Connectifai

In 2016, Etecsa – the only telephone company in Cuba – installed wifi routers in 18 public parks across the country. For many Cubans, this meant they were able to go online for the first time. This portrait of one wifi park in Havana shows how it has become a new kind of meeting place: every day crowds of people with smartphones, tablets and chairs turn up to cluster together around the wifi antennas, to a soundtrack of shouts of ‘conectifai!” meaning ‘connection’. In the meantime, a very Cuban type of commerce is also flourishing, with vendors selling internet cards, drinks and snacks, and shouting slogans such as ‘Pork crackling with wifi!’ Here, everyone has an opportunity to contact loved ones, explore social media, upload photos and find internet dates – very normal activities that reveal a rapidly changing Cuba The park's wifi users help each other get online, roam around looking for better reception, before settling in to peer down at their screens together. During the day, it is mostly old ladies who turn up, but in the evenings there are groups of young people, flirting and engaging in more edgy wifi pursuits. In the meantime, a very Cuban kind of commerce is also flourishing, with vendors selling internet cards, drinks and snacks, and shouting slogans such as 'Pork crackling with wifi!'