Last Dance in Havana

by Eugene Robinson

In power for forty-four years and counting, Fidel Castro has done everything possible to define Cuba to the world and to itself -- yet not even he has been able to control the thoughts and dreams of his people. Those thoughts and dreams are the basis for what may become a post-Castro Cuba. To more fully understand the future of America's near neighbor, veteran reporter Eugene Robinson knew exactly where to look -- or rather, to listen. In this provocative work, Robinson takes us on a sweaty, pulsating, and lyrical tour of a country on the verge of revolution, using its musicians as a window into its present and future.

Music is the mother's milk of Cuban culture. Cubans express their fondest hopes, their frustrations, even their political dissent, through music. Most Americans think only of salsa and the Buena Vista Social Club when they think of the music of Cuba, yet those styles are but a piece of a broad musical spectrum. Just as the West learned more about China after the Cultural Revolution by watching From Mao to Mozart, so will readers discover the real Cuba -- the living, breathing, dying, yet striving Cuba.

Cuban music is both wildly exuberant and achingly melancholy. A thick stew of African and European elements, it is astoundingly rich and influential to have come from such a tiny island. From rap stars who defy the government in their lyrics to violinists and pianists who attend the world's last Soviet-style conservatory to international pop stars who could make millions abroad yet choose to stay and work for peanuts, Robinson introduces us to unforgettable characters who happily bring him into their homes and backstage discussions.

Despite Castro's attempts to shut down nightclubs, obstruct artists, and subsidize only what he wants, the musicians and dancers of Cuba cannot stop, much less behave. Cubans move through their complicated lives the way they move on the dance floor, dashing and darting and spinning on a dime, seducing joy and fulfillment and next week's supply of food out of a broken system. Then at night they take to the real dance floors and invent fantastic new steps. Last Dance in Havana is heartwrenching, yet ultimately as joyous and hopeful as a rocking club late on a Saturday night.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Travel

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Today all of Cuba dances to live; today all of Cuba lives to dance.”

“Cuba equals dance. Dance equals movement to music. To understand Cuba, you have to understand not only its indispensable Maximum Leader, but also the music—the glorious, indomitable music—that makes the island move.”

Last Dance in Havana; The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution by Eugene Robinson was published in 2003 when Robinson was the assistant managing editor of the Washington Post. In 1997, a Cuban musical phenomenon called Buena Vista Social Club was born. The album was the unlikeliest of hits—a bunch of aging, forgotten crooners singing songs few had ever heard of in a language most Americans don’t even understand. Despite all of that it was wildly successful with the music compelling you to dance. The album’s sounds and singers came from Cuba’s musical golden age—a time before revolution, before communism, and even before anyone had heard of Fidel Castro. As Robinson tells us, today in Cuba, those Buena Vista songs are played in tourist bars, expensive restaurants, and five-star hotel lobbies, but hardly anywhere else as the rest of Cuba is dancing to more urgent sounds. This book shows us life on the island against the backdrop of music, dance and racial politics showing how culture is political in Cuba. Throughout the book, Eugene Robinson does a fantastic job by conveying the energy of the island as well as his passion for the island, its music, and the players. There was a musical rhythm thrumming throughout the book that was hypnotic. Robinson explores all kinds of music including the music of the saints. He also explores hip-hop, rap, and revolutionary music. There are also many wonderful photographs of Cuba, Fidel Castro, and the many musicians that are highlighted throughout the book. And I will end this review with the beautiful words of Eugene Robinson:

“And finally, I open my heart in gratitude to the people of Cuba, who taught me what it means to dance.”

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the level of description of Cuban life and I love his dance analogy. I even kind of like how he uses his narrative to cast himself as the observant outsider at dozens of clubs and concerts. I get the feeling that maybe he wasn't such an outsider. A fun winter read and a great way to get a feel for Cuba without sneaking over there yourself.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping to go to Cuba this fall, so I checked this book out of the library. Oh, look, the author is that Washington Post guy Eugene Robinson. The book is subtitled "The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution." It's rather dated - copyright 2004, Castro died in 2016. But I learned a lot about life in Cuba, and I enjoyed getting a recent history of Cuba through music.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this easy to read layman's anthropology of life in contemporary Cuba, Eugene Robinson has weaved together an endearing portrait of a society and culture that time, but not rhythm, seems to have forgotten. Set in the early part of the current decade (copyrighted 2004), modern Cuba is place where car ownership must be approved by the Maximum Leader himself and ordinary folks do unordinary things in pursuit of dollars. The only facet of life in Cuba that seems more precarious than the economy is the built environment and its half century long entropy. Yet for all the problems that good Cuban citizens face, the picture that emerges is entirely different than the one etched into the American consciousness by the occasional Cuba-related headline or human interest stories that receive so much attention. Many of the people that Robinson interviewed and became friends with during his numerous visits to Cuba were economically desperate, but not as eager for political change as good American citizens are generally led to believe. In other words, the divide between what the Miami Cubans present as reality and what those Cubans that have stayed claim as reality is gaping. The truth is that many regular Cubans are deeply fearful of losing their socialist state, blemishes and all.

