History of Havana

DICK CLUSTER landed in Havana's José Martí airport for the first time in 1969 and has been fascinated by the city ever since, exploring it by foot, bicycle, city bus, tour bus, car, ferryboat, and other means. An Oakland resident, he is a translator of Latin American literature, most recently editing and translating the collection Kill the Ámpaya: The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction and Mylene Fernández Pintado's novel of contemporary Havana, A Corner of the World. Previous nonfiction books include They Should Have That Cup of Coffee, about U.S. radical movements of the '60s and '70s, and Shrinking Dollars, Vanishing Jobs, about the U.S. economy. RAFAEL HERNÁNDEZ is the editor of Temas, a Cuban quarterly in the field of history, culture, economics, and politics. Hernández graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in French literature, and from the Colegio de México in political science. He has oriented, guided, and taught many American visitors to Cuba, whether students, academics, or travelers, and been visiting professor and researcher at Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Tulane, and the University of Puerto Rico, and lectured at numerous other schools and academic conferences. His publications include three books of poetry and ten books of essays. His essay collection Looking at Cuba won the Cuban Critics Award in 2000, and was published by the University Press of Florida in 2003.

• Introduction: Un tipo muy popular1 Key to the Indies2 The Hour of the Mameys3 Paris of The Antilles4 Cecilia, Cabildos, and Contradance5 Stirrings of Nationhood6 Revolutions and Retributions: From the Teatro Villanueva to the Maine7 Many Happy Returns? U.S. Occupation and Its Aftermath8 Symbol of an Era: Alberto Yarini y Ponce de León9 Catch a Ford on the Malecón: Republican Havana's Growth and Decay10 The Battle of Havana, 1933–3511 Radio Days12 City Lights: The Fabulous Fifties13 Havana in Revolution14 Revolution with Pachanga: Havana Transfigured 15 Russian Meat, Miami Butterflies, and Other Unexpected Adventures16 The Blackout: Havana in the "Special Period" and BeyondEpilogue: 2006-2017

Praise for The History of Havana"Serious but easily readable. The History of Havana employs conventional documentary, written and visual sources and a variety of testimonials from throughout the world to bring to life the complex portraits and challenges of contemporary Havana." —Harry Belafonte"A rich and readable social and cultural history, which incorporates popular culture—film and radio, dance music and popular religion--to weave a historical tapestry as beguiling as a Havana night." —History Book Club"This colorful work explains the singular allure of Havana . . . What makes it compelling is how effectively Cluster and Hernandez convey the personality of the city." —Chicago Sun-Times"Gorgeous, feisty, savvy, cosmopolitan, sexy, defiant and yes, at times decadent and decaying, yet always resilient and ribald, battered repeatedly but never beaten—the city of Havana, where everyone deserves to have been born, is the star of this loving, gritty history. The authors lead the reader from Columbus’ stumbling into Cuba in his quest for the Orient in the fifteenth century to our own decade. They tell the story of Havana’s people, their physical space, their welcoming and unwelcome encounters with foreigners, and their capacity for re-invention. It’s a great read." —Jorge I. Domínguez, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University"One of the few books in English to cover the history of the Cuban capital specifically, [The History of Havana] provides a history of Cuba too. This engaging, people-centered account takes a social and cultural perspective as much as an economic and political one and is peppered with lively personal testimonies helping to make the facts of the past more pertinent and more real." —Rough Guide to Cuba"This beautifully written, reliably informative, and extremely sensitive account provides a delightful examination across time of the extraordinary human dimensions of an extraordinary people.” —Franklin Knight, Johns Hopkins University, Choice"In fine prose, with academic rigor, clarity that shows respect for the reader, and a good dose of lyricism, the co-authors serve us up the trajectory of the Cuban capital." —Diario Las Américas, Miami