The cars that never stopped, out of necessity

I always assumed Havana's classic cars were kept around for the look of the thing, a bit of nostalgia for the tourists. That's not it at all.

When the United States imposed a trade embargo in 1962, Cuba banned imports of American cars and parts along with it. Whatever was already on the island was all anyone had, so people learned to keep it running, not because it looked good, but because there wasn't another option. More than sixty years later, a lot of those 1950s bodies are still out there working as taxis, running on Soviet diesel engines, held together with parts hand shaped from sheet metal, melted iron, even wood when nothing else would do. It's not preservation. It's just what an entire country got very good at, out of necessity.

I painted one along the Malecón in watercolour and ink, all that faded colour against the sea. There's a poster and a postcard, both with a letter home if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: The Malecón, Havana · Travel Poster