Havana Times

Cuba’s Museum on Wheels

Photo Feature by Elio Delgado

Many of the old US cars are used as collective taxis.

HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 1 — People who visit Cuba are fascinated when they witness our “rolling museum” consisting essentially of automobiles manufactured in the United States that date back to the distant decades of the 1940s and ‘50s. In other words, these are cars that have been rolling up and down our streets for between 50 and 70 years.

Some of these vehicles can hardly be recognized due to the modifications they’re suffered, but others retain an astonishing degree of preservation thanks to the inventiveness of Cubans who create or adapt parts to keep these autos running.

Many of these cars are used by their owners as collective taxis, which have been modified to fit in the greatest number of people in the smallest amount of space.

Click on the tumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery

Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.
Still rolling on Cuba\'s streets.

2 thoughts on “Cuba’s Museum on Wheels”

  • bjmack
    November 2, 2010 at 12:28 am
    Permalink

    Probably the coolest bunch of pic’s I have ever seen. Totally authentic and such a reminisce. A bit sad
    that it’s affecting so many wonderful people. My only answer is to stay positive since these cars tell
    me that the ingenuity of the Cuban people, both in Cuba and the USA has to be the greatest tribute of all.

  • Michael N. Landis
    November 1, 2010 at 11:06 pm
    Permalink

    During my recent month-long visit to Cuba (mostly Havana) so many of these cars brough back a flood of memories from my childhood and adolescence that I’ve started writing them down. (e.g. the 1951 Plymouth in which my best friend’s mother, cushioned by pillows and shrunken away by cancer to less than a hundred pounds, road away one last time to the hospital as we all waved goodbye. The 1949 Caddy my father drove from ’til 1956, when he replaced it with a Buick which had the option of either white or red “racing stripes between the two strips of chrome–LOL–like “racing stripes” for a dreadnaut battle shiip etc.)

Comments are closed.