Omar answers his mobile phone with perfunctory aplomb, Bluetooth earpiece proudly displayed, a symbol of his vision of the modernized revolution he would like to see in his country.
"What you can be sure about is that Cuba will remain a socialist country," he said. "The international situation means that we have to make some changes and we have to become competitive, but the development this brings will be distributed in a socialist way."
The future is on Cubans' minds this week in the wake of Fidel Castro's announcement that he is stepping down as their president. All over Havana -- from the faded stone grandeur of the old city to the dilapidated concrete of the suburbs -- the opinions that come easiest to the surface are deep respect for the revolution Castro led in 1959, gratitude for the more equal system he then established and admiration for his ability to ensure its survival in a hostile world.
But amid the pride and the defiance of "those in other countries who wanted us to fail," there are many voicing hopes that things will now be different.
"The fundamental problem, and I really mean fundamental, is economic," said Gomez, a university professor who, like most Cubans, prefers not to give his full name. "Right now in Cuba people are not living very well."
Gomez's dream, he said, is to set up his own consultancy advising new businesses on how to take on the US embargo and win. There are one million people with a university education on the island, he said, the product of the revolution -- but also stunted by it.
"The system has to start to trust us and let us do things like that," he said. "I don't need much money, give me a computer in a corner and I bet I can contribute to the development of this country."
The old Cuba still oozes from every corner. Crumbling colonial architecture is much more prevalent than the renovated splendor; American gas guzzlers from the 1950s and motorcycles with sidecars still trundle through the streets despite the odd shiny taxi. On corners at night, bands strike up and locals start dancing. Uniformed children sing the national anthem in public squares before the schoolday begins.
In the poor barrio of Marianao -- a transport hub for people traveling to the provinces squeezed on benches in covered trucks -- Babi and her daughter Olga amble home.
"I am proud to live here and proud of everything the revolution has done. I only wish that the comandante en jefe [Castro] was immortal and that he could be our leader forever," said the elder of the women. "But that there are things that don't work and things I would like to see different -- of course there are."
Chief among these, for her, are greater freedoms to live and work in different parts of the country, which are restricted to avoid internal migration resulting from existing uneven national development. The women come from Guantanamo, at the opposite end of this elongated island to Havana and say they are constantly in fear of being picked up by police and sent back to where they come from.
"How dare they do that to people like us," said Olga. "We are just as Cuban as anybody who lives here."
The women would also like to have more freedom to associate with foreigners in the capital's center. The growth of tourism in the past 15 years has been accompanied by a corresponding growth in prostitution. This is largely tolerated by the government, but Olga said she knows of cases of women being beaten by police just for talking to a foreign man.
Tourism has brought with it new pressures. Beyond the prostitution, there is also an acute sense among some of deprivation. Ariel sits outside his aunt's house in Old Havana.
"I don't see why we can't also travel to other countries and then come home again like the tourists who come here," he said.
Sitting on a bench watching the world go by, 78-year-old Alfonso sees foreigners eating in restaurants he frequented as a young man but now he can only dream of on his 230 peso (US$248) monthly pension.
"They are all the same," he said of the country's leaders, including Castro's younger brother Raul who has been in charge since Fidel withdrew with intestinal problems 19 months ago. "Well perhaps not quite the same. None of them ... has the extraordinary power to convince and trick the people as Fidel."
Whatever their opinion of the leader there does seem to be consensus that his exit was certainly well executed.
On Radio Ciudad de Habana's morning news show the day after the resignation, an analyst summed up coverage of Castro's resignation around the world.
"Even the US press had to admit, that Fidel saw off 10 presidents," the analyst said. "It was elegant. He went when he wanted to. But he will always be here guiding us where to go next."
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