A couple in Céspedes, Cuba, pose in front of their home. After he took power in 1959, Fidel Castro promised to improve the lives of people living in Cuba's poverty-stricken countryside. He oversaw literacy and electrification campaigns and built hospitals for the rural poor. In recent decades, though, many Cubans living in the countryside have moved to cities, seeking better housing conditions and more economic opportunities.
An American car from the 1950s rots in the run-down neighborhood of Centro Habana. Transportation and housing are in short supply in Cuba. Most Cubans still work for the state and barely earn enough to live on, much less afford a luxury item like a car or a better place to live. Cuban officials blame the US trade embargo for Cuba's economic woes. Critics say government inefficiency and poor planning have kept wages low.
Cubans get ready to rock at the Rolling Stones' historic concert in Havana in 2016. The band played just days after President Barack Obama visited the island and there was a sense of change sweeping Cuba. In the early years of the Cuban revolution, rock and roll bands like the Rolling Stones were banned for their supposed "ideologically divergent" influences.
Hurricane Irma blows down palm trees in Caibairién, Cuba, as the Category 5 storm ravaged much of Caribbean in early September of 2017. The storm wrecked large parts of Cuba's agricultural sector and left thousands with damaged homes. Even though Cubans are proud of their well-organized hurricane preparedness system, Irma overwhelmed the country's efforts. At least 10 people died on the island as a result the storm.
Cubans fish off Havana's Malecón seawall at sunset. The wall has been used during the years by Cubans launching small boats to attempt the dangerous journey across the Straits of Florida to the United States. Cubans who reached the US were allowed to stay there under the so-called "wet foot, dry foot" law that gave Cubans special immigration status. But in 2017, President Obama ended that policy and Cubans who reach the US are now being sent back to the island.
A classic American car rolls by the first American cruise ship to visit Cuba in decades. In 2016 the US restarted regular cruise ship service to the island, and for the first time since the Cuban revolution, US visitors came to Cuba in large numbers. Americans are still restricted to "permitted" forms of travel to the island, and President Donald Trump has enacted restrictions on where Americans can stay and spend money, to prevent their dollars from going into the pocket of the Cuban military.
Cubans sell "highway cheese" by the side of the road in Eastern Cuba. During his 10 years in power, Raul Castro's government created 200 categories of professions in which Cubans can, for the first time, legally work for themselves. These reforms led to hundreds of thousands of Cubans leaving their government jobs to work in the private sector. Still, an untold number of Cubans work in black market or semi-legal jobs that the Cuban government does not recognize.
Cuban students greet Fidel Castro's funeral caravan in 2016 as it traveled through Holguín, Cuba, near where Castro was born. After Castro died at the age of 90, his ashes were driven through the island, retracing the route he took as a young guerrilla leader. Upon taking power, Castro promised democratic elections but instead stayed in office for nearly 50 years.
A flag hangs from a Havana apartment building on January 1, 2018, the 59th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. The majority of Cubans today were born after the revolution and have only ever known communism and leaders named Castro. When Raul Castro steps down on April 19, his successor is likely to be the first president of Cuba from the post-revolution generation.
A boxer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, watches matches between US and Cuban fighters in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. After the revolution, Cuba was virtually cut off from the US for decades. Now, despite the countries' ongoing political differences, there are a flurry of cultural exchanges taking place.
A Cuban man wheels his possessions in Gibara, Cuba, under a sign quoting Fidel Castro: "A new dawn shall begin to illuminate our future, a future that shall be more brilliant, a Socialism that shall be more refined, a Revolutionary work that will be more promising."
Cuban cowboys rope a steer near Santa Clara, Cuba. Despite having more land than any other island in the Caribbean, Cuba imports most of its food. The Cuban agriculture sector has struggled since the collapse of the Soviet Union and is plagued by government inefficiency and shortages. Farmers lack basic equipment and all cattle belong to the state.
A protester carrying an American flag runs through Havana's revolution square on May Day 2017 ahead of a government-sponsored parade as plainclothes Cuban security agents try to catch him. International human rights groups criticize the Cuban government for repressing internal dissent. Cuban officials say the island's dissidents are "mercenaries" paid by Washington to stir up trouble.
A worker at the Partagas factory in Havana sorts some of Cuba's famed cigars to ensure that each box contains tobacco of the same color. Cuban cigars are still rolled by hand as they have been for generations. For years, Cuban cigars were banned in the US, but as part of his shift in policy toward Cuba, President Obama changed the law to allow US citizens to bring habanos back from trips abroad. The US trade embargo still prohibits the sale of Cuban cigars in the US.
A young Cuban girl in her "pioneer" school uniform lights a candle at a Havana church days before the 2015 visit of Pope Francis to Cuba. Religion was all but banned following the Cuban revolution, and Catholics in particular faced government discrimination for openly practicing their faith. Over the last 20 years, the Cuban government has slowly eased restrictions on religion. In 2015, Raul Castro, a longtime atheist, said meeting the Pope made him consider returning to the Catholic church.
"Long live Raul," reads a pro-government message written on a wall in Havana. Now 86 years old, Raul Castro will step down as president of Cuba on April 19, 2018. Although he will remain as the powerful first secretary of the Communist Party in Cuba, Castro says it is time for the next generation of supporters of the Cuban revolution to take power.
