Introduction

Es Cuba is a poignant and passionate travel memoir about falling in love with a country and one of its compatriots. Aschkenas never strays from her acute awareness that there is no way to separate her foreignness (intensified by U.S.-Cuba relations) from the complex mix of emotions, devotion and rejection, enrapture and apprehension that she develops toward the country.

Her tale is filled with beautifully woven descriptions of Cuba and the customs and habits of its people. Aschkenas is a discerning observer, taking in the innocence, isolation, contradictions, and resolute optimism of a people who have persevered against the collective disappointment bestowed upon them by a government that has been unable to deliver the utopia promised by socialism. Aschkenas, already a seasoned traveler by the time she arrives in Cuba for the first time in 1999, is overcome by her own passion for Cuba and her unraveling affection for Alfredo as she comes to appreciate his naïveté, sincerity, and ability to live for the moment, something she comes to realize is the effect of growing up in a culture where nothing is ever certain.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1. Es Cuba
The first new word I learned in Cuba was sobornar, to bribe.

It was a Sunday evening in February, at the start of my second week on the island, and I was waiting to enter the Coppelia ice cream park, Havana’s hot-spot hangout populated by teenagers and grandmothers alike. Regardless of the weather or the time of day, the line wrapped around two city blocks and then snaked back in on itself, winding around the corner of L and 23rd Streets. ... view entire excerpt...

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Weblinks

»	Author Lea Aschkenas' web site
»	Reviews “Es Cuba transcend[s] the easy bounds of non-fiction lite [because of] the intellectual depth of the narrator’s self-discovery. [It] convey[s] the raw emotions and tangled web of Cuban reality in ways that not only break with traditional foreign-policy perspectives but with the easy-to-digest cliches that often characterize cultural studies of Cuban society…[A] welcome and exciting example of [a] personally engaged account of Cuba.” —The Chicago Tribune
»	About the Author
»	Articles written by the author about Cuba
»	Author Interviews
»	Author Lea Aschkenas's web site
»	Reviews “Es Cuba transcend[s] the easy bounds of non-fiction lite [because of] the intellectual depth of the narrator’s self-discovery. [It] convey[s] the raw emotions and tangled web of Cuban reality in ways that not only break with traditional foreign-policy perspectives but with the easy-to-digest cliches that often characterize cultural studies of Cuban society…[A] welcome and exciting example of [a] personally engaged account of Cuba.” —The Chicago Tribune
»	Author Interviews
»	Articles about Cuba written by the author
»	About the Author
»	Extra chapters from the author

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