The opening chapters of the book are definitely more optimistic in tone. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba experienced a deep recession, years branded as The Special Period. Once this difficult period ended, though, it seemed the Cuban government was willing to make concessions to the populace that it had not previously allowed. During this period, roughly equivalent to the Damascus Spring that came about after Bashar al Asad came to power in Syria, the government in Havana seemed more willing to tolerate dissent and allow a greater degree of free expression than previously had been the case. A nascent hip hop movement took hold on the Island and young people seemed to have found a critical voice that could at least attempt to affect change while furthering the aims of the Revolution itself. But like the Damascus Spring, the thaw did not last long. Robinson explains that political life in Cuba is made up of a series of ebbs and flows. As one old Cuban noted, it's impossible to know if the vicissitudes of the government are intentional, to keep everyone on their toes, or idiosyncratic, the result of Fidel waking up on the wrong side of the bed. And Cubans, for their part, seemed to take it all in stride. In the same way that a survey of Americans would reveal massive amounts of indifference to the reigning political establishment, so many Cubans found themselves uninterested in politics and more concerned about just getting by.

One of the ways they accomplish this is through dance. What made the book most interesting was that most of the stories told by Robinson were about the music of Cuba, and the dancing that it inspires. The descriptions of the clubs, the orquestas, and the characters filling them had an enticing romantic quality to them. And while Robinson was not always convincing in his contention that Fidel himself was the best dancer of all-in a political sense-the book certainly made the point he was hoping to make. Contemporary life in Cuba may not provide the material comforts of life in advanced capitalist states, but the benevolent features of Cuban style socialism, qualities such as the relative lack of possession-derived social status, the communitarian ideal of equality, and the socialized public goods (health care and education) will be hard to remove from the Cuban revolutionary imagination. The case could be made that Fidel Castro was too much the hero in this account, but the usual story of Fidel as despotic villain has been told many times before. Robinson made me rethink the way in which history, even a capitalist-oriented history, might judge this man who throughout his long reign was so deeply committed to creating a society immune to many of the deprivations of modern capitalist states.

In the end, I too share the fear that ordinary Cubans feel for their future. The recent transition of power from brother to brother seems to have occurred without upheaval. Raul Castro has seemed willing to undertake policies that might help ease economic burdens. With good fortune, positive change will come in small doses, preserving the best of what is Cuba today while at the same time making a brighter future for all Cubans, and that includes its many brilliant musicians. (c) Jeffrey L. Otto (April 3, 2008)

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an intro to Cuba, I'll certainly take a study of contemporary music scenes over a purely historical narrative any day. That said, with no real interest in the Cuban music scene, the metaphors of Robinson's reporting are quite possibly lost on me.

'Last Dance in Havana' describes the contradictions of Cuban life that are dredged up through music and its associated scenes. While music is a pervasive if not ubiquitous force, it struggles between being a purely expressive form and one that must be tempered to fit the ideals of the party.

While Cuban hip-hop strains to challenge social ills, recent years have seen a tightening of state power that Robinson suggests was once let loose. As Fidel's final days draw nearer, questions are raised as to what life will be like in a post revolutionary revolution. While many seem to speak out against their dear leader, it is those same folk who wish him health, fearing what may come next.

The book is certainly readable and written by a journalist, not an academic. Even so, I found the most interesting story to be that of the author's friend, Charlie Hill, which bears almost no relevance to the story at large.

And so goes another contradiction of our closest Caribbean neighbor!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about how important music and dancing is to the Cuban people. By highlighting the lives of some of the more famous Cuban musicians and the lifestyles of some of the Cuban people, the author was also telling us what it is like to live under the communism of Fidel Castro. I found this part very, very interesting, but not quite so enlightening as I would have thought. I've been to the USSR, Prague and East Germany under communism, so there wasn't much new. I found the book a little dull to read in places. At the end, I was expecting a big proclamation about what the author thinks is the future of Cuba when Castro dies, which wasn't there. The author was correct in realizing that nobody knows for sure, and the future of Cuba is up to the Cuban people.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is primarily about the music scene in Cuba, but because the author is Eugene Robinson I was pretty sure that there would be a lot of politics and personalities included. During his second visit to Cuba in the early 1990s, Robinson observed the increased government control of the messages musicians were permitted to express. Musicians quizzed him about the availability and marketing of their music in the U.S. because they had no way of checking into it themselves. Interestingly, at the time the book was written (1994), public schools offered an extensive classical music education program beginning in elementary school. Funding was waning, so I’m not sure if that’s still the case.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars... Found this at the FF library. Not into the author's style. Too many unnecessary long superficial descriptions. But I'm getting a sense of opinions and attitudes that I couldn't find out on my own during my trip. Also, I love learning about the music history and the politcal history. Author redeemed in last 2 chapters addressing Fidel's frightening and still fervent omnipotence. Otherwise it's a difficult one to recommend unless you're fascinated by Cuba like I am.

[Susan Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great preparation for upcoming trip to Cuba. Eugene Robinson writes with both love and a clear eye. He is prescient regarding the coming changes. A great chapter on Santeria, and excellent picture of the underground rappers, protesting through their music.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gave us a good look at Cuba on the cusp of change. Now that Fidel Castro is on his way out and relations between Cuba and the USA are improving, it will indeed be interesting to see what becomes of this island nation.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of the Afro-Cuban music scene. Not as general interest as I'd thought, but still a good book.

[KJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

terrible writing but interesting stuff

[tom shaffer]

a good book about music in cuba by eugene robinson, my favorite editorial page guy in the w.post

[JoAnn]

It was ok...interesting but the author worked the music thing too hard in an effort to find a way to describe his cuba experience