My girlfriend, Jill, gave me a book for my birthday in May by Alfredo Jose Estrada called "Havana: Autobiography of a City". I picked it up a few times since she gave it to me but have only read the first two chapters. Now, I am setting a personal goal for the next two weeks; to spend time with it and enjoy the rest all the way through. It is summer time and I need to read a more books for me, instead of the courses I am taking.
In the two chapters that I have read there is a passage where Estrada describes the Malecon, the sea and other idiosyncratic details of Havana. This passage brought me right back to the streets (I traveled through Cuba a few years back). It is interesting because he continues after this passage with the idea that Havana is a city that one does not have to visit to have a picture or an image in their head, he says that people just do. This is true, no matter what the image is; an old 50's ford, a cigar, salsa dancing, the skyline, the Malecon or an old copy of The Old Man and The Sea, Cuba is in all of these and more. Anyhow, here is the passage that brought me back:
In the two chapters that I have read there is a passage where Estrada describes the Malecon, the sea and other idiosyncratic details of Havana. This passage brought me right back to the streets (I traveled through Cuba a few years back). It is interesting because he continues after this passage with the idea that Havana is a city that one does not have to visit to have a picture or an image in their head, he says that people just do. This is true, no matter what the image is; an old 50's ford, a cigar, salsa dancing, the skyline, the Malecon or an old copy of The Old Man and The Sea, Cuba is in all of these and more. Anyhow, here is the passage that brought me back:
"Beyond the Malecon is an endless carpet of ocean, stretching to the horizon. Depending on the weather, its color ranges from gunmetal gray to pale turquoise. On a clear day, the dazzling light glints on the waves and the spray comes over the seawall like a handful of glittering coins. The sky is a peculiar shade of blue not found anywhere else, a brilliant, almost translucent cobalt that the early settlers tried to emulate in pottery... It is a city that assaults the senses...In the morning, the brine of the sea air is mixed with diesel fumes, roasting coffee, cigar smoke, and the sweetish stink of last night's rum."
(Estrada,6)
Havana is a unique city,..I have yet to come across one like it...I'm off to read a few chapters.
('Only One Life' is a quote we saw scribbled on the wall in La Bodeguita del Medio while drinking mojitos next to the ghost of Hemingway on our last night in the city.)
Listening to Josh Ritter: Live at Vicar Street, Ireland
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