The Other Side of Paradise
Life in the New Cuba
Julia Cooke
- Change
- looms
- in
- Havana,
- Cuba's
- capital,
- a
- city
- electric
- with
- uncertainty
- yet
- cloaked
- in
- cliché90
- miles
- from
- U.S.
- shores
- and
- off-limits
- to
- most
- Americans.
- Journalist
- Julia
- Cooke,
- who
- lived
- there
- at
- intervals
- over
- a
- period
- of
- five
- years,
- discovered
- a
- dynamic
- scene:
- baby-faced
- anarchists
- with
- Mohawks
- gelled
- with
- laundry
- soap,
- whiskey-drinking
- children
- of
- the
- elite,
- SanterÃtrainees,
- pregnant
- prostitutes,
- university
- graduates
- planning
- to
- leave
- for
- the
- first
- country
- that
- will
- give
- them
- a
- visa.This
- last
- generation
- of
- Cubans
- raised
- under
- Fidel
- Castro
- animate
- life
- in
- a
- waning
- era
- of
- political
- stagnation
- as
- the
- rest
- of
- the
- world
- beckons:
- waiting
- out
- storms
- at
- rummy
- hurricane
- parties
- and
- attending
- raucous
- drag
- cabarets,
- planning
- ascendant
- music
- careers
- and
- black-market
- business
- ventures,
- trying
- to
- reconcile
- the
- undefined
- future
- with
- the
- urgent
- today.
Eye-opening
- and
- politically
- prescient,
- The
- Other
- Side
- of
- Paradise
- offers
- a
- deep
- new
- understanding
- of
- a
- place
- that
- has
- so
- confounded
- and
- intrigued us.
