Laura Mallone, Wired
Photo Credit: Lisette Poole/Wired

YOU CAN’T VISIT Cuba and not hear reggaetón. The eclectic mix of salsa, hip-hop and electronica blasts from shops, cars and bike taxis. And despite government censorship and limited internet access, the genre exploded in popularity thanks to “el paquete,” a grassroots distribution system that relies on nothing more than hard drives, thumb drives, and old-fashioned hand delivery.

“My neighbor has some kid who rides by on his bike and drops off this hard drive,” says Cuban-American photographer Lisette Poole, who lives in Havana. “She copies whatever she wants, then he comes and picks it up two hours later.”