Cuba’s Unanswered Questions

2 minute read

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

Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
An old American car, long a staple of Cuban roads, sits along Guanabo Beach, near Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
In route to his job as a welder, 62-year-old Carlos stops at a government cafeteria to buy cigarettes.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Cockfighting, 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Antonio Perez Hernandez shows off his prize-winning rooster prior to a fight in Campo Florido.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Havana’s most famous street, the Malecón, as a cold front rolls in.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
At his teacher's request, Rodney Cajiga, gets his hair cut in Justiz, a small town east of Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Corrugated zinc sheets barely cover a grocery store.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Jesus, 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Roberto, 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A pumpkin for sale, cut in half for clients to see it is still fresh.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Delvis 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Madelin, who works at a Havana boutique, hitchhikes to work each morning rather than taking the bus.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Around 7 in the evening, Cubans begin preparing dinner. Central Havana, usually crowded, look deserted.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
At night, neighbors leave their doors open to let the breeze in.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Yunier 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Tourists 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
The wiring for the electrical system at a tenement in Old Havana. Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Old Havana at dusk.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Juan Lara, 72, takes his cows to graze roughly 10 miles from his home every morning.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Juan 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Jaguey Grande’s Library, where students from nearby schools come every day to do their homework.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Fidel 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
The growth of small private businesses, like this one in Pedro Pi, is a sign of changing times.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A government-run auto repair shop in Jaguey Grande.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A huge concrete school building.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Ricardo 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Aguedo 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Outside Havana, an old American car with a new Japanese engine is used as a taxi.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
At the Puerto Escondido fishermen’s village, a welder repairs the carriage they use to move fish into town.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Riding on horse drawn carriages is still the main way to move in the Cuban countryside.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Ormiles 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Dusk falls on Old Havana.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Despite 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Two 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 TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
Alicia, 8, crosses the street to buy candy in Patricia’s Cafeteria, 2 miles from Guanabo beach.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
An aging car drives through Old Havana at dusk.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME
Cuban Evolution Joakim Eskildsen
A woman prays to Yemaya, the sea goddess, on the Malecón, Havana's main esplanade.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com