I lived in a house in Havana, First Avenue and 30th Street for four years (93-97). It was a 4BR, 4BA, corner lot, 100 yds from the Gulf of Mexico. The Cuban government took it over from a successful Cuban who fled to Miami during the revolution. They’d been leasing it to foreigners for big bucks ever since. For the time I was there, the USG was paying the Cuban government $3000 per month - all gravy for them. I really loved that house.
I was a kid during the revolution, but was an am radio fanatic, and news from Cuba dominated. There was even a popular song the called The Cuban Marching Song. No one really had a clue! I remember Fidel going to New York, and the rumors that he kept chickens in his hotel room.