snap July 2009: Havana barber shop

Street scene, Havana in March 2009, by Johnny Cash Jr.

While in Varadero, Cuba earlier this year to attend a family wedding, a large group of us hopped a tour bus to Havana. It was a quick cook’s tour, stopping at only the most obvious spots, including Revolution Square, the mandatory cigar and rum shop and one scene that was Havana in 360 degrees: the gleaming capital building and Gran Teatro de la Habana across from a Spanish style residential building where shutters and walls were crumbling but each window revealed small rooms crammed with overlarge family groups. While I wandered a tourist trap market in Old Havana, looking for the one true painting or photo that captured the spirit of Havana, my travelling companion wandered off on his own and found that one true image in this photo that he made. He spotted this scene wandering among the gorgeously crumbling buildings along the Malecon promenade and seawall, which stretches about 8 miles along the coast, from Old Havana to Vedado.

Denise Duguay