Cuba in 1954, Really looks like a free country

The Caribbean islands, especially Cuba, were a favourite tourist destination for affluent Americans until Fidel Castro came to power after the 1959 revolution (the Cuban Revolution). But at the height of the Cold War, an era of trade embargoes began, and after a visit by President Kennedy in the early 1960s, Cuba became a prohibited travel destination for Americans. In 1954, the famous German photographer Heinrich Heidersberger was appointed to the MS Atlantic.

On a more than 50-year-old US-only route from New York to Havana, he captured thousands of photographs of Americans and attracted public attention.

Heidersberger was persuaded by an Italian acquaintance to board the boat so that he could study the still-developing art of color photography and take photographs. The footage he captured went missing for years and was not found until 2001. Even Heidenberger himself was amazed at how well the slide held up. We are sharing the photos taken by him here, when Cuban people were enjoying their freedom like western countries.