Havana High

A trip to Cuba confirms classic Chevys really are timeless!

By Stephen Merfeld  Oshkosh, WI

Imagine awakening to find that it’s 1959! Wow, what would it be like to open your eyes to such a sight? Though such a discovery may conjure up many thoughts, the minds of most of us reading a publication like Chevy Classics drift quickly to our favorite topic…old cars. Well, I recently had just such an experience.

A near absolute ban on travel from America to Cuba has existed since 1959 and the Kennedy administration. In an attempt to ease relations, in 1999 President Clinton implemented “People-to-People,” an initiative designed to allow Americans to travel to Cuba as part of an educational exchange. Under special license, agents would be allowed to offer a fully-scheduled cultural exchange program to a limited number of travelers. However, due to various roadblocks, licenses were seldom issued and the initiative went nowhere.Recently that closed door was opened, if only just a crack. In October of 2009, an amendment to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations eased the Cuban travel requirements paving the way for license issuance, and the race to Cuba was on.

Exploring our world through travel has been a passion for my wife and me. If we aren’t traveling to our next classic car show in one of our Chevys, we hope to be flying to our next vacation destination. With the availability of information on the Internet, Janice came across an opportunity for travel to Cuba earlier this past year. We learned of the recent easing of requirements that made this opportunity possible, but also of the impending political threats to close travel again.


We saw it one of two ways. Having been relatively isolated for so many years, burgeoning travel (with its influx of money) threatened to change Cuba greatly. Or perhaps, the door of opportunity was about to be slammed shut again. Either way, we felt we couldn’t wait. With Fidel still alive and the culture frozen in time, we left for Havana in May of 2012.

Imagine again a city in 1959; a major destination for world travelers, wealthy travelers and the affluence that their money brought. Now imagine the inhabitants being told to utilize this city for the next 50+ years, but then denying them access to the tools, resources and materials to maintain it, repair it, expand upon it or to modernize it. Both bitter and sweet, that is Havana, Cuba today.

The sheer number of cars we saw from the forties and fifties was simply overwhelming. With the complete lack of access to resources like Eckler’s Classic Chevy for parts and technical assistance, we were especially impressed by the condition of many of these classic cars. The ingenuity required of the Cuban owners to keep these cars operating was itself something to behold.

We were told that Cuba receives shipments of junk vehicles and parts from Russia, from which owners would scavenge for solutions. Since truck parts are the most available, many cars now have diesel engines. It was not uncommon to see a Chevy with its backside hoisted above an oversized truck’s rear end. Details such as emblems were sometimes hand-painted or had decals applied. And many cars took on a customized look as a result of the creative measures taken by their owners to keep them operable.

Since the cost of operating one of these treasures is out of the reach of most Cubans, the majority of these cars are employed as private taxis to generate the needed funds to keep them going. Doing so offered one of the few ways a family could exercise an entrepreneurial spirit, making ownership of one of these vehicles a commitment that few would relinquish.

The Cuban owners were warm and welcoming, often inviting us to sit inside their cars for a picture or popping the hood for a quick look. They seemed to show surprise when we would show them pictures of our classics, as if they didn’t expect others outside of Cuba to value these treasures as they did. As in America, the one thing that was common among all these cars was the pride that their owners took in them.


My mind often drifts back to Havana. I keep thinking that if relations with Cuba should ever improve in the future, I have a feeling I know what one of their most popular exports (imports?) might be.

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