Obama is Cuba’s new “poster boy”

Obama is Cuba's new U.S. President Barack Obama.Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A poster of US President Barack Obama appeared in Havana Thursday and thus broke the monopoly of Che Guevara and other Communist leaders  on being the faces on the posters in the streets of Cuba.

Cubans are accustomed to living with the sight of posters, paintings and other images of Fidel Castro and his comrades Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, and independence hero José Martí. A poster of a foreign head of state is an entirely new experience for the residents of the island state.
Obama is expected to arrive on Sunday as the first US president in 88 years. Three days before the visit a restaurant owner in Havana broken the trend of adorning the walls with bearded Communist leaders, and instead given space to the picture of Obama near a cathedral the president will visit Sunday.

Are welcomed

The poster is a montage of Obama next to Raúl Castro, the president of Cuba president and brother of the famous ex-president Fidel. Over the two heads of state the montage shows the Cuban flag and the American flag along with the words “Welcome to Cuba”.
Miguel Ángel Morales (41), the restaurant owner who has hung up the poster, describes the action as a major step in a country where the United States has long been the enemy and political images are under strict control.
– As far as I know nobody has ever hung up a portrait of a North American president here. We’ve had an American flag in our restaurant for the past five years, but this is the first time we have shown it outside of the restaurant,  Morales said.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today