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The Kardashians In Havana: Could Cuba Chic Finally Be Played Out?

Keeping Up With the Kardashians
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Via Instagram
The Kardashian clan smoking Cohibas in Havana

This week Chanel brought its haute couture fashion show to Havana. But if you think the whole Cuba chic trend has become a bit too much, a prominent Miami politician has the quote of the week for you.

Ever since President Obama normalized relations with Cuba, the island’s become one big selfie backdrop for stylish celebrities. There’s Conan O’Brien wearing a fedora in front of one of those 1950s Chevrolets. Movie star TildaSwinton watching Chanel models strut through Old Havana in dresses costing thousands of dollars. Or the hipsters who love to say, “I want to see Cuba before it changes.”

All this invasion of glamour may seem a tad…incongruous in a country where the average worker makes $25 a month. And where people carry food ration cards, not Actors Equity cards.

But it keeps coming. And it may have reached critical mass now with the arrival of the reigning reality royalty, the Kardashians. They’re in Cuba – smoking Cohiba cigars with Kanye West – to tape their TV show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

That’s prompted Cuban-American Miami Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to make this observation to People Magazine: “Haven’t the Cuban people suffered enough?”

Tim Padgett is the Americas Editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org
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