Cuba - 50 years on

It's fifty years since the end of the Cuban Revolution when Castro's rebels descended from the Sierra Maestra mountains to the city of his birth, Santiago de Cuba. News reports describe the celebrations as low key, following the devastating hurricanes of last summer and Fidel Castro's continued absence from public view. But change is in the air.

Revolutionary slogans still take the place of advertising billboards, but for how much longer will Cuba be able to retain its unique identity and hold off the inevitable tide of consumerism once the US embargo is lifted? The first three pictures show hoardings at the Bay of Pigs, site of the US invasion in 1961 when the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

The group of photos below were taken in Cienfuegos, named after one of Castro's revolutionary commanders, where the reification of Che was much in evidence.