The revolution is over. It has been for decades. Not that you would know it from the rhetoric or the adulation bestowed on this slice of Cuban history, at least by Communist Party leaders.
But when the sound waves subside and the propaganda quiets, what you find is a military clinging to historic relevance, with an uncertain place in today’s Cuba.
Like much else there, its aging weaponry and upper ranks have been sealed up in a time capsule for more than 50 years.
The trappings of the past are literal in Cuba — the ancient Chevys, the faded posters of Fidel.
It can, at times, seem studied, a museum of quaintness, until you need a ride somewhere and come to realize that these classics, not meant to be cute, are vital transportation for the Havana masses. Or you realize that the posters cling to the walls of a former revolutionary’s home, the charm only incidental
Tourism is inescapable in today’s Cuba. Selfies on the Malecon. Shots of classic cars.
Che T-shirts. For Cubans, this is for now the highest rung in the emerging economic order, one of the few ways to break free of monthly salaries that could scarcely pay for an hour of parking in Miami.
Cubans scrape together what they can to offer services outside their areas of specialization. Here, doctors drive cabs, engineers hawk tamales and working farmers hustle to sell a horse ride to travelers.
In a land of iconic imagery, perhaps no images are more revered, marketed or pervasive than those of the nation’s revolutionary heroes.
Ground zero for this iconography is the Plaza de la Revolucíon. The black outlines of Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos grace the walls of buildings flanking the plaza, their images looming large over the heart of the nation.
Though Cuban society has been closed off from the world for a half-century, there remains an uncanny openness about the nation’s people.
Pop into a random apartment and the worst you may get is a wary stare, followed by a joke.
Cubans seem inoculated from the preoccupation with privacy that infects other countries. Life is lived in public here, doors cast open to the night, beckoning the passers-by.
Note: In the 80’s Cuban physicians were everywhere civil unrest plagued countries. Particularly in Angola and Africa.
Adonis Diaries 
March 22, 2016 at 2:23 am
Cuba gets paid for each day their doctors are on foreign soil. It’s a big business for Cuba. Cuba’s doctors skip high school and go to a preparatory school for 2 years then direct to med school. Cuba pays them $20.00 a month and keep the rest.
March 22, 2016 at 4:46 pm
relevant to the cost of living? This is a good system for graduating physicians and nurses whose job is in great demand anywhere they go. Particularly in these decades of frequent catastrophe. Doctors without borders can supplement their membership with Cuban doctors