There’s Never Been a More Exciting Time to Visit Cuba

24.12.2024 - 14:01 / cntraveler.com / Che Guevara

Nerea Vera is renovating a house. In the republican-era neighborhood of Vedado, where salty air and hurricane rain and tree roots have gnawed at the façades, it's good to see neoclassical bones and Art Nouveau floors being buffed up. Open to visitors by appointment, Vera's house is a sort of accidental museum. It tells, in microcosm, the story of the Cuban Republic—that stretch from 1902, when Cuba grew as an independent country following the end of wars with Spain and the US military occupation, until the rise of Castro in 1959. Utilizing her skills as an engraver, sculptor, illustrator, and painter, Vera restored the house's moldings and murals. There are objects left by the house's previous owners, including a Baccarat lamp, a 1930 Victrola gramophone, and a 19th-century chess table, alongside Vera's own work (an intricate drawing of Che Guevara's corpse as a martyr and a series of relic-like blown-glass hearts kept in a suitcase), and items she has brought into the house, like a Steinway & Sons grand piano that used to belong to the Havana Cathedral.

Late night at the hotel Tribe Caribe, in the heart of Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood

In the town of Trinidad, sunset paints the streets gold

The house's original owner, Juan Cruz Bustillo, a mason and mambí (a veteran of the wars of independence), acquired the land in 1902 with war compensation before joining the new republican army. After the 1959 revolution, the state expropriated the ground floor. Over the years, like other once bourgeois families, the Bustillos became impoverished, and they sold their home to Vera. In addition to renovating the house, she is resurrecting the sophisticated society magazine Social 1916, reprinting old content in limited editions produced on a restored vintage printing press. One day, when a free press is finally allowed, she hopes to create a contemporary version of the publication.

Artist Nerea Vera’s home in Havana

Design flare at Tribe Caribe

Vera was living in Spain when the pandemic hit and she decided to return home. Her commitment is uncommon in a country in the midst of an emigration crisis. By some estimates Cuba's population fell 18 percent between 2022 and 2023. On an island scarred by exile, this is the biggest migratory wave in Cuba's history. Why? An economy teetering on collapse, US sanctions, the pandemic, shortages of medicine and food, a failing electrical grid, and the economic and political choices of the Cuban state. In 2021 the government scrapped the dual currency (the peso and the convertible peso, which was pegged to the dollar) and reformed prices, salaries, the ration economy, and pensions. Hyperinflation ensued. Fuel is up 500 percent. Blackouts are constant. A crackdown following a