Pre-university students pose for a photo during the first day of class for the 2015-2016 course in downtown Havana on September 1, 2015. Universal free education is one of the pillars of the socialist society built in Cuba since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. #

Cuban soldiers hold torches during a march in celebration of the 162nd birth anniversary of Cuba's independence hero Jose Marti, in Havana on January 27, 2015. Thousands of members from the Cuban Communist Youth Union (UJC) and student organizations participated in the march. #

Retiree Madeline Barcelo swims at the beach with her granddaughter in Varadero, Cuba, on August 26, 2015. Cubans are flocking to the beach in record numbers before a possible end to the U.S. travel ban that would open the gates to American tourists and bump up prices. #

Jonatan Leliebre (left), 10, and Oscar Torres, 9, exercise before a wrestling practice session at an old Basque ball gymnasium in downtown Havana on October 30, 2014. #

Cuba’s Capitol, or El Capitolio as it is called by Cubans, is seen in Havana on July 9, 2015. Cubans are once again touring their Capitol, an imposing structure previously shunned as a symbol of U.S. imperialism but now undergoing renovation and set to reopen as the new home of the Communist government’s National Assembly. #

Victor Capote, a 46-year-old rancher, works on a horseshoe on his mare, Muneca, or “doll” in Spanish, on his ranch near San Antonio de los Banos village in Artemisa province, Cuba, on August 6, 2014. #

Actress Aimee Perez, 19, poses for a photo as she has her body painted to perform as part of the creation “Mutacion Forzada,” or “Forced Mutation,” by Cuban artist Alberto Lescay during the 12th Havana Biennial in Havana on May 31, 2015. #

Kevin Lachaise, 8, watches a recorded TV show on the screen of a computer in the living room of his home in Havana on February 10, 2015. Netflix, Inc. had just launched its movie and TV streaming service in Cuba, joining the list of U.S. companies looking to take advantage of thawing diplomatic relations between the United States and the communist-ruled island country. #

Civil engineering Ph.D. students Arazai Garcia (left), 28, and Maidelin Pacheco, 21, chat during lunchtime at the University of Camaguey in Camaguey, Cuba, on June 19, 2015. #

Children practice during a fencing class at the “Martyrs of Barbados” gymnasium in downtown Havana on December 3, 2014. About 100 students train at the gymnasium, which was named after 73 Cuban fencers, known as the “Martyrs of Barbados,” who were killed in a 1976 attack when a bomb blew up a Cubana airliner in Barbados. #

Mechanic Carlos Rodriguez, 29, calls to relatives to turn on the water for his high-pressure cleaner as he washes the bottom of a Russian-made Moscovich car in downtown Havana on February 19, 2015. #

A baby Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) that just arrived from Havana National Zoo is placed in an enclosure at Zapata Swamp National Park on June 4, 2015. Ten baby crocodiles were delivered to a Cuban hatchery in hopes of strengthening the species and extending the bloodlines of a pair of Cuban crocodiles that former President Fidel Castro had given to a Soviet cosmonaut as a gift in the 1970s. #

Cuban tourists sail in a rented sailboat at the beach in Varadero, Cuba, on August 26, 2015. Cubans are flocking to the beach in record numbers before a possible end to the U.S. travel ban that would open the gates to American tourists and bump up prices. #

Medical student Electo Rossel, 20, wearing a shirt with a picture of U.S. President Barack Obama, listens to music at the Malecon seafront outside the U.S. embassy in Havana on August 14, 2015. #

Dancers for TV shows (from left) Yasel Rodriguez, 26, Yudisvani Rabi, 32, and Maykel Puentes, 30, dance during a contemporary dance training session as part of “Proyecto Divino,” or “Divine Project” in Spanish, in downtown Havana on February 4, 2015. #