Photos Show Life in Cuba Before and After the Castros Came to Power | Invesloan.com

Old Havana drew visitors in the 1950s with its historic architecture, hotels, restaurants, and nightlife.

Deteriorated historic buildings and vintage American cars remain part of the daily landscape in Havana, though they reflect decades of repair, scarcity, and preservation efforts.

Batista took control in a 1952 military coup and led a government widely associated with corruption, censorship, and violence against opponents.

Cuba remains a one-party state led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is also the top official of the Communist Party.

Fidel’s brother Raúl Castro stepped down as the party’s top official in 2021.

The Malecón and nearby Vedado neighborhood became focal points for midcentury hotel, apartment, and entertainment development as the government pursued tourism revenue.

The capital’s skyline now combines historic buildings with newer hotels and high-rises, underscoring the government’s continued focus on tourism amid a wider housing and infrastructure crisis.

The Hotel Riviera opened on Havana’s Malecón in December 1957 and became one of the city’s best-known casino hotels.

Cuba nationalized foreign-owned hotels after the revolution, and state enterprises still control much of the industry.

Recurring blackouts have disrupted businesses and hotels since 2024, as severe fuel shortages and frequent failures in the country’s aging, deteriorating power plants strain the energy grid.

American celebrities were among the many visitors Cuba welcomed in the midcentury, when the US was the island’s largest tourism market.

Tourists from other countries still support the industry. Countries like Canada and Russia are among the top sources of international visitors to Cuba today.

The hotel, which opened in 1930, hosted celebrities, politicians, and organized crime figures in the ’50s.

Today, the hotel survives alongside food shortages, blackouts, and deteriorating housing that shape daily life for Cubans.

Americans often came to Cuba to golf.

Castro’s government closed or repurposed many of Cuba’s courses after 1959, as golf was treated as an elitist sport. For decades, Cubans were also barred from staying in many tourist hotels.

Cuba has two operating golf courses, in Varadero and Havana, aimed largely at visitors. A 2008 reform allowed Cubans to stay in tourist hotels for the first time since the revolution, though the cost remains out of reach for many.

Havana was a major casino destination in the 1950s, attracting travelers looking to gamble and organized crime figures looking to profit from the city’s tourism boom.

“La Bolita,” a popular clandestine lottery in Cuba, has survived for nearly 70 years since gambling was outlawed by the revolutionary government, reflecting the role of the underground economy in daily life.

In Havana, Sloppy Joe’s was among the city’s most popular bars with American tourists and celebrities in the midcentury. It offered more than 80 cocktails and its own brand of 12-year-old rum.

Restaurants like La Vitrola remain open in Havana, keeping the hospitality scene alive amid declining tourism numbers.

The Tropicana nightclub in Havana has attracted high-profile guests since its 1939 opening, thanks to lavish performances that helped define Havana nightlife.

The iconic Tropicana remains open and continues to stage its signature over-the-top performances for visitors and Cubans who can afford to attend.

Much of eastern Cuba faced poverty, seasonal unemployment, poor roads, and limited access to schools, healthcare, and other public services as the capital flourished.

The revolution extended state services beyond Havana, but food, fuel, transport, and power shortages often hit rural areas especially hard.

In 1952, most rural homes lacked indoor running water, and many also lacked electricity, paved roads, and nearby schools.

Residents in cities including Matanzas have faced water disruptions as aging infrastructure and electricity shortages affect pumping and distribution.

By 1953, Cuba had a high literacy rate in Latin America, but rural illiteracy was far higher than in urban centers.

Cuba’s broadly accessible free public school system follows a state-directed curriculum that emphasizes the revolution, socialism, and loyalty to the Communist Party, though teacher shortages, power cuts, transportation problems, and a lack of supplies often disrupt classrooms.

In the mid-century, private, public, and charitable hospitals provided modern care to some urban Cubans, but medical services were far less accessible in rural areas.

Cuba still sends medical personnel abroad through international missions to allied countries, even as hospitals on the island face shortages of medicine, equipment, staff, and reliable power.

Havana was home to more than half of the country’s hospital beds at the time.

Cuba invested in state-run medical research partly to reduce its dependence on imported medicines and equipment. In 2021, the country developed its own COVID-19 vaccines.

The pre-revolutionary economy included privately owned shops, pharmacies, restaurants, factories, and other small businesses.

The Cuban government began rationing food and basic necessities in the early 1960s.

Havana streets were full of modern cars of the day in 1949, in part thanks to the island’s close commercial relationship with the US.

Bicycles, pedicabs, and other forms of transport have become especially important on the island as fuel shortages and unreliable buses make travel more difficult.

American-made vehicles were especially common on the island before the revolution, which suspended imports of US cars and helped preserve many older vehicles on its roads.

Modern Chinese, European, and other imported cars now share the road with classic American vehicles and Soviet-era Ladas, though they remain unaffordable for many Cubans.

Cigar-rolling factories employed thousands of workers in Havana, while tobacco grown in western provinces such as Pinar del Río was a major export.

The Upmann cigar factory was nationalized after the revolution.

Dancers in traditional costumes grabbed the attention of visitors in the streets of Havana in 1946.

Despite its hardships, Cuba is still lively today. People continue to gather in downtown clubs and bars even as energy and fuel shortages cause blackouts and difficult conditions.