In its early years, it was only possible to market national productions on its premises.
14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 8 February 2025 – La Rampa Fair has returned to its traditional site in the heart of El Vedado. Dozens of sellers gathered there this week on Avenida 23 between Calles M and N, with products running from artisan items to counterfeit Chinese goods of low quality. And if, until only a few years ago, the ideal customer was a tourist looking for souvenirs, today, with the fall in numbers of foreign visitors to Cuba, the focus is on local buyers.
The reopening of the space, just metres away from the Hotel Habana Libre, comes with a change of image, which makes it look more like a foreign import shop than a local produce one. Along with the traditional maracas, the cedar carvings (that depict an elderly couple dressed to dance a good danzón) or the seed necklaces, it’s the imported trinkets, everyday items, and toiletries which are gaining ground.
“How much are those wireless headphones?”, a youth enquired on Friday morning. “5,000 pesos”, replied the seller, continuing to eat his sandwich. An adolescent asked about a Xiaomi Smart Band – a device which, among other things, should monitor the number of steps taken every day, and which costs 50 dollars on the black market. Nevertheless, at the La Rampa Fair, 2,000 pesos will get you this counterfeit version, which, although visually very similar to the genuine article, unfortunately will only tell you the time.
Sitting next to the headphones were counterfeit Casio watches for 3,000 pesos, and sharing space on the same tablecloth were a whole variety of other products: nail trimmers, cotton buds, hairbrushes, skin cream and a face mask which promises to leave the face fresh and clean. With this range of options the stall resembles, more and more each day, the street markets of the less glamorous but very popular neighbourhoods, such as La Cuevita.
La Rampa Fair was founded in 1993. That summer, trapped in an economic crisis, Fidel Castro relaxed the prohibition of the Dollar, opened up the island to tourism and legalised small private businesses. The street market was then a very closely observed and controlled shop window, given its central location. In its early years it was only permitted to sell national products on its stalls, so that there was an abundance of leather sandals, knitwear, and an infinite variety of souvenirs to take away from the island – from palm tree fridge magnets, to berets in the style made popular by Che Guevara, to miniature versions of the old ’almendron’ saloon cars which are everywhere in Habana, or the façade of the Bodeguita del Medio bar.
In the past decade those limits have loosened up and now poor quality foreign imports have taken over parts of the fair, which has also experienced some aesthetic changes. In the market white is now the colour of the parasols, of the sellers’ sweatshirts and of the tablecloths that cover their tables. Maybe it’s a way of exorcising that official argument that they “spoilt” the area, an argument which they used to move the whole thing, some six years ago, down towards one side of the Coppelia ice cream parlour, a change of location that brought losses to the vendors’ pockets and a loss of interest from shoppers.
Despite the invasion of plastic junk and counterfeit versions of expensive watches, there is still a variety of artisan produce on sale that is made in Cuba. Leather bags, footwear, goldsmith crafts, women’s dresses for around 4,000 to 6,000 pesos, wooden sculpture and papier-mâché ornaments. Payment can be made in cash or by electronic transfer. You have to show the QR code in each case to do this.
Although on Friday the majority of customers at the fair were Cubans, the few tourists that did approach the site were received like unicorns who had just popped out of a dense forrest. The vendors know that foreigners almost always prefer to pay in their own currency, so they offer to settle the bill in dollars or euros at an informal rate of exchange. The same thing occurs at the other nearby fair in the Don Quixote park. Below the ungainly figure of the famous nobleman, dollars are presented for a pair of flip-flops for the beach just as much as for a guerrilla cap with a red star on the front.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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