Havana, Cuba

Havana is the capital of Cuba. Founded by the Spanish over five hundred years ago, Havana became a wealthy city through the trade and commerce of its port. Despite many wars and revolutions, Havana has maintained a unique and vibrant culture that is famous throughout the world.

In the twenty-first century, Havana is a study in contrasts. Due to its colonial architecture and rich culture, the city earns billions of dollars from the international tourist trade. However, an economy controlled by Cuba's Communist government and a trade embargo against Cuba by the United States have prevented higher growth and diversity for the city's economy. Havana's Spanish colonial heritage, as well as its close proximity to the United States, has created a diverse culture and population, a mixture that it intends to keep as the city struggles to regain its former prosperity.

Landscape

Located on Cuba's northern coast, Havana has a natural harbor that makes it an excellent port. The narrow entrance of the bay allows ships to easily pass through into the harbor, which is protected from strong winds and waves by nearby beaches. Altogether Havana has nearly 30 kilometers (18 miles) of coastline; the bay itself takes up over 5 square kilometers (3.1 square miles). However, Havana is mostly flat, lying at an elevation of only 59 meters (194 feet) above sea level. In total area, Havana is 728 square kilometers (281 square miles), but the government strictly regulates the city's population to prevent further urban growth.

Although budget difficulties prevent extensive public investment, Havana has a modern infrastructure of highways, roads, and public transportation. While in need of repair, a functional highway system encircles the city and public buses or collective taxis serve as the mainstays of public transportation. Public housing is also government-guaranteed and Havana residents live in homes and tenements rent-free. While a great many buildings remain in need of repair, public housing has prevented the growth of slums and homeless conditions for city residents.

Havana has a wet, tropical climate. The average annual temperature is between 24 and 26 degrees Celsius (75 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit). Havana's rainy season runs through the summer and autumn months, which is when hurricanes typically threaten the city. The annual average for precipitation in Havana is 99.06 millimeters (3.9 inches) of rainfall. The archipelago relies on precipitation as its only water resource and is thus vulnerable to rainfall variability due to climate change.

People

As of 2023, the estimated population of Havana was 2.149 million inhabitants, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the total population of Cuba. The Communist Party of Cuba implemented government controls on population rates, which have helped contain Havana's growth. As a result, Havana's population has remained relatively stable for decades. Overall, this is because of a national low birth rate, a rigorous control on domestic migration, and a high rate of emigration abroad. A large number of Cubans have emigrated to the United States, especially during the 1980s. In the early 2020s, close to half a million Cubans crossed the Mexico-United States border due to Cuba's poor economy.

Havana inhabitants are known as Habanero/as. As of the 2012 census, an estimated 64 percent of the city's residents were white, 9.3 percent were Black, and 26 percent were of mixed race. Government-provided health care helps sustain an above-average proportion of elderly Habaneros. In addition to being the capital of Cuba, Havana also is the island's major cultural center, famous as home to a number of singers, artists, and intellectuals. However, a politically active dissident community, which is opposed to one-party rule in Cuba, also exists in Havana. This dissident community has a tumultuous relationship with government leaders; periodic government crackdowns have resulted in the imprisonment, exile, and even occasional execution of these dissidents.

Despite official government disapproval, many Habaneros remain Roman Catholic, and the Church has periods of strained relations with the government. Havana has a small Jewish community. Voodoo and Afro-Cuban mystery cult sects are also present in Havana.

Economy

For most of Cuban history, Havana has served as the economic center and the financial leader for the rest of the island. From 1959 to 1991, however, the city's economic domination over the rest of the island decreased. Due to strong economic ties with the former Soviet Union, which was first developed in the 1960s, Havana and the rest of the country had full employment and a guaranteed market for Cuban exports. However, the Cuban economy took a severe hit in 1991 when the Soviet Union abruptly collapsed. With 85 percent of its foreign trade wiped out, Havana suffered extensive unemployment that peaked at 8.8 percent in 1994. As of 2021, unemployment was estimated at 2.76 percent.

In the years following the Soviet collapse, Cuban officials took drastic steps to improve the economy. Foreign tourism became a major source of income for the country, with the service industry accounting for 73 percent of Cuba's gross domestic product in 2017. Once again a major tourist destination, Havana sees scores of tourists flocking to visit the city's colonial buildings. Joint ventures between the Cuban government and foreign companies have allowed the development of many luxurious hotels and resorts that provide needed wages and employment for Havana residents. While still kept firmly under government control through fines and taxation, self-employment has also been greatly expanded to allow residents to earn money from the tourist trade.

Another controversial measure was the legalization of the American dollar as an accepted currency within Havana. While the US embargo has limited trade with Cuba, Cubans living in the United States are allowed to send money to relatives in Cuba. These cash remittances give needed income to residents who can convert the dollars to pesos in government shops. In turn, the government sells these dollars to foreign tourists.

