This article discusses the tourist refunctionalization of the Old Town of Old Havana was marked by two fundamental events: the declaration of the Center and the city's defensive system to Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO), in 1982, a fact that conferred international visibility to the group and the governmental decision to develop cultural tourism in this area. Since 1993, making the historic area attractive for commercialization, a fact that aggravated the socio-spatial contradictions. Through bibliographic review, documentary research and analysis of empirical results, we evaluate the renewal of the urban landscape, the displacement of a part of the low-income population, the arrival of the Cuban middle classes and the revaluation, even if informal, of the houses. These facts point to the existence of an emerging gentrification process in the Historic Center of Old Havana. Keywords: cultural heritage, touristic refunctionalization, historical center, Old Havana
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.