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Author: Tom Cotter
Publisher: Motorbooks International
ISBN: 0760350264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts; customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts; drag racing with no drag strip. In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.
Author: Tom Cotter
Publisher: Motorbooks International
ISBN: 0760350264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Get Book Here
Book Description
Welcome to Cuba's automotive time capsule, filled with classic cars. The story of how Cuba came to be trapped in automotive time is a fascinating one. For decades, the island country had enjoyed healthy tourism trade and American outpost status, and by the 1950s it had the highest per capita automotive purchasing of any Latin American country - its middle class ensured an interesting variety of vehicles plying the roads. But when Cuba fell to communist rebels in 1959, so ended the inflow of new cars. Since then, trade embargo forced Cuba's car enthusiasts to develop a unique and insular culture, one marked by great creativity, such as: Keeping a car alive with no opportunity to acquire replacement parts; customizing a car with no access to aftermarket parts; drag racing with no drag strip. In many ways, Cuba is an automotive time warp, where the newest car is a 1959 Chevy or perhaps one of the Soviet Ladas. Cuba's Car Culture offers an inside look at a unique car culture, populated with cars that have been cut off from the world so long that they've morphed into something else in the spirit of automotive survival. Authors Tom Cotter and Bill Warner (founder of the Amelia Island Concours) take readers of Cuba's Car Culture on a whirlwind tour of all things automotive, beginning with Cuba's pre-Castro car and racing history and bringing us up to today's lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road. The book is illustrated throughout with rare historical photos as well as contemporary photos of Cuba's current car scene. For anyone who enjoys classic cars, from old Chevy Bel-Airs to Studebakers to Ford Fairlanes, a cruise around Cuba will make you feel like a kid in a candy store.
Author: Margarita Engle
Publisher: Henry Holt Books For Young Readers
ISBN: 1627796428
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 45
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Book Description
Showcasing the colorful buildings and iconic classic cars of Havana, this verse picture book follows a Cuban boy and his family on their road trip into the city.
Author: Cristina Garcia
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 72
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Book Description
Cubans call them cacharros: the gorgeous old American cars of the '40s and '50s that can be found throughout the country. There are classic Chevrolets, Fords, Lincolns, Cadillacs, Packards, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, De Sotos, Dodges, Pontiacs, Studebakers, Thunderbirds, Ramblers, and more, all from Detroit's golden age and all still on the road. Cars of Cuba - with an introduction by Cristina Garcia, author of the novel Dreaming in Cuban, and fifty-three color photographs by Joshua Greene - is a visit to the greatest American car museum in the world!
Author: Richard Schweid
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807888621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Vintage U.S.-made cars on the streets of Havana provide a common representation of Cuba. Journalist Richard Schweid, who traveled throughout the island to research the story of motor vehicles in Cuba today and yesterday, gets behind the wheel and behind the stereotype in this colorful chronicle of cars, buses, and trucks. In his captivating, sometimes gritty, voice, Schweid blends previously untapped historical sources with his personal experiences, spinning a car-centered history of life on the island over the past century. Packard, Studebaker, Edsel, De Soto: cars long extinct in the United States can be seen at work every day on Cuba's streets. Havana and Santiago de Cuba today are home to some 60,000 North American cars, all dating back to at least 1959, the year the Cuban Revolution prevailed. Though hardly a new part has arrived in Cuba since 1960, the cars are still on the road, held together with mechanical ingenuity and willpower. Visiting car mechanics, tracking down records in dusty archives, and talking with car-crazy Cubans of all types, Schweid juxtaposes historic moments (Fidel Castro riding to the Bay of Pigs in an Oldsmobile) with the quotidian (a weary mother's two-cent bus ride home after a long day) and composes a rich, engaging picture of the Cuban people and their history. The narrative is complemented by fifty-two historic black-and-white photographs and eight color photographs by contemporary Cuban photographer Adalberto Roque.
Author: Ada Ferrer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501154575
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY “Full of…lively insights and lucid prose” (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” (The Economist). Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.
Author: Pamela Ruiz
Publisher: Assouline Publishing
ISBN: 1649800045
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 6
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Book Description
Crumbling pastel-colored facades line its streets, parked vintage cars evoke times past, live music permeates the air. Welcome to Havana, home to an overwhelming energy. Situated along the Straits of Florida, the capital of Cuba has been through several identities: Spanish colonial settlement, mobster rule in the 1930s, glamour of the 1950s, Cuban revolution and, most recently, a cultural renaissance. Havana’s bold, provocative approach to art, cuisine and entertainment—as well as the eclectic blend of African, French, Spanish and North American influences—including its range of architecture styles from the sixteenth century to the modern day, confer this epic city with a legendary status on par with the world’s greatest cities. While some of the building are in disrepair, the beauty of the baroque, neoclassical and art deco features triumphs. The iconic Copa Room cabaret that hosted Ginger Rogers and Abbott and Costello still stands. The Gran Teatro de la Habana, built in the early twentieth century, is now home to the Cuban National Ballet. Habana Vieja is undergoing a massive restoration to its former glory. Havana could be seen as a work-in-progress, but it is more a testament to its never-ending determination to improve and progress, which might be the allure that attracts so many visitors. So take a seat at an authentic paladar (family-run restaurant) and enjoy the vibrant evolution of Havana.
