There are few confrontations on the streets of Cuba, but that does not screen the people’s ardent desire for improvement and change. Fifty years of the much admired Castro experiment in pure communism left the country broken and bankrupt after the collapse of the USSR in the autumn of 1991. The whole economy of Cuba had been targeted toward producing the sugar quota for Russia and in the process the exhausted land had been turned over to an ever demanding production of sugar cane. Until the takeover of the Castro regime at the beginning of 1959, Cuba had been the leading sugar producer of the world, but since Russia’s exclusive contract, had long lost a market which had moved on; Russia in return had paid for roads and trucks and gasoline. After the regime change and the moneyed class had either fled or been eliminated, all land and property were requisitioned by the state and each citizen was allocated a dwelling to live in.

The prevailing faith is Santeria (Way of the Saints), an Afro-Caribbean religion based on traditions and the Yoruba beliefs of West Africa, amalgamated with Roman Catholic elements.

The images in this book give an insight into the beauty of the island and sections of the friendly community, eternally inspired by the ever-throbbing rhythms of Salsa and Rhumba, emerging from the hell of dire poverty and travelling toward the American lifestyle they so understandably desire, although it will doubtless make the poor poorer and may well bring out the worst in many.