Bench

This Cuban bench almost completely blends in with the coating on the Red Square in Superkilen. Benches usually play an important role as meeting points in Cuban street life, but as of late their importance has grown even more. The tobacco-producing country, previously renowned as a cigar smoker’s paradise, prohibited smoking indoors in public places in 2005. From then, cigar smokers had to resort to the outdoor benches. Fidel Castro, Cuba’s long-standing communist leader, used to be an avid cigar smoker, but after several attempts he finally quit in 1985. On this occasion, he is said to have joked about the misconception of giving cigars as presents to one’s friends: allegedly, Castro claimed “the best thing you can do is to give them to your enemies.” By extension, a popular, albeit dubious, story has it that the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA, had planned to assassinate their favourite Cuban enemy by means of an exploding cigar.