Author: Peter Wollen
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781861891327
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412
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Book Description
The reach of the car today is almost universal, and its effect on landscapes, cityscapes, cultures indeed, on the very fabric of the modern world is profound. Cars have brought benefits to individuals in terms of mobility and expanded horizons, but the cost has been very high in terms of damage to the environment and the consumption of precious resources. Despite the growing belief that a Faustian price is now being paid for the freedom cars have bestowed on us, we are none the less manufacturing them in ever greater numbers. Autopia is the first book to explore the culture of the motor car in the widest possible sense. Featuring newly commissioned essays by writers, critics, historians, artists and film-makers, as well as reprinting key texts, it examines the effect of the car throughout the world, including the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, China, Cuba, India and South Africa. In this book the car is treated neither as a technological fetish object nor as an instrument of danger. Instead, it is examined as a hugely important determinant of 20th-century culture, neither wholly good nor an unmitigated disaster, and certainly endlessly fascinating. Contributors include Michael Bracewell, Ziauddin Sardar, Al Rees, Martin Pawley, Donald Richie and Peter Hamilton. Key texts by Marshall Berman, Jane Jacobs, Roland Barthes, Marc Auge and others."
Author: Christopher P. Baker
Publisher: Interlink Books
ISBN: 9781566565462
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This unique homage to Cuba’s astonishing wealth of antique cars is also a paean to the extraordinary people who keep their weary cacharros running with resourcefulness, ingenuity and great good humor. In a collection of vibrant images, Cuba Classics reveals the time-worn splendor of classic American automobiles spanning eight decades. From Model-T Fords and ’40s-era Buick Roadmasters to late ’50s Edsel Citations and Chevrolet Impalas with fins sharp enough to draw blood, this book evokes the nostalgic and seductive world of Cuba’s car culture. Blurry action shots of moving cars…scenics with backdrops that celebrate the island’s beauty…close-ups of hood ornamentation, grillwork and dashboards, illustrate the subject magnicently. This rich array of photographs, complemented by captions that provide fascinating anecdotal detail while celebrating the four-wheeled survivors of a bygone age and the passion of their owners. This magnificent portrait of today’s classic cars is also an exploration of the island’s tumultuous history. Tracing the evolution of motor madness in decadent pre-revolutionary Cuba, the author surveys the tough realities of caring for vintage cars in the modern age of embargo and shortages. These challenges have produced exceptional skill and inventiveness among the owners and mechanics who somehow keep a legion of gas-guzzling leviathans on the road. In a dynamic photojournalistic essay that traces the long love affair between Cubans and the U.S. automobile, Christopher P. Baker also celebrates Cuba’s landscapes and colors, his images putting the beloved cacharros within a tropical setting both sensual and surreal. Written in the lively, engaging style that has won the author numerous literary awards, Cuba Classics draws upon memoirs, museum records, personal interviews and Cuba’s own dusty archives. Mixing history with present-day impressions, technical detail with personal observations, the evocative text proves both absorbing and richly entertaining. Baker’s volume captivates everyone from armchair travelers to classic car connoisseurs with powerful imagery that reflects the beguiling other-worldly charm of Cuba, the Caribbean’s most compelling and intriguing isle.
Author: Peter Moruzzi
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 142360993X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Take a trip to the golden age of Havana in this gorgeously illustrated volume of vintage photographs, postcards, brochures, and other ephemera. Featuring hundreds of historic images and cultural artifacts, Havana Before Castro documents how the Cuban capital evolved from a Prohibition Era getaway destination to a heady blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all-night bars, and backstreet brothels. Here, captured in one amazing book, is the drama, passion, intrigue, and opulence of a legendary city during its heyday—before the Castro regime took over and Americans were banned from travel to this tropical paradise. In chapters covering such topics as Cuban rum and cigars, the world-famous Tropicana Club, and Havana’s association with the mob, author Peter Moruzzi provides essential historical context for the many fascinating and evocative images.
Author: Vicki Gold Levi
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN: 9781568983608
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
Touring the commercial graphic culture of pre-Castro Cuba, photography curator Levi and senior art director for The New York Times Heller present color reproductions of postcards, tourism advertisements, cigar boxes, music poster, hotel advertisements, and other items that combined graphic styles from the United States with a distinctive Cuban style. A brief introductory essay extols the virtue of this "golden age" of graphic design, noting that Cuba was portrayed as a "paradise" (for wealthy Americans and Europeans). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
