Gaby Rabassa

We Cubans are natives and creoles, a mix of colonization and slavery. We have lived through wars, military interventions, blockades, the Special Period and socio-economic changes so as to create real socialism.

This “ritual”, to give it a name, was also a tradition for Cubans. Even today, we continue to celebrate the arrival of our annual vacation. But the reality for us – the masses, the majority – is different.

Many foreigners long to visit Old Havana and the majority of Cubans do as well. Every year, millions of tourists walk along its cobblestones, enjoying the best attractions, hotels and attractions the city has to offer. This is the Havana we find in guide books, on websites, labelled “exotic, interesting”: a place you have to go to at least once in your life. This is Old Havana, the beautiful Havana.