Breaking Expectations

By Anna Tripp

On January 8th, I became friends with our taxi driver, Dianelys. Dia is the daughter of the first taxi driver we had in Havana. At first, I was confused to see her as our driver. So, after playing a few rounds of Cuban dominos, we finally sat down and had the chance to get to know each other. Since I had not seen a female taxi driver during the trip, I asked her how she became one.

Dia told me she is only 23, so after high school she began working as a tour guide in hopes of one day being a taxi driver. She knew her chances would be slim, but with her hard work she finally got hired by one of the biggest taxi companies in Cuba. In the beginning, it was hard because she was surrounded by men and not all tourists wanted to be given a taxi tour by a female. Now, Dia is one of the best taxi drivers in her company and loves every bit of it. Furthermore, since she is around my age, I was curious to see what young females normally do after high school. In America not going to college is close to unheard of. She told me most girls look for older guys around their 30’s and 40’s and get pregnant. They get pregnant because they don’t know what they could even do for a career so instead chose to raise kids at the age of 18. They marry older men because older men are more likely to have a stable career so can therefore provide a home. To me, Dia’s portrait represents the necessary determination and risk for young females to succeed in the Cuban society.