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Our Man in Havana

Written by David Lowbridge-Ellis• 6 April 2024

Alex Lamas goes on a thrilling and moving adventure to a memorable Bond location – and into his own family’s past.

By Alex Lamas, Agent 00178

What do the Ian Fleming stories of

Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Dr No
Goldfinger
Quantum of Solace
For Your Eyes Only
Thunderball
& The Man With the Golden Gun

all have in common?

They all have references to Cuba and Cuban current events of the time in which they were written.

It’s no doubt that from the rise of Batista to the revolution of Castro, Cuba was a global hot topic, culminating in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Even though Fleming’s literary Bond never actually made it to Cuba in the novels, Bond on film was there 3 times, in GoldenEye, Die Another Day and No Time to Die. The pre-title scene in Octopussy may have been Cuba or Argentina but was probably meant as some nondescript Latin American dictatorship. Fleming’s fascination with Cuba was very apparent in his novels but also in the fact that his character had never been there, even though Fleming was about 90 miles away in Oracabessa, Jamaica for several months every winter. It seems that he may have had a bit of fear as well as fascination for the nearby island.

In his extraordinary article on the Licence to Queer website, “Something to do with Cuba”: Missiles, Man Love, Mojitos and Fleming’s Fearful Fascination, David Lowbridge-Ellis he writes, “While Fleming lived so much of his life vicariously through Bond, he never sent Bond to Cuba in his stead. And yet, his Bond novels are crammed with references to Cuba. From the first Bond book to the last, from 1953 to 1964, Casino Royale to The Man With The Golden Gun, the novels chart the changing fortunes of – and feelings towards – Cuba across this turbulent decade.”

No matter how you cut it, James Bond and Cuba are linked in so many ways.

I am Cuban. That is: my Dad is from Cuba and he left in 1960, a few years before the Missile Crisis. His exit story was simple: Castro’s slide towards communism came with increasing shades of a dictatorship that was looking more like the Batista regime, rather than the socialist utopia promised. My Cuban family was both very anti-Batista and grew to be very anti-Castro as well. Two sides of a very bad penny. With that my grandfather made the hard choice to leave. My father was 17 and had just finished high school. At that time, restrictions were only beginning to form but they were able to get on a commercial flight to New York, with a round trip ticket on the ruse to visit his sister in Brooklyn. They did visit the sister but tore up the return ticket once they reached her apartment. My father was now an official Cuban refugee. The US was kind to Cubans fleeing Castro, so his green card and path to citizenship was easy and he made a good life for himself and his family in the States, with a brief side trip to become a Spanish citizen where I was born (another long story). The dictatorship in Spain had him heading back to NYC after a few years.

Fast forward to 2022, 62 years after his exile from Havana, I decide Dad is going to see his homeland again before it’s too late.

Now in his latter 70s, my father was in great health, so the timing was perfect! However, the visa process for him was a minor nightmare. For US citizens not born in Havana the process for going to Cuba is far easier than most Americans believe. You do not need a special reason, you do not need a relative or to be part of a cultural attaché. You merely buy the ticket. American and Delta have connecting flights and, at the gate of either Miami or Ft Lauderdale, you purchase a $50 visa and state “to support the Cuban People” as your reason for going and you are in! That’s it, that is all it takes. For my father it was a 5 month ordeal with multiple forms to fill in, relatives or friends to sponsor him and hundreds of dollars in fees. They wanted to make sure he knew they were not happy that he left. But he made it to Cuba and they treated us with wide open arms!

I must stress it is extremely helpful to have a guide waiting for you when you arrive. For us, we were referred to Cuba Careo Tours (cubacareotours.com) by a friend and they were fantastic! Our guide Jesus (pronounced Hey-soos) drove us around in a 1957 Dodge limo – talk about style! The price included tour guiding services, full limo transportation everywhere, hotel stay and two meals per day for a very affordable price.

When we landed we were greeted at the curb with the 57 Dodge. We were taken through Havana and dropped off at our hotel. Although Cuba is equipped with many modern luxury hotels built by European companies, Americans can only stay in local boutique hotels and Airbnb-like inns. I will say though these are a far better option, as you get to experience the “real Havana” this way by staying with the locals and interacting with them on a personal level. It’s like being a guest in their home. If I had the option of this or the luxury hotel I would still pick the local inn. They’re very clean, comfortable, have all the modern amenities and you get a more authentic cultural experience.

Over the next few days, my father took walking tours of his old neighborhoods and, to his shock and surprise, the places where he grew up were still there, just as he had left them 60 years ago. Seeing his old apartment filled him with emotion and, even better, he was invited in by the current owners to take a look at his old place. He could barely contain himself because it had the configuration and the original paint on the walls. Although much of Havana is falling into disrepair, the apartment above was being renovated into a fancy Airbnb with marble floors and a modern kitchen. Much of old Havana is still quite dilapidated but you see signs of renovation and repair everywhere. It’s a city in the beginnings of a renaissance.

Later that week we took to the road for an area called Viñales, located south of Havana. It’s deep in the mountains of Cuba, where farming and tobacco-growing are plentiful. The area is so tropical that it looks just like Jurassic Park. Along the way we stopped by a popular hotel and tourist site. In fact, it was a resort that my father used to stay at as a boy and it was still there, including the dinner table he would eat at with his parents. Then further inland we had lunch at a popular family mountain resort, not unlike many you might find in the Catskill mountains of New York. There was canoeing and kayaking and I got to do a zip-line through the jungle. Later that day we made it to our destination. Nestled deep in the valley was Mogote Art, a little mountain inn where the owner was a chef in Havana and now ran this amazing culinary paradise surrounded by mountains and mango trees.

After a few days, we headed north to the famous beach resorts of Varadero and we were able to to “unofficially” stay at a very chic, modern European resort called Mystique Casa Perla. Talk about a Bond location! If 007 came to Cuba now he would definitely stay here! This is where I did my first open water dive. Unfortunately, it did not count toward my PADI certification as the dive master was a teacher with a rival company. The diving experience is still one of the best of my life though! Because the area is under-touristed the coral reefs are still in very good condition and the undersea life is spectacular! The colors are something out of a dream world. If you scuba dive you must scuba here! Snorkeling is almost as amazing!

Our last few days were back in Havana where we spent time at various local art galleries and night clubs. We toured Hemingway’s house during the day and at night we went to the historic Tropicana night club. My father was a professional singer in his youth and when he was a small boy he would sneak into the club to watch the show. And wouldn’t you know it, it was nearly the same musical song and dance review he saw as a boy. The smile on his face was plastered there the whole night. I couldn’t help but tell him that had he not left Cuba he would be the lead singer there that night. He laughed and cringed at the same time because he knew I was right.

Havana, and therefore Cuba, is a place of profound contradictions; it has a government of oppression but the people dance and sing in the streets with carefree abandon. It has some of the most amazing cafes and restaurants but many still wait on food lines for rations of meat, produce and dairy. There are government minders listening to conversations but no-one holds back on an opinion, political or otherwise. They are impoverished but they have a richness of spirit and a hospitality that is rarely matched by other countries in the world. The minute we landed we were always greeted with broad smiles and open arms and, even though my father left as a refugee, he was welcomed as a long lost son with warmth and gratitude by every person we met. And fear not Americans: Cuba is one of the safest places I have ever visited and, even though our respective governments may have animosities, the Cuban people see Americans as their brothers and sisters hoping to reconnect.

I would like to dedicate this article to my father, Peter Lamas, for being Cuban and giving us a reason to go and to David Lowbridge-Ellis for doing all the Bond research for me and inspiring this article.