Economists point out that while the Havana economy has improved, many problems still exist. Residents see little of the money that tourists spend in Havana. A sizable black market has also arisen due to illegal trade with tourists.

In 2023 the government announced unpopular measures to curb rampant inflation, which was then 30 percent. A major element of the economic plan was elimination of across-the-board subsidies for staples such as eggs and rice. The country was also experiencing widespread shortages of food, fuel, medicine, and power that prompted previously unheard-of demonstrations.

Landmarks

Havana is world famous for its colonial district, known as Havana Vieja (Old Havana), which was declared an official World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982. Old Havana developed on an irregular grid of tight narrow streets and small city blocks. Squares and churches became the dominant features of the colonial city. A well-known example is the Plaza del las Armas (Square of Arms) where two palaces, the Palacio del Segundo Cabo (the Executive Palace) and the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales (the Captain-General Palace), are well-preserved examples colonial Cuban architecture. The Catedral de Havana (Havana Cathedral) remains the center of Catholic worship in Havana.

As a port, Havana has a complex series of historic fortifications and castles to defend the city. By the end of the eighteenth century, four major fortifications defended Havana. On the eastern side are the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of Royal Power) and the San Salvador de la Punta (St. Salvador at the Point). Across the harbor are two other forts, Castillo de Los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro (the Castle of the Three Eastern Kings) and San Carlos de la Cabana (St. Charles of the House). The remains of La Muralla (The City Wall) encircles the interior of Old Havana and served as the last defense against attackers.

Central Havana is home to the buildings and houses of the nineteenth century. El Capitolo (The Capitol), a replica of the US capitol dome, is a major landmark there, and is now home to the Cuban Academy of Sciences. As well, there is the former Presidential Palace, which was home to Cuban presidents for much of the twentieth century and is now the Museo de la Revolución (Museum of the Revolution). Central Havana also contains many other museums, including the museum of fine arts and the museum of science.

The Velado district is a well-known western suburb of Havana built in the early twentieth century. Once home to the upper classes of Havana, Velado now has many major landmarks of recent Cuban history. The Plaza de la Revolución (Plaza of the Revolution) is where most government rallies are usually held and it also serves as a center for popular demonstrations.

History

The settlement that became the city of Havana was established in 1519. It was one of the first Spanish settlements in the Americas. From Havana, Spanish conquistadores launched expeditions to claim new colonies for Spain. As the lands of Mexico, Central America, and Peru were conquered and settled, immense quantities of gold and silver were shipped from the colonies to Spain via Havana.

By 1561, pirate attacks on Spanish galleons spurred the construction of the first garrison forts around Havana. A royal decree also stipulated that all Spanish trading ships had to congregate annually in Havana harbor. Every September, the Spanish Armada would arrive to escort these valuable ships back across the Atlantic. This annual convoy brought huge profits for Havana merchants supplying these ships.

With the presence of the Armada and the forts, Havana peacefully prospered for the next two centuries. An export-oriented, slave-based plantation economy developed around Havana. By 1750, Havana was the third-largest city in the Americas. After a brief episode of British occupation during the Seven Years' War, Havana, well defended and well garrisoned, would remain under Spanish control until the end of the nineteenth century.

During the nineteenth century, Havana continued to gain money from the sugar trade. The development of railroads and steamships allowed Havana traders to export Cuban sugar around the world. However, in the mid-nineteenth century, a lack of Cuban political representation caused rebels to begin a protracted rebellion against Spain for independence. In 1898, these troubles became international when the American warship USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor. The resulting Spanish-American War brought eventual independence to Cuba and a closer relationship with the United States.

Havana first became a destination for tourists during the tourism boom years of 1920 to 1950. Nightclubs, casinos, and hotels thrived in Havana's tropical and cosmopolitan climate. However, Havana also became notorious for crime, government corruption, and Mafia influence. Popular unrest against the Cuban government became widespread in the 1940s and 1950s. From 1956 to 1959, the Cuban Revolution was fought between Cuban Communist rebels and the authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista. The revolution ended in 1959 when Fidel Castro led a rebel army to victory and seized control of Havana.

Under Castro, Havana became the center of Marxist power in Latin America. However, the effects of Marxism and a controlled economy were mixed for the city. Alarmed by government seizure of private property and assets, many of Havana's wealthy middle class fled Havana for Miami and abroad. The remaining populace struggled with fluctuating prices and crippling shortages in goods as well as the curtailing of many human rights and democratic freedoms. The US trade embargo, enacted in 1961 in protest for the seizure of American assets in Cuba, eliminated a major trading partner and severely curtailed economic growth. His health failing, Fidel Castro stepped down in 2008 in favor of his youngest brother Raúl. In 2015, under the administration of US president Barack Obama, some sanctions against Cuba were eased and diplomatic ties between the two nations reestablished, promising yet more tourist dollars for Havana, though a number of restrictions were reimposed under President Donald Trump.

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