“Why Cuba?” more than one friend asked when we told them about the trip we were planning. Why, indeed. Americans of my generation (I’m now 70) grew up on black-and-white TV images of a fierce Fidel, an angry Nikita Khrushchev threatening to beat us to death with his shoe and the Kennedys facing the Cuban missile crisis which promised to kick-start World War III. Cuba seemed dangerous and exotic; the kind of place only Indiana Jones could survive. But Castro’s Revolution is 60 years old now, and Havana will celebrate its 500th anniversary this year. Cuba today is a land of beauty and contradiction, a place where history and politics collide on every street corner, a place where crumbling reminders of Spanish colonialism stand cheek-to-jowl with luxurious tourist hotels, a place where soul-crushing poverty endures in the shadow of glittering Armani shops, a place where a rigid Socialist government rules over citizens who are making tentative forays into private enterprise. Citizens like Cesar Suarez. Cesar is 24 and operates Cuba 360, a tour guide service he launched in December after learning the ropes as an employee of another company. A former IT student, Cesar has found a profitable niche in…