U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the nation about normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba, at the White House on Dec. 17, 2014Pool / Getty Images
When President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the United States would work toward normalizing long-severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, it came as a surprise to many.
But as TIME observed in a feature story last July, change has long been underway for an Island nation that, in the past, has had a reputation for seeming frozen in time. Rules about commerce and private business had been relaxed, citizens were encouraged to find non-state jobs, tourism was opening up and the possibility of a non-Castro leader suddenly seemed less distant. However, that didn’t mean that Cuba’s future was clear.
Many of the questions raised by writer Pico Iyer are, even in this new phase of Cuban history, still unanswered:
Cubans today are free–at last–to enjoy their own version of Craigslist, to take holidays in fancy local tourist hotels, to savor seafood-and-papaya lasagna with citrus compote, washed down by a $200 bottle of wine, in one of the country’s more than 1,700 paladares, or privately run restaurants. They’re free to speak out against just about everything–except the two brothers at the top–and they strut around their capital in T-shirts featuring the $1 bill or Barack Obama in his “Yes we can” pose, even (in the case of one woman leaning against the gratings in Fraternity Park) in very skimpy briefs decorated with the Stars and Stripes.
Yet as what was long underground is now aboveboard, and as capitalist all-against-all has become official communist policy, no one seems quite sure whether the island is turning right or left. Next to the signs saying EVERYTHING FOR THE REVOLUTION, there’s an Adidas store; and the neglected houses of Old Havana sit among rooftop swimming pools and life-size stuffed bears being sold for $870. “Nobody knows where we’re going,” says a trained economist whose specialty was market research, “and people don’t know what they want. We’re sailing in the dark.”
Read the rest of the story, free of charge, here in TIME’s archives: Cuban Evolution
Witness Cuba's Evolution in 39 Photos
An old American car, long a staple of Cuban roads, sits along Guanabo Beach, near Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA group of youngsters in Central Havana sit on a street corner to discuss the latest news of the Spanish La Liga football league. Their hair is styled like their idols'—soccer stars and Reggaeton singers.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEIn route to his job as a welder, 62-year-old Carlos stops at a government cafeteria to buy cigarettes.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMECockfighting, a Cuban tradition, takes place in an anti-aircraft bunker to avoid the police. Fighting is not forbidden, but gambling, which is always present at the matches, is.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAntonio Perez Hernandez shows off his prize-winning rooster prior to a fight in Campo Florido.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEHavana’s most famous street, the Malecón, as a cold front rolls in.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAt his teacher's request, Rodney Cajiga, gets his hair cut in Justiz, a small town east of Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMECorrugated zinc sheets barely cover a grocery store.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEJesus, a fisherman from Puerto Escondido, returns from the sea. “It was a good day, despite the cold front,” he said, displaying one of the fish he caught.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMERoberto, 22, is a college dropout from the East, who moved to a small cottage in Havana to farm with his father, Jorge. “My wife got pregnant and I had to support her and the child. Here I have a chance," he said.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA pumpkin for sale, cut in half for clients to see it is still fresh.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEDelvis Montero, 39, works seven days a week making charcoal and earns $100 a month. “I work hard so my children can go to school and never have to do this extremely hard work," she said.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEMadelin, who works at a Havana boutique, hitchhikes to work each morning rather than taking the bus.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAround 7 in the evening, Cubans begin preparing dinner. Central Havana, usually crowded, look deserted.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAt night, neighbors leave their doors open to let the breeze in.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEYunier Utre, 19, lives in the Teodoro Rivero settlement in Jaguey Grande, Matanzas province. He works in the mango plantations from sunup to sundown.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMETourists relax on lounge chairs at Melia Las Americas in Varadero, which is next to the only 18-hole golf course in Cuba.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEThe wiring for the electrical system at a tenement in Old Havana.
Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEOld Havana at dusk.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEJuan Lara, 72, takes his cows to graze roughly 10 miles from his home every morning.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEJuan Carlos has been a fisherman all his life. Close to 70, he keeps this cottage in the Puerto Escondido fishermen’s village. “I have a real house in my town, 20 miles from here," Carlos said.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEJaguey Grande’s Library, where students from nearby schools come every day to do their homework.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEFidel Hernandez sets fire to the bushes around the fence he just installed to keep his goats enclosed. He has taken his grandson with him, as he says that he loves to hang around his grandpa.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEThe growth of small private businesses, like this one in Pedro Pi, is a sign of changing times.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA woman at a telephone booth in Pedro Pi. There is only one phone in this farmer’s community, 12 miles from downtown Havana. Neighbors come to make their calls, get their messages and share gossip.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA government-run auto repair shop in Jaguey Grande.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA huge concrete school building.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMERicardo Rodriguez and his wife travel 30 miles every day to the town of Ceres to buy charcoal that they later sell in the town of Cardenas, near the Varadaero resort in Matanzas province. “The profits are meager, but we survive on that," Rodriguez said.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAguedo Leon (far right), 82, goes to the cattle register in Campo Florido, Havana city, to report the birth of a calf. It is mandatory for farmers to do so immediately after the cow delivers. Failing to report a new birth can result in a $20 fine.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEOutside Havana, an old American car with a new Japanese engine is used as a taxi.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAt the Puerto Escondido fishermen’s village, a welder repairs the carriage they use to move fish into town.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMERiding on horse drawn carriages is still the main way to move in the Cuban countryside.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEOrmiles Lores Rodriguez, 40, works as an accountant at the Grito de Baire farmimg cooperative. She says salaries have improved and employees get bonuses every three months if they meet their output quotas.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEDusk falls on Old Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEDespite its age, the driver claims his car can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour, thanks to its engineering that includes a mix of American, Russian, Japanese and Cuban parts.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMETwo young men wait to go out with a girl in Old Havana. "We dress to impress her," they said, "and we take pictures to our barber for him to know exactly what we want."Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAlicia, 8, crosses the street to buy candy in Patricia’s Cafeteria, 2 miles from Guanabo beach.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEAn aging car drives through Old Havana at dusk.Joakim Eskildsen for TIMEA woman prays to Yemaya, the sea goddess, on the Malecón, Havana's main esplanade.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
