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An apartment in Habana Vieja |
You will notice a few rather important differences between these city houses and those in most parts of America. Some of the obvious differences are
What other differences do you notice?
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A typical house in Trinidad |
Produce can be brought directly to one's house in Trinidad. |
One other difference which might seem unusual to most North Americans is that the living space often seems to extend out into the public sphere. It is not uncommon to see people sitting outside playing dominos or chess as in the above picture from Habana. It is also not uncommon for doors and windows to be left open allowing passersby to see directly into the living space such as in the pictures above. One can see a person sitting directly in the window of their family room.
How is this different from where you live?
After the Revolution Castro's building program included the construction of numerous apartment blocks like this one. It's design is similar to apartment units in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Cuba's former socialist ally. The apartments are designed to be equitable, that is, they are all similar in size and style, thus not allowing anyone to be socially superior to another based on residence. Unlike in other countries, social status has a little bit less to do with the location of your house because there are fewer class distinctions.
In the just the past few years tourism to Cuba has become a major factor in the economy. Starting in 1997, in an attempt to cash in the just beginning tourist trade, the Cuban government began allowing private citizens with extra space in their houses to rent out up to two rooms to tourists. These private rooms are available in so-called "casas particulares". For the privilege of earning foreign currency, the owners have to pay a tax of $100-300 a month to the government. Typically the rooms will rent from $15-$25 a night, sometimes with breakfast included.
Let's have a look inside a Cuban house...
