Sightseeing in Havana, sampling its cuisine and crawling its mambo and jazz clubs hardly qualifies one to assess today’s Cuban political and social realities. Yet visual impressions and snippets of overheard conversations provide clues - a furtive gathering of a small group near a market; a non-verbal reference to Fidel by the stroking of one’s chin. While spotty liberalization seems to be taking place under Raoul Castro, Cuba remains a repressive communist state. Freedom of speech is allowed but only if it does not challenge the government. All media are censored and freedom of assembly is limited, severely if political dissidents are involved. The government recognizes only a single national trade union, the one controlled by the Communist Party.

Though it restricts human rights, the regime does provide important benefits to all its citizens. These include free education through college, free medical care for life and a subsidy/ration plan which enables all to obtain such food essentials as rice, beans, sugar, milk eggs, potatoes and meat.  

From the city tour bus window we glimpse icons of Cuba’s educational and medical system. First in view is the University of Havana with broad, building-wide steps rising up-up-up a hill to its classical temple-like entrance at the summit. It is the centerpiece of a countrywide system that enrolls some 20,000 students aspiring to degrees in law, history, scientific & technological information, accounting & finance and economics. Later we pass Hermanos Ameijeireas Hospital, modern and well over twenty stories high. Impressive on its own, it is only one of more than a dozen and a half hospitals in Havana, dealing with every medical specialty imaginable. Alicia, our tour guide, tells us the medical school system graduates about 3,000 doctors a year. The high level of medical practice and care combined with reasonable cost attracts patients from all over the world who travel to Havana for complex medical procedures. Among them, recently, was Venezuela’s fiery president, Hugo Chavez, who came for treatment of pelvic cancer.

The bus drops us off at Cuba’s capitol building, its dome visibly reminiscent of the one on our own capitol in Washington. The resemblance is hardly surprising as both were inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

We were more intrigued by what we see on the plaza in front of the building - several shiny, well-preserved old cars, iconic Detroit models from the 1950’s. For a couple of pesos their owners would let us slide into the drivers’ seats to have our picture taken behind the wheel.

Havana streets are full of American built  cars from the 50’s  which, thanks to Cuban skill and ingenuity, are still running. They range from pristine restorations with elongated hoods and tail fins to “Yank Tanks” (máquinas) held together with bondo and bailing wire and slathered with house paint. Chevys, Fords, Plymouths, Chryslers and Dodges predominate but one can occasionally spot an ancient Cadillac, Buick, or even a Packard Caribbean, Edsel or Studebaker Golden Hawk. It is estimated that as many as 60,000 of these pre-1960 relics are still plying the streets of Havana. 

A confluence of circumstances brought this phenomenon about. In 1959, when all business in Cuba was nationalized, the wealthy fled, leaving their vehicles behind, creating a large inventory of them in Havana. Then in 1962 the United States placed an embargo on trade with Cuba, cutting off export of new U.S. vehicles and replacement parts for older ones. For years, the only new cars  regularly to  reach Cuba were the boxlike Soviet Ladas produced on obsolete Fiat 124 production lines. They were powered by 4-cylinder diesel engines which were also used to replace the engines in the old American cars when they gave up the ghost.

We leave the antique cars and stroll past the handsome Museo des Bellas Artes, one of several restored or preserved cultural institutions. Next up is the elaborate old neon sign above the entrance to the Floradita, proclaiming it “La Cuna Del Daiquiri” (The Cradle of the Daiquiri). The Floradita was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite watering hole during the ’30s when he lived in room 511 of the Hotel Ambos Mundos, nearby, and was writing “To Have or Have Not” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

When we returned to the Floradita in the evening for a drink we did a double take, finding a life size bronze of Papa Hemingway sitting at the bar in the corner.

It was from this perch that Hemingway entertained, presiding over spirited conversations with his fourth wife, Mary and celebrities like Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn and Spencer Tracy.

It is said about the Floradita that Hemingway drank there a lot and drank a lot there.  What he drank, according to comedy/travel writer, Michael Palin, is variously known as the Hemingway Daiquiri, the Papa Doble, the Wild Daiquiri and the Daiquiri Special. As Hemingway was a diabetic, there is no sugar in the recipe. Though the Papa Doble is not sweet, it really packs a wallop.

Foolishly, I indulged in a reasonable facsimile of one of these at the Floradita, hoping that some of Hemingway’s writing genius might rub off on me. Alas, no morning-after literary transformation occurred.

Only a slight hangover.