My family took a trip to Havana for a weekend in 1956. I was almost ten. I have fond memories of it. We stayed the Hotel National I think. I remember going to see Morro castle, a rum distillery and the cemetery. I got a doll there that I gave my granddaughter. I was recently looking at photos from that trip. Would have loved to go back but not under the Castro regime.

My father (not Cuban) was offered a full-paid trip to pre-Castro Cuba, for his honeymoon when he married my mom. My father always wanted to go but never did for some reason, and he always regretted that. I was 8yrs old when Cuban hijackings were the thing, and we were traveling to Florida by plane, that was the only time my dad hoped our flight could be diverted. It wasn’t, thank goodness.