I got really excited about something recently that most other people might find rather boring. Perhaps the most banal things get me going these days. What got me excited? I saw at least 100 new cars parked in a lot at the Port of Havana. The excitement made me jump out of the car, run across the street dodging traffic, to take a photo. Most tourists in Havana take photos of the classical American cars from the 1950s, the architecture, or the breathtaking sunsets over the Malecón. Not me. I’ve been taking photos of very ordinary objects like fridges, stoves, buses, tractors, and cars. These are the things that have fascinated me lately.
Recently I was driving along the Avenida del Puerto in Regla, a suburb/barrio of Havana. Regla, which borders the entire Port of Havana, could easily be described as non-spectacular. There are many factories here so it’s probably the industrial zone of the city, but I’ve never confirmed this. I can only say there aren’t many tourist attractions in Regla, it’s just an alternative route into Havana when perhaps, the tunnel is closed due to flooding or road work.
There’s also the Old Port of Havana in Regla. Parts of the Old Port are actually great locations for some artsy photos, should a photographer be seeking something entirely different in their portfolio of the city.
As I mentioned, I was driving past the old harbor and saw a huge number of brand new white cars. I have no idea of the make because I don’t know ‘my cars.’ If, for example, I use Uber, the app will tell me that a Toyota something or other is on its way. Because of my lack of knowledge of cars, I can only identify a car with adjectives such as ‘big’, ‘small’, ‘medium sized,’ or ‘rich person’s car,’ or, by the car’s color. So I every time I use Uber, I have to phone the driver and ask him the color is his/or her car. This is explains my ignorance about cars.
So, I’m driving on the Avenida del Puerto on the way to Havana Vieja and suddenly see the parking lot full of new cars, fresh off the boat. Now this excites me. I’ve no idea the brand names, I see. There are many of them. I roughly estimated there were at least 99 cars, give or take 50 or another 300 or so. As I mentioned earlier, I do not know cars except that they were brand new, white cars.
Of course, I was eager to know what kind of cars these could have been. I showed my son the photo of the cars at the Port. He knows his cars, and he tells me he thinks they’re the Hyundai brand. He could be wrong. Hyundai Motor Company and the Kia brand is the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group with headquarters in South Korea. I’ve seen Kia cars in Havana before. I’ve read the logo.
Seeing these brand new automobiles – ready to hit the streets and waiting for delivery, one can only draw one conclusion. Cuba is shopping for cars and a some car maker, somewhere, is enjoying a profitable export market to the Island.
I draw another conclusion. Once upon a time, a long time ago, the US car industry exported and/or manufactured cars for Cuban market. This much is obvious, judging by the many American 1950s classics still on the roads throughout the Island today. Cuba was a huge market for the US automobile industry, pre-embargo days. Jonathan Harper at Jalopnik, a news website on the automotive industry estimates there are 60,000 pre-1959 American cars still rolling on the roads of Cuba.
Shipping rates for transporting cars from China, Russia or South Korea, doesn’t come cheap. Shipping costs are obviously added into the actual purchase price, making it prohibitively expensive for most Cubans. Transporting automobiles from the US would amount to a substantial reduction in the shipping costs. It’s not rocket science to recognize that due to the distance factor, a US-Cuba trade relationship would be one of the most natural, obvious trade markets in the world. Sad, it ain’t so. That said, US car manufacturers know this and have been watching the situation closely.
