Cubans brace for the coming wave

Long defined by belligerence and trade barriers, the relationship between Cuba and the US is on the cusp of revolution. A journey across the island finds many Cubans wary of what is headed their way.

By Sally Jacobs | Globe Staff

HAVANA — As the wheels of American Airlines 9426 hit the rutted runway of the Jose Marti International Airport, the plane slips into a first-world purgatory. Cellphones go dead. Internet access evaporates. Credit cards go useless. In one of the terminal cafes, the Beatles song “Yesterday” wafts through the air.

Blink, and it is 1960.

Travelers press through the sweltering humidity to line up in a non-air-conditioned holding area waiting for immigration clearance. Female airport officers, clad in khaki miniskirts and spidery black floral nylons, draw on their cigarettes. Waiting outside in a cloud of exhaust, a fleet of boxy Russian Lada taxis, the humble cousin of the forever-running American Chevrolets and Fords that hum beside them, rumbles in anticipation. None of these car models have been made for years.

The flight from Miami, just 90 miles away, takes 42 minutes. It is hard to imagine any other flight of such short duration taking a traveler to such an utterly different place, a brave old world.

Passenger Sandra Cordero, a Cuban native who now lives in Miami, is prepared for the shortages ahead. Her pink backpack is stuffed with mosquito repellent, toilet paper, and pain relievers. Tucked in between them is her father, his ashes stored in a blue box adorned with sea gulls and white script reading, “Going home.”

“My father made me promise many times to bring him back and sprinkle him near the beach where he began,” said Cordero, 41, hugging the box to her chest. “His father is still there.”

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