The Kardashians are in Cuba.
Members of the reality-show clan arrived recently in the island nation, which reached detente with the United States in December 2014, to vacation and to shoot scenes for E!’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the network reports. Khloé Kardashian, 31, has posted numerous photos of herself, her sisters Kim, 35, and Kourtney, 37, and her friend Malika Haqq, 33, who stars in the spinoff series “Dash Dolls.”
“Pablo was here! Cuba,” Khloé Kardashian captioned an Instagram image of herself and the other women, clowning with Cuban cigars. The reference was unclear, but may allude to the album “The Life of Pablo” by Kim Kardashian’s husband, rapper Kanye West, or possibly his pop-up store, Pablo, that appeared in Manhattan in March. She shared another photo of herself with very red lips that was captioned “Bemba,” an Afro-Spanish word meaning “big lips.” She wrote, “Bendito, baby,” using the Spanish word for “blessed,” with a brief video clip of herself.
Among other images was a shot of Khloé Kardashian posing model-like inside an unspecified, grand but weathered building with the word “FIDEL” — that of retired dictator Fidel Castro — carved into a marble wall below a quote.
Without directly addressing that image, which garnered criticism on Kardashian’s Instagram feed, Cuban-born Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, 63, tweeted Thursday, “#Kardashians in #Cuba: haven’t the #Cuban ppl suffered enough?” She additionally told People magazine in a statement, “I know it’s cool for celebrities to go to Cuba, but the Cuban people don’t experience the glamorous Havana that is featured on social media. Far from photo shoots and fruity drinks, everyday Cubans experience a different, sad reality. Now, the Kardashians are parachuting into the island to tape their vapid TV show.”
Fan and press photos surfaced independently, showing the sisters and West, 38, at Havana’s San Cristobal Paladar restaurant, posing with staff. Others showed Kim Kardashian, West and their daughter, North, who turns 3 next month, riding in a lilac convertible.
Khloé Kardashian said in another Instagram post, showing a parade of such brightly colored convertibles, that her “goal is to expand my mind. Now, it has been filled with new memories and knowledge of culture, food, traditions, daily life. . . . It will never go back to yesterday’s dimensions! I’m so blessed to be able to appreciate another’s culture.”
