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Published: March 28th 2017
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
The first and foremost of these icons is Ernesto "Che" GuevaraChe, Fidel, John, Paul, George and Ringo
When we came home after our two week long trip in Cuba we sat down and asked ourselves how we with our blogs could describe how we perceived the country. In our photos we noticed that many of them could be said to be pictures of icons. Icons in the meaning of people with icon status.
We would here at the beginning make one thing clear. When we say that the people in the pictures are "icons" it does not reflect our personal view. Our private opinion of the people we write about in this blog is not relevant. What we mean when we call them "icons" is that it is how we believe they are seen as by the people of Cuba.
The first and foremost of these icons is
Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Che Guevara was born in Argentina and was one of the most important guerilla fighters in the Cuban Revolution. There are pictures and statues of him everywhere. He can even be seen on one of the Cuban banknotes.
Next icon is a very reluctant one -
Fidel Castro. Fidel was one
Che Guevara
Statue on a memorial and museum in Santa Clara of the masterminds behind the Cuban Revolution. He was also later the president of Cuba and he was very important in the development of Cuba as we see it today. The reason we say that he is a reluctant icon is that there are relatively few pictures of him around. It is so because it was Fidel Castro's own wish that he would not become a symbol. There is nowadays actually a law that prohibit statues of him to be erected in Cuba. The law probably doesn't require that statues which existed before the law came into effect has to be destroyed because we did actually find one statue depicting Fidel Castro. It was very small and it is located in the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.
Even though there are few statues of Fidel Castro there are some pictures of him around and here and there people have put up signs with his name on to show how important he is to them and to Cuba..
Icon number three -
Raúl Castro. Raúl Castro is the younger brother of Fidel Castro and the current president of Cuba. Pictures of him can be seen
Che statue in Havana
Statue of Che Guevara on a wall in Havana. Here lit up in the evening here and there in Cuba. You might ask if he is an icon, an icon in construction or just an icon wannabe. Well, as far as we know there is no definition of who is and who isn't an icon so we include him in this blog until someone proves us wrong.
Icon number four to seven is a quite unexpected quartet - the Beatles. We don't know why but the Beatles seem to be popular in Cuba. In Trinidad there is a bar called Yesterday and in the entrance there are statues of the four members of the pop band, in Havana there is a park named John Lennon Park where there is a statue of John Lennon and at a street corner in Santa Clara we found several pictures of the Beatles.
We thought this was an interesting way to look at Cuban culture and we hope you think so too.
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
That's an impressive monument!