Cuba beyond the beach : stories of life in Havana

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. "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 pverty-stricken professors-- go about their daily lives."--Page 4 of cover Karen Dubinsky looks past political slogans and tourist postcards to the streets neighbourhoods, and personalities of a complicated and contradictory city. This book is a compendium of conversations with Cuban people rather than politicians. An intimate outsider's look at life in changing Cuba