spitfire]

Beautifull Havana

A few snapshots from Havana - last christmas.
Embargo, poverty and wrong governement - it's still a fantastic city with some great people.
Go see for youself now - before it turns into Disneyland/Vegas.

Enjoy!

 

[dhermann1]

BVSC

Go rent the film "Buena Vista Social Club". It's more than a documentary of the music. It's a picture of the whole country as of 1998.
Also, whenever I think of Cuba in the old days, I always think of the I Love Lucy episode where they recall how they met. Very cute, and it could well have happened.
I was in Zagreb, Croatia, in the former Yugoslavia in 2004. Much the same story. It's a very ancient town, with a main section that dates to the late Hapsburg Empire. It's in a state of elegant decay. There are some magnificent Art Nouveau buildings as well. It just proves that poverty is the friend of preservation, but only up to a point.

 

[Rooster]

Isn't Cuba also supposed to be a treasure trove of old American automobiles?

Cheers,
Tom

Yes, and WWII fighter planes. My Mom and my Aunt Lucille were there just before the revolution and Casto's take over. I'll see if they can produce any pictures for us. I remember My Aunt Lucille's vacation slide shows when I was a kid.....this may bring on another....

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Some thoughts and facts ...


1. Yes, it's a terrible shame.


2. In more ways than (the political) one, it was inevitable. The crumbling facades and interiors of these late 19th and early 20th century buildings are made of PLASTER. The reason is that homemade plaster was much cheaper than imported stone. (Cuba has no granite deposits. The island's limestone is very fractured, and not particularly suited to building -- except as plaster. There is some so-called 'Jamaican' marble, but it doesn't weather so well, either.) Unfortunately, plaster cannot withstand the island's humid, wet climate for long. Frankly, those buildings were made to look nice, but not to last.


3. The good news is that old Havana's late 19th/early 20th century architecture is not unique at all. I have seen nearly identical buildings -- usually in better condition -- all over Central and South America's capitals: Panama City, Lima, Santiago, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and more. Furthermore, Puerto Rico has many magnificently preserved examples. If you really enjoy such architecture, Latin America has plenty of it to see and enjoy.

.

 

[cookie]

Automobiles Vintages en la Habana

What year is that Buick with the crazy Shark Grin grill?

Please advise.

 

[Lincsong]

Marc made a good point about the buildings being made to look nice but not to last since they were merely plaster. I am assuming there are no large coral reefs around Havana. In Honolulu, there are some beautiful renaissance buildings that were made of coral, Hawaiian divers actually hand cut the coral underwater and it was brought ashore and laid out. Iolani Palace was constructed in 1882 and the coral has withstood time. It was the woodwork that got eaten by the termites.

 

[Phil]

Wish I could go see Cuba. If only it wasn't for that whole embargo. From what I hear, it is (or at least was) the Hawai'i of the Caribbean.

 

[Spitfire]

What year is that Buick with the crazy Shark Grin grill?

Please advise.

Don't know much about US cars - but I do know that the cars in Cuba often are changed, they simply take parts from one rundown car and add them to another. (Pimp my car - like) So it just might not be the original grin.

 

[dhermann1]

That looks to me like a 59 or 60 Dodge, actually.

 

[RedPop4]

I really don't get this idea that restoration and cleaning turn a place into Disney Plastinations. I'm hearing it here in New Orleans, too. The city of New Orleans has done ONE thing right since the storm, and that is contract out garbage pickup and clean up. It's my understanding that the sidewalks in the Quarter are clean, there's not rotting garbage sitting for days attracting flies, etc.

And people are COMPLAINING about Disneyfication??? Gimme a f_ _ _ _ _ _ break. Clean is better than grimy and smelly, sorry. The place is still historically accurate, they're not tearing down old buildings and building plastic models in their place. Yeesh. I would hope the same could happen in La Habana as well. Repair and fix what can be fixed for the sake of preserving it for generations to come.

Sorry spitfire, only ONE nation in the entire world has an embargo against Cuba, there are still 250+ nations that Cuba can deal with. This "the embargo is the bogeyman" that so many throw out there to blame the U. S. for ALL of Cuba's economic woes is utter folly. Europe is rich, too. Europeans know a thing or two about historic preservation, last I checked, but the embargo is at fault? Please.

Well stated, Cookie.

 

[Spitfire]

"Sorry spitfire, only ONE nation in the entire world has an embargo against Cuba, there are still 250+ nations that Cuba can deal with. This "the embargo is the bogeyman" that so many throw out there to blame the U. S. for ALL of Cuba's economic woes is utter folly. Europe is rich, too. Europeans know a thing or two about historic preservation, last I checked, but the embargo is at fault? Please."

Yes and what a nation. Not exactly Portugal, Greece or Denmark is it? But the worlds largest, wealthiest, most powerfull nation.
But let me just underline two things here: I did not start the embargo-thing in this thread and secondly: I did mention the E-word along with "wrong governement" in the same sentence. So Please.

 

[RedPop4]

There are no other rich nations, with firms able to take the U.S. place in the forefront? The U.S., has had nothing to do with Cuba officially for over 40 years, but somehow this is still the U. S.' problem. I really don't want to get into this, I'm patriotic and a bit jingoistic, but I have a healthy respect and desire to learn about many peoples and places in this world.

 

[The Wingnut]

This? '57 Dodge Coronet with an unusual bumper treatment. That inboard pair of 'headlights' are actually parking lights, dual headlamps weren't allowed by the US DOT until '58.

 

[Spitfire]

There are no other rich nations, with firms able to take the U.S. place in the forefront? The U.S., has had nothing to do with Cuba officially for over 40 years, but somehow this is still the U. S.' problem. I really don't want to get into this, I'm patriotic and a bit jingoistic, but I have a healthy respect and desire to learn about many peoples and places in this world.

RedPop - I don't want to get further into this either. My original statement was just, that Cuba and the cuban people are fantastic. And I hope that you one day will go there to experience it yourself As you say, there are many people and places to be discovered. Cheers.

 

[Story]

Attention Jacksonville

Go back to 1930s Cuba in photos
By The Times-Union
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/031408/lif_256298162.shtml

Men in white suits and panama hats, grinding poverty and a corrupt, violent military dictatorship were what caught Walker Evans' eye in Cuba during his first photographic assignment in 1933. Sent to illustrate a book by Carlton Beals, he also encountered an infectious lifestyle, music and Ernest Hemingway, who had arrived at the same time and loaned Walker the money to stay a third week. Beals' book, The Crime of Cuba, was critical of the government, and Walker, afraid he was being watched, gave prints to Hemingway for safekeeping. These and other items, found in a back room at Sloppy Joe's in Key West after the author's death, speak to the friendship the two men shared.

"He focused on everyday life with an eye for detail," said Maarten van de Guchte, director of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, where Ernest Hemingway and Walker Evens: Three Weeks in Cuba, 1933-37, black and white photos from that cache and other artifacts - is on display through Sunday, June 1.

The members' opening, complete with salsa dancers, mojitos and Cuban cuisine, is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday; $10 for members, $25 non-member guests. Call (904) 899-6007.

Especially for Seniors Talks & Tea will be given at 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays for $6; (904) 355-0630 for reservations

 

[CharlesB]

i hope that by time I end up married Americans will be able to travel there without the fear of our govt prosecuting us...