Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba - Hardcover

Schweid, Richard

3.62

13 ratings by Goodreads

9780807828922: Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807828920 ISBN 13: 9780807828922

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004

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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.

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Book Description:

"This beautifully textured and detailed volume examines the strengths and weaknesses of dictatorship, the irresistible force of money-hungry corporations, the role of publicity in politics, and the influence, good and bad, of the U.S. abroad. . . . Schweid is one of those unpredictable explorers who gets out in the world, looks around and doesn't blink. . . . Schweid interviewed mechanics and matrons, artists and historians to create this wide-ranging and thoughtful account of a revolution's aftermath, as seen from the highway."-- BookPage

From the Inside Flap:

Schweid blends the history of cars, trucks, and buses in Cuba with stories from his own experience there. The rich narrative, accompanied by 52 b&w historic photos and an 8-page color insert of photos by Cuban photographer Adalberto Roque, presents a colorful chronicle of life on the island.

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