Cuba's Classic Cars

It's no secret that Cuba has been off limits for decades. Nobody knows what really goes on over there except what is occasionally leaked by the media. Growing up I had heard stories about all the classic cars roaming the streets in Cuba. I can vividly remember when I was a young boy, overhearing my father talking to a friend about Cuba's old cars. After High School, I worked in one of Southern California's largest auto parts store and we actually had a few customers who use to purchase older car parts to ship them back to their relatives in Cuba. As I got older, I managed to find a couple of articles about Cuba's classic cars, but those were few and far between. Not much seemed to come out of Cuba, except maybe a few cigars.

My curiosity about Cuba was rekindled when it was reported that President Obama had taken steps to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba. As you may have guessed my interest lies in the classic cars, not the cigars. In a perfect world I would be able to go to Cuba and photograph all these cool old cars, but that dream will have to be put on my bucket list, right under "photograph Jay Leno's car collection". Instead, I was actively looking for some recent pictures or video of current-day Cuba, specifically their classic cars. As luck would have it, this gem of a video showed up in my inbox and is the work of Brian Van Der Brug of the Los Angeles Times. In his own words, "The island is a treasure-trove of vintage American automobiles. These are not just for show; they're everyday workhorses that are part of the legacy of the country's isolation."

Special thanks to Bich Ngoc, also of the LA Times, who not only has read my blog but also was kind enough to provide the following link. Click here or on the link below the picture to see the video.



http://graphics.latimes.com/cuba-cars