These women in traditional dress are preparing for a street performance in Havana. Despite laws guaranteeing racial equality, black Cubans are generally poorer than whites. And with fewer relatives abroad, they typically receive less in remittances.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

There’s Much More to Cuba Than Cigars and Vintage Cars

The country’s most celebrated blogger discovers her homeland anew while working as a tour guide

During an initiation ceremony for the Afro-Cuban secret society called Abakuá in the Havana district of Regla, a young aspirant depicts Aberisún, an ireme, or spirit messenger.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Venture Inside Cuba’s Secret Societies

From Masons to Santería priests, photographer Nicola Lo Calzo offers a glimpse into the island’s many subcultures

A wave splashes over the Malecón in Havana.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Homage to Havana

A Smithsonian director ponders the allure of Cuba’s capital city

A bartender mixes a drink at O'Reilly 304.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

The New Nightspots Transforming Havana’s Social Scene

Chic is rapidly replacing gritty in many of Havana’s newly imagined gathering spots

Chock-full of smoked meats and native vegetables like corn, plantains, and squash, ajiaco is a mainstay of Cuban cooking.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Ajiaco, Cuba in a Cauldron

With origins in the island’s oldest culture, ajiaco is a stew that adapts to the times

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Discover Cuba’s Unspoiled Shores

Thanks in part to government conservation efforts, Cuba’s 3,500 miles of coastline are a wealth of beauty and history

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

What to Read, Watch and Download Before Your Trip to Cuba

Know before you go

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Traveling to Cuba? Here’s What You Need to Know

While travel between Cuba and the U.S. is now possible, restrictions remain in place

A rehearsal takes place at Teatro América, on Galiano Street in Havana. From the outside, the theater is nothing special, concealed behind a dull screen of gray polygon concrete. But step inside and you’ve entered the museum that is Cuban architecture.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Havana’s Hidden Architectural Gems

The city’s eclectic architecture is both extraordinary and imperiled

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Explore the deepest corners of Cuba’s culture and history, and discover the startling transformations happening now

Today Santiago de Cuba, which lies at the foot of the Sierra Maestra, is a bustling cultural capital.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

How Cuba Remembers Its Revolutionary Past and Present

On the 60th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s secret landing on Cuba’s southern shore, our man in Havana journeys into the island’s rebel heart

Hemingway made this airy estate his Cuban home away from home—and wrote some of his most famous novels here.

Cool Finds

As U.S.-Cuba Relations Warm, This Long-Dead Author Benefits

A new conservation facility is on its way to Hemingway’s home near Havana

Lee Harvey Oswald, center, handing out fliers. According to a conspiracy theory floated by the National Enquirer, the unidentified man on the left wearing a black tie is the father of Senator Ted Cruz.

Trending Today

A Brief History of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Connection to Cuba

For over 50 years, conspiracy theorists have linked JFK’s assassin to Fidel Castro’s Cuba

None

Rare Photos Chronicle an Early Castro Rally in Cuba

When Fidel Castro asked for a show of hands in support of his new policies, an American journalist captured the response

Cubans had fought vehemently for independence from Spain from the 1860s to the 1890s, but by the 20th century, the country had become beholden economically to the United States (a Cuban street, with a classic American car, today).

Before the Revolution

Socialites and celebrities flocked to Cuba in the 1950s

"I think the most surprising thing was how Hemingway is still so alive [in Cuba]," says Valerie Hemingway.

Barefoot Hemingway

Valerie Hemingway, author of “Hemingway’s Cuba, Cuba’s Hemingway,” talks about pirated novels and Papa’s living legend

Zulueta

A Year-End Night of Magic in This Cuban Hill Town

Was Zulueta a place of memory or of myth? When a journalist returns to his ancestral home to find out, the fireworks cast a spell

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