Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba



Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) is one of the world's largest city squares. It's a focus for political rallies and the place where Fidel Castro regularly addresses Cubans. It's a vast empty space, dull and souless. I feel I'm in Russia.

The square is dominated by a huge concrete tower and a statue dedicated to José Martí, a leader of the Cuban independence movement and a national hero in Cuba. Behind the monument are the heavily guarded offices of Fidel Castro.

Opposite the memorial on the far side of the square is the famous Che Guevara image with the slogan 'Hasta la Victoria Siempre' (Forever Onwards Towards Victory), a slogan that permeates Cuban culture and appears everywhere in Cuba.

From the top of the tower through murky windows I can see all of Havana.

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