First Place
Paolo Pellegrin
Magnum Photos
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"CUBA. ON THE EDGE OF CHANGE"
After half a century under Fidel, Cuba, now headed by his brother Raúl Castro, is under serious transformations.The socialism is changing, since 2010 more than 150,000 Cuban workers have left or been laid off from their state jobs, a concept previously unimaginable in a system that was supposed to provide all the work and all the social benefits. State agricultural land is now being leased in pieces to private farmers and cooperatives, and other kinds of legal self-employment are being gingerly promoted as well and the laws allowing people to buy and sell houses and cars openly, obtain bank loans, and work legally for themselves in a variety of small businesses rather than being obliged to work for the state. What will it be like, this "rebuilding of the house of Cuba"? “These are changes that should have begun two decades ago. But they didn’t. And now we are a nation trying to define itself”. Said gravely an ecclesiastical lawyer and editor named Roberto Veiga.
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The century-old stone wall of the Malecón, Havana’s famous oceanside esplanade, shields the city—imperfectly—from the battering of roiling seas. On calmer nights people come out to stroll on the street.
Havana, Cuba 2012
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