Museo A la Batalla de Ideas

The newest of the three museums of Cardenas offers a keenly curated if propaganda-heavy overview of the history of US–Cuban relations inspired by the case of Elian Gonzalez, a boy from Cardenas whose mother, stepfather and 11 others drowned attempting to enter the US by boat in 1999. The museum is the solid form of Castro's resulting battle of ideas with the US government. The displays' themes naturally center around the eight months during which Cuba and the US debated the custody of Elian – but they also include bits of a US plane shot down during the Bay of Pigs invasion, discussions on the quality of the Cuban education system and a courtyard containing busts of anti-imperialists who died for the revolutionary cause.