Cuba today
The United States reopened its embassy in Havana, Cuba on July 20, 2015 as diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba are officially restored.
President Obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba on July 1, 2015.
In this photo, the U.S. flag appears in small ways in the clothing worn by Cubans, like the scarves worn by Gydis Ricardo Vargas (left) and Yaime Machado Garcia in the Vedado district in Havana on January 26, 2015.
Cuba today
A classic American car passes in front of some signs that reads in Spanish "Long Live Free Cuba" in Havana, June 16, 2015.
On December 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. and Cuba would "cut loose the shackles of the past"and end a half-century of official hostility between the two countries. Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro agreed to restore diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies for the first time since 1961.
Cuba today
Street vendor Alain Rivera, 37, holds his 10-month-old nephew in a barber shop in downtown Havana on July 14, 2015.
Cuba today
The stars and stripes adorn a pedicab (bicitaxi) in Havana on July 1, 2015.
Cuba today
A boy plays with a parachute at the sea front, along the Malecon in Havana, July 7, 2015.
Cuba today
A bike-taxi and a vintage American car are seen in front of a building decorated with a large Cuban flag in Havana on December 31, 2013.
After 50 years of automobile sales controls, regulations issued by Cuban President Raul Castro effective Jan. 3, 2014 now allow Cubans or foreign residents to freely buy new or used cars in government-run stores.
Cuba today
Magnets for sale decorate a tourist shop, one showing an image of U.S. President Barack Obama smelling a cigar, at a market in Havana, March 16, 2015.
The magnet at bottom left reads in Spanish: "Here, nobody gives up," a popular quote attributed to Cuba's late revolutionary hero Camilo Cienfuegos. The magnets at top right shows Cuba's revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Cuba today
Children play on a swing in Santiago on March 21, 2015.
The playground was set up for a youth fair in their neighborhood, and will later be moved to other areas of the city.
Cuba today
A ballerina performs at a youth fair in her neighborhood in Santiago, Cuba, on March 21, 2015.
The contrast between hope and desperation is starker in eastern Cuba, poorer and isolated from the capital where detente with the United States has unleashed waves of optimism.
Cuba today
A cook roasts a pig over a charcoal fire before the start of a neighborhood street party in Santiago on March 21, 2015.
Cuba today
A youth tosses a ball in a street that leads down to the bay, in downtown Santiago, Cuba, on March 20, 2015.
Cuba today
A man rides his bicycle past graffiti hailing former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on August 12, 2014.
Cuba today
Farm workers sort through boxes of tomatoes in Havana, February 28, 2015.
Cuba today
Fishermen line the Malecon in Havana on September 12, 2006.
Cuba today
In a common practice to save money, Cuban commuters share taxis during the drive home along San Lazaro Street in the Vedado district in Havana on January 26, 2015.
Cuba today
People watch television footage showing Cuba's president Raul Castro speaking during a state television broadcast in a private restaurant in Havana on December 17, 2014.
Cuba today
A portrait of Cuba's revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara hangs inside a home in Santiago on March 22, 2015.
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A man picks tobacco leaves at a tobacco farm in Cuba's western province of Pinar del Rio on February 25, 2014. The Pinar del Rio province is the center of Cuban tobacco production. Cuban cigars were banned in the U.S. because of the trade embargo.
When Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, he got rid of many of classic cigar brands, viewing them as representations of decadent capitalism. Tobacco is still the third largest source of hard currency for the country however.
Cuba today
A bust of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti rests up a chair at a wrestling academy in downtown Havana on November 15, 2014.
Cuba today
Cars drive past a banner featuring five Cuban prisoners held in U.S. custody, two of whom were previously released, in Havana on December 17, 2014.
Cuba today
An American flag beach towel hangs on a makeshift clothesline, on a balcony in Havana, February. 22, 2015.
Cuba today
Schoolchildren prepare to throw flowers into the sea in honor of rebel revolutionary commander Camilo Cienfuegos from Havana's seafront boulevard, the Malecon, on October 28, 2014.
Cienfuegos was a commander of Fidel Castro's rebel army but died less than a year after their victory when his plane disappeared over the ocean on October 28, 1959 en route from Havana to Camaguey.
Cuba today
Cuban pilgrims arrive at St. Lazarus church in El Rincon, about 15 from Havana, on December 16, 2014 while celebrating one of the island's most important religious rites, the pilgrimage to pay homage to Saint Lazarus.
Cuba today
Fencing teacher and 1991 Fencing World Champion, Tulio Diaz, reads a newspaper before starting a class at the "Martyrs of Barbados" gymnasium in downtown Havana on December 1, 2014.
About 100 students train at the gymnasium, which was named after 73 Cuban fencers, known as the "Martyrs of Barbados," who were killed in a 1976 attack when a bomb blew up a Cubana airliner in Barbados. The writing on the wall reads: "Sports: a right of the people."
Cuba today
Dancers from the Deep Roots Dance Company perform during a training session in an old theatre in downtown Havana on October 14, 2014.
Cuba today
A boy plays on a street in downtown Havana on December 5, 2014.
Cuba today
Alicia Alonso, Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and founder of the Cuban National Ballet, arrives to attend an event to mark the opening of the 24th International Ballet Festival of Havana on October 28, 2014.
Cuba today
Fifteen Cuban migrants prepare to set sail in their 14-foot homemade boat after a brief overnight stop offshore Grand Cayman Island on November 21, 2014.
The boat, made from wood, metal, and fiberglass, had set sail from Manzanillo, eastern Cuba, a week earlier with 18 passengers, but three of them decided to abandon the trip upon arrival in Grand Cayman and turned themselves over to Cayman authorities for repatriation back to Cuba, the migrants said.
Cuba today
Cuba's president Raul Castro attends a family photo during a CARICOM summit in Havana on December 8, 2014.
Cuba today
Cuban security personnel detain members of the Ladies in White group during a protest on International Human Rights Day in Havana on December 10, 2014.
The group is made up of wives and relatives of political dissidents.
Cuba today
A student poses for photos beside images of revolutionary leaders Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos in Camaguey, Cuba on October 8, 2014.
Forty-eight years after Guevara was captured by soldiers in a Bolivian jungle and executed the next day, the Argentine-born Ernesto Guevara De La Serna, AKA, 'Che', is still a national hero in Cuba where he joined Fidel Castro in an armed uprising that ousted a U.S. backed dictator in 1959.
Cuba today
Revelers in a bus watch a fight taking place in the street before their performance at a carnival parade in Havana, August 8, 2014.
Cuba today
People use mobile phones to take pictures of the annual procession of Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba, on the streets of downtown Havana on September 8, 2014.
Cuba today
A makeshift fishing boat, made of styrofoam or polystyrene, sits on the bank of a canal leading to the sea in Granma Province, the region from where many would-be emigrants launch makeshift boats to try and reach Honduras with the goal of continuing from there overland to the United States, in Manzanillo on September 13, 2014.
Cuba today
An 8-month-old dog called Ala (Wing), sits on a bench at a park in downtown Havana on September 23, 2014.
Cuba today
A trainer stands with a horse before showing it at an auction inside the National Equestrian Club in Lenin Park on the outskirts of Havana, January 31, 2015.
After Fidel Castro's government banned horse racing along with gambling and professional sports in 1959, Cuba continued to participate in amateur equestrianism, producing top-notch horse riders and trainers. The costly sport slipped into decline in the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet Union provoked an economic crisis that made it hard to care for the animals.
Cuba today
Youths, sharing a pair of boxing gloves, practice punches as they walk home after working out at a gym in Old Havana, Cuba, October 20, 2012.
Cuba today
Locals wave flags during a gay pride parade in Havana May 9, 2015.
Cuba today
An elderly woman shows a "libreta", a ration card which since 1963 has allowed Cubans to buy basic food supplies at cheap -- and heavily subsidized -- prices, in Santiago de Cuba, on July 10, 2013.
The ration book, in existence for 50 years, is a economic solution for many families in the island, but at present the products offered are barely enough for the survival of many Cubans with low wages. The government has put into practice a process for their gradual elimination.
There are limited options unless one has access to hard currency on the island.
Cuba today
A hairstylists trims the hair of a customer at a unisex barbershop in Santiago de Cuba, east of Havana, on July 8, 2013.