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Cuba, Hot and Cold
Cuba—mysterious, intoxicating, captivating. Whether you’re planning to go or have just returned, Cuba, Hot and Cold is essential for your bookshelf. With a keen eye and dry wit, author Tom Miller takes readers on an intimate journey from Havana to the places you seldom find in guidebooks.
A brilliant raconteur and expert on Cuba, Miller is full of enthralling behind-the-scenes stories. His subjects include one of the world’s most resourceful master instrument makers, the famous photo of Che Guevara, and the explosion of the USS Maine . A veteran of the underground press of the 1960s, Miller describes the day Cuba’s State Security detained him for distributing copies of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 1948 and explains how the dollar has become the currency of necessity. His warm reminiscences explain the complexities of life in Cuba.
Since his first visit to the island thirty years ago, Miller has shown us the real people of Havana and the countryside, the Castros and their government, and the protesters and their rigor. His first book on Cuba, Trading with the Enemy , brought readers into the “Special Period,” Fidel’s name for the country’s period of economic free fall. Cuba, Hot and Cold brings us up to date, providing intimate and authentic glimpses of day-to-day life.
A brilliant raconteur and expert on Cuba, Miller is full of enthralling behind-the-scenes stories. His subjects include one of the world’s most resourceful master instrument makers, the famous photo of Che Guevara, and the explosion of the USS Maine . A veteran of the underground press of the 1960s, Miller describes the day Cuba’s State Security detained him for distributing copies of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 1948 and explains how the dollar has become the currency of necessity. His warm reminiscences explain the complexities of life in Cuba.
Since his first visit to the island thirty years ago, Miller has shown us the real people of Havana and the countryside, the Castros and their government, and the protesters and their rigor. His first book on Cuba, Trading with the Enemy , brought readers into the “Special Period,” Fidel’s name for the country’s period of economic free fall. Cuba, Hot and Cold brings us up to date, providing intimate and authentic glimpses of day-to-day life.
- GenresTravel
128 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2017
3 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Tom Miller
24 books11 followersTom Miller has been writing about the American Southwest and Latin America for more than three decades. His ten books include The Panama Hat Trail, which follows the making and marketing of one Panama hat, and Trading with the Enemy, which Lonely Planet says "may be the best travel book about Cuba ever written." Miller began his journalism career in the underground press of the late '60s and early '70s, and has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, Natural History, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Regla.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 12, 2018
A very accessible compilation of essays on Cuba, encompassing the history, culture, economy, and possible future of a country that many Americans find mysterious and alluring. The author has lived in and written about Cuba for decades and his unique perspective provides a balanced look at the living conditions and political life throughout Cuba's history. Great background reading before traveling to Cuba.
November 20, 2017
Close to the end of his book, Tom Miller asks the essential question: “Is Cuba better off now than it was fifty-seven years ago?”
I wanted him to tell me, yes or no. But it’s not an easy question. Better for whom, and in what ways? Miller’s answer, I think, is the book itself, a subtle and all-embracing portrait of Cuba as seen through the eyes of a perceptive and often humorous U.S. observer, someone who has visited the country for decades, married into a Cuban family, and written extensively about the island.
Indeed, Miller suggests that the question cannot be answered by a foreigner or journalist or government official. It can only be answered by Cubans themselves, and they are not of one voice. “Fidel Castro is dead. He died in bed in Havana, a city where he wasn’t very popular.... Those who despised him in life stood erect unprompted. Those who followed Fidel shed silent tears.” It’s the “farmers, truck drivers, black marketers, students, electricians, and the unemployed” who live with the Cuban Revolution every day, and it is they who can judge it.
For the rest of us, Cuba, Hot and Cold is a great place to start. It’s a short book and hardly encyclopedic, but Miller has so much history with Cuba, has read so widely and talked with so many engaging Cubans that his observations, though casually delivered, are always resonant.
He likes to puncture the common myths and clichés about the island. At a second-rate nightclub he listens to a nine-piece band and watches five undulating dancers. “Well, I’m here to tell you there are lousy Cuban dancers, Havana musicians who can’t carry a tune, substandard food, and batters who always ground into double plays.” He’s not complaining: his affection for the country is both deep and realistic.
We’ve all seen the photos of ’57 Chevies and ‘55 Buicks cruising past the dilapidated buildings of central Havana. “There is a feeling abroad in the land that Cubans love old American cars. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cubans love new American cars, not old ones, but the newest ones that they can get their hands on are more than five decades old.”
Politics enter, of course, and Miller takes his stand: “Embargo supporters through the years have insisted that it helped Cubans, yet from December 1960 to the present, not one Cuban in a million has benefitted by the embargo.”
There is much to quote in this deft portrait of a fascinating country.
I wanted him to tell me, yes or no. But it’s not an easy question. Better for whom, and in what ways? Miller’s answer, I think, is the book itself, a subtle and all-embracing portrait of Cuba as seen through the eyes of a perceptive and often humorous U.S. observer, someone who has visited the country for decades, married into a Cuban family, and written extensively about the island.
Indeed, Miller suggests that the question cannot be answered by a foreigner or journalist or government official. It can only be answered by Cubans themselves, and they are not of one voice. “Fidel Castro is dead. He died in bed in Havana, a city where he wasn’t very popular.... Those who despised him in life stood erect unprompted. Those who followed Fidel shed silent tears.” It’s the “farmers, truck drivers, black marketers, students, electricians, