Havana is Cuba’s soul: a mix of Third World, First World, and Other World. After over a decade of visits as a teacher, researcher, and friend, Karen Dubinsky looks past political slogans and tourist postcards to the streets, neighbourhoods, and personalities of a complicated and contradictory city. Her affectionate, humorous vignettes illustrate how Havana’s residents—old Communist ladies, their sceptical offspring, musicians, underground vendors, entrepreneurial landlords, and poverty-stricken professors—go about their daily lives.

As Cuba undergoes dramatic change, there is much to appreciate, and learn from, in the unlikely world Cubans have collectively built for themselves.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Queen’s University Student Overseas Travel Fund—The Sonia Enjamio Fund, which funds Cuban/Canadian student exchange.

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction: More than a Beach, More than a Revolution


• : Cubans, Canadians, and Americans: A Peculiar Triangle


• : Telling “The Truth” about Cuba


• : A City of Stories


• Part One: Gente de Zona–The People in the Neighbourhood


• : A Country of Old Ladies


• : “There’s a Beer at the Hospital, but Where Did You Get Those Eggs?” Our Daily Bread


• : Bicycles and Beautiful Cakes


• : Pánfilo: The Jama Jama Guy as Cold War Superstar


• : Pregoneros: The Musical Theatre of the Street


• : Cerro and My Gay Trade Union


• : Women, Men, and the Everyday Battles of the Street


• : The Futuros Communistas Daycare Centre and Other Anomolies of Cuban Childhood


• Part Two : Those Who Dream with their Ears: The Sound of Havana


• : Walking out into the Night Music: Random Horns and Everyday Reggaetón


• : How Cuban Music Made Me a Better Historian


• : Interactivo and El Brecht on Wednesdays


• : Mourning Santiago


• : “Music is my Weapon” Telmary Díaz and Rochy Ameneiro: Two Powerful Women of Sound


• : The Fábrica de Arte Cubano


• Part Three : La Nueva Cuba: Life in the New Economy


• : Chopped Vegetables, Restaurants, and Other Signs of a Middle Class


• : Technological Disobedience and the Entrepreneurship of the Poor


• : Real Estate as Magic Realism


• : Taxi! Why I Don’t Talk in Cuban Taxis


• : The Havana You Don’t Know–Street Crime, Corruption, and Sociolismo


• : A Few Stories about Garbage


• Part Four : Cubans in the World, The World in Cuba


• : Life Without the Internet


• : The Drama of the Suitcases: How to Smuggle a Salmon into Havana


• : Taking Cubans to Costco


• : The Thermometer that Struck up a Beautiful Friendship


• : Looking for the Enemy in Manhattan: How My Friend Emilia Ended the Cold War


• Conclusion : Todo Será Distinto? Our Uncertain Futures


• Notes


• Index