Diplomats on both sides have said that when the time comes, they expect to fly their flags at their diplomatic missions. Workers in recent weeks have refurbished the American flagpole outside the interests section, on the main seafront boulevard, in anticipation of Old Glory’s waving there for the first time in more than five decades.

Yet no matter what the diplomats are doing, the fact that so many people are wearing their feelings literally on their sleeves shows how Cubans never lost their love for Americana, despite a contentious trade embargo and years of political hostility.

In recent years, Cuba has gone through other waves of foreign flag-mania; the Union Jack seemed to gain favor in fashion around the 2012 London Olympics, and items decorated with the American flag had sprouted now and then over the years. But trend watchers here contend that American flag clothing has been proliferating, to the consternation of some in the government.

An article last year on Cubadebate.com, a government news site, spoke disapprovingly of the displays as a form of cultural imperialism. “It pains me to see a Cuban wrapped in an American flag,” a commenter on the article said. “My mind doesn’t accept it.”

Though considered by many a symbol of freedom, the flag-themed attire may also carry a whiff of contraband. Customers say that a lot of the garments are imported on the sly from Florida or Panama and that such clothing is not allowed to be resold, even under Cuba’s accelerated push toward entrepreneurship.

So it seems a lot of people like these have flag-loving friends and relatives overseas: a car mechanic with an “I Love USA” T-shirt; a 1950s car with an American flag sticker on a lonely highway outside Havana; a young boy with flag-themed shorts walking on a quiet side street hours outside Havana; a teenage girl at a produce market — adorned neck to toe with Old Glory.