Passing Through Havana
Acrylic on canvas – 24" x 18"

There is no sight more Havana than the rolling stock of 1950s cars that cruise the city. Cars from the 1950s and earlier are part of Cuban life, though few are in good condition.

"We make an invention," a Cuban will tell you as he cobbles together a carburetor from East European parts. Decades after America stopped shipping parts, the cars keep running because during the 1970s and '80s, entire American cars were shipped to Moscow where the parts were copied an reproduced and shipped back to Cuba. Also, as we were told by one of our guides, "We Cubans are very good mechanics."

The export of Cuban cars is no longer permitted, so these cars of America's past are fated to cruise the streets of Havana forever.