キューバでよみがえる米クラシックカー　町工房のアメ車ドクター

【プラセタスＡＦＰ＝時事】キューバの街中では、かなり年季が入った米国製の車を日常的に見かける。パブロ・マンソさんが生計を立てている極めてニッチな仕事、それは１９５５～５７年製の米国車シボレーの修理だ。（写真はキューバ中部プラセタスにある工房で、自らよみがえらせた１９５５年製「シボレー・ベルエア」を点検するパブロ・マンソさん）
　共産主義を掲げる島国の中部にある小さな町、プラセタス。独学で技術を身に付けたマンソさんは、１５年前に自宅に建てた工房で仕事に精を出している。
　キューバは米国による経済制裁で、自動車やその部品、修理用機械などの輸入が制限されている。マンソさんは自ら組み立てた機械で、シボレーの部品を再現する。「現代の車には興味はありません」と５３歳のマンソさんは肩をすくめる。
　昼夜を問わず働き、試行錯誤を繰り返し、何年もかかって独学で技術を習得したマンソさん。「何度も頭をかきむしりました」と笑う。
　そんな努力が実り、今日では国内各地やさらに遠方から、車を走らせ続けたいシボレーのオーナーが、マンソさんを頼ってくる。
　注文は米国、カナダ、イタリア、スペインからもある。「たくさんの国から部品の依頼が来ています」とマンソさんは誇らしげだ。
　マンソさんによると、シボレーが「近代的なモデルへと大いなる飛躍」を遂げて「黄金期」を迎えたのは１９５５年から１９５７年にかけて。だからこの年代の修理を専門としている。自分でも赤白ツートンの５５年製ベルエアを所有している。ほとんどが純正部品だが、エンジンは劣化には勝てず、同国を走る大半のシボレーと同じく他社製を搭載している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/03-13:02）

In Cuba, where American cars older than the average inhabitant are a common sight on city streets, Pablo Manso makes his living in a very particular niche: repairing Chevrolets from 1955, 1956 and 1957.
The self-taught technician plies his trade in a workshop he built 15 years ago at his home in Placetas, a small city in the rural center of the communist island.
He recreates Chevy parts with machines he built himself in a country where US sanctions have crippled imports of cars, parts and tools of the trade.
Modern cars do not interest me, the 53-year-old Manso told AFP with a shrug.
It took him years to teach himself his craft, working day and night and learning through trial and error.
I was tearing my hair out, he laughs.
His efforts have paid off, and today, Chevrolet owners from all over Cuba -- even further afield -- look to him to keep their motors running.
People are commissioning pieces from many countries, Manso said proudly -- citing orders from the United States, Canada, Italy and Spain.
In the first half of the 20th century, Cubans imported tens of thousands of American cars, then brand new.
But economic sanctions declared in 1962 against the government of Fidel Castro stopped the influx.
We need tractors, not Cadillacs, Castro responded at the time.
- Pampered cars -
Today, it is estimated that some 60,000 American classic vehicles from the 1940s and 1950s are in circulation in Cuba.
The cars are pampered by their owners, who rely on them for daily transport but also to convey tourists in a country where the cars have themselves become a key attraction.
Manso himself owns a red and white Chevrolet Bel Air from 1955, a shining museum piece with almost all its original parts except for the engine, which is from Toyota.
This has been the biggest adaptation to most surviving Chevys in Cuba, with the original engines not surviving the passage of time.
Manso says Chevrolet made a leap towards modernity in 1955, and that year, 1956 and 1957 were the years of success for the US automaker -- hence his chosen specialty.
He recalls getting a visit once from the head of a Chevrolet workshop in Miami, accompanied by the manager of an auto parts factory in Taiwan who got goose bumps -- he could not believe these rustic machines could produce such quality parts.
Manso has taken on a 32-year-old apprentice, Lemaydi Madrigal.
Shaping a piece of metal for a part, she told AFP she knew almost nothing about cars at first.
What I like most (to make) are the floors of the luggage compartments: they are big, they are complicated but I like them! she said.