Infiniti's executive design director, Alfonso Albaisa, visited his family's homeland for the first time earlier this year. As an American citizen, Albaisa had not been able to tour his homeland previously. But with recent changes to the US embargo of Cuba, he "felt like it was time for me to go". He made it an historic occasion by bringing with him the first US car to enter Cuba in 58 years.
The video shows a glimpse into Albaisa's tour of Havana, the city where Albaisa's parents were forced to flee to Miami in 1962, two years before his birth. It's a place where 1950s chrome-heavy American cars blend with square and slab-sided 1980s Soviet era cars, but both contrast sharply with the curves and creases of Infiniti's newest Q60 coupe. In the video, he is able to meet with family members who remained in Cuba. He tours an estate that once belonged to his grandfather, and looks over the mid-century modern architecture of his great-uncle Max Borges-Recio, who designed the legendary Tropicana Club. Looking at his uncle's designs, Albaisa said that "what I feel today about design was influenced by that DNA. Even though I had never been there to see it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c4yFBWOsyg
