Detroit Iron by Way of Cuba
by Gary Phillips
Like the rest of the regular contributors to FourStory, I'm looking forward to our trip to Cuba. I'd actually been back in the day in the '80s, twice, sponsored by the Cuban educational section. When I say back in the day that's a euphemism for when the Evil Empire as President Reagan (or was it our ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick who said that? She of the it's okay that the then South African apartheid regime was racist as long as they were anti-communist.) termed the Soviet Union, was an ally of the island nation. Materially this meant Cuba received certain subsidies from the Soviets that kept their economy going.
I know post the Wall falling in Berlin, Cuba went through a tough period, when there were even cases of blindness due to malnutrition. But the Cubans have proven to be resourceful and adaptable. Because one of the things I'm really looking forward to seeing again there are the '40s and '50s era American cars still on the streets in parts of the country. These are left over from when Cuba was the playground for the mob, millionaires and Hemingway. As shown in the documentary, Classic American Cars of Cuba, these examples of Detroit iron have been kept going with jury-rigged parts from Soviet and European cars and other means. For instance, I remember a Cuban owner of one of these gems telling me since brake fluid was hard to come by, old car drivers used liquid soap in the brake reservoir as it had a similar viscosity to the real stuff.
As I said ... resourceful.
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