Media coverage of Cuba is so intense and breathless nowadays you'd think the island had emerged from the bottom of the Caribbean six months ago.Even Gentlemen's Quarterly, in its current issue, has a fashion feature—spectacularly vapid even by GQ standards—showcasing some Cuban-American actor I'd never heard of, modeling clothes no normal man can afford, against …
Tag: Havana
Up my very tangled family tree
When I visited Cuba in 1998 to cover the visit of Pope John Paul II for the Chicago Tribune I stumbled onto a few surprising branches of my family tree, including relatives I'd heard about but had never met and who appeared to be loyal and highly placed apparatchiks. They lived quite comfortably in an …
Architectural Digest: 1958 Edition
Given that the last time I saw the southern port city Cienfuegos was fifty-one years ago, when I was thirteen years old, my memories of it proved to be amazingly vivid. I recalled that my maternal grandmother and my spinster aunt lived in a traditional home near El Prado, the town's main boulevard, and around the corner from …
A two-week magical mystery tour
Though thousands of foreigners visit Cuba every week, for most Americans the island remains a mysterious corner of the family attic where, for the past fifty years, they have been told not to go. They may have heard some reasons why--something about Communism, missiles, bearded revolutionaries and terrorists--but it's been such a long time it's …
El Rancho Santa Clara 