The Havana habit

Pérez Firmat, Gustavo 1949- (Author).

Summary: Cuba, an island 750 miles long, with a population of about 11 million, lies less than 100 miles off the U.S. coast. Yet the island's influences on America's cultural imagination are extensive and deeply ingrained. In this book the author probes the importance of Havana, and of greater Cuba, in the cultural history of the United States. Through books, advertisements, travel guides, films, and music, he demonstrates the influence of the island on almost two centuries of American life. From John Quincy Adams's comparison of Cuba to an apple ready to drop into America's lap, to the latest episodes in the lives of the "comic comandantes and exotic exiles," and to such notable Cuban exports as the rumba and the mambo, cigars and mojitos, the Cuba that emerges from these pages is a locale that Cubans and Americans have jointly imagined and inhabited. The book deftly illustrates what makes Cuba, as the author writes, "so near and yet so foreign."

Record details

ISBN: 0300141327
ISBN: 9780300141320
ISBN: 0300168764 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 9780300168761 (electronic bk.)
Physical Description: 1 online resource (x, 245 p.) : ill. maps.
remote
electronic resource
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2010.

Content descriptions

General Note:	CatBulkString:jan.03.13 CatMonthString:jun.14 Multi-User. CatMonthString:jan.13 Multi-user. Terms of use -
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-225) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: so near and yet so foreign -- America's smartest city -- A little rumba numba -- Music for the eyes -- Mad for mambo -- Cuba in Apt. 3-B -- Dirges in bolero time -- Comic comandantes, exotic exiles -- A taste of Cuba -- Epilogue: Adams's apple.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note:	Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff. Access restricted by subscription.
Source of Description Note:	Description based on print version record.