Why a Booktrail?
1958, 2017: The pull of Cuba and its allure for those who lived through its revolution
Next Year in Havana
What you need to know before your trail
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba’s high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country’s growing political unrest – until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary…
Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth…
Locations
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Travel BookTrail style to Cuba
‘..underneath the historic beauty is a sense of desperation…the beauty of life here – the simplicity of it – is also the tragedy of it’
What it means to be a Cuban returning to your homeland
How long will we be gone? When will we return? Which version of Cuba will greet us when we do?
“To be Cuban is to be proud – it is both our greatest gift and our biggest curse. We serve no kings, bow no heads, bear our troubles on our backs as though they are nothing at all. There is an art to this, you see. An art to appearing as though everything is effortless, that your world is a gilded one, when the reality is that your knees beneath your silk gown buckle from the weight of it all. We are silk and lace and beneath them we are steel.”
Cuban politics
“There is a lot of insight into the politics of this country from the moment when President Batista fled the country and the winds of revolution floated across the island. The narrator’s father was once a rich man. Now they are “citizens of no country, orphans of circumstance.”
To Marisof, her grandmother has told her stories and made her imagine Cuba as a mythical land and one created entirely from exile in Miami.
People like here are caught between two lands – Coral Gables in Miami and the black and white photos of the promised land. Her stories “smell of gardanias and jasmine, tasted of plantains and mamey…”
The Two Cubas
“My Cuba is gone, the Cuba I gave to you over the years swept away by the winds of revolution. it’s time to discover your own Cuba.”
Booktrailer Review
A glorious book. Evokes the sights, sounds and aromas of Cuban life in the 1950s but also illustrates the political and social struggles of the time. The writing is sublime and the story just transports you to Cuba instantly!
Read the full TheBookTrail bookreview of Last Year in Havana here
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Next Year in Havana
Destination: Havana, Miami Author/guide: Chanel Cleeton Departure: 1958, 2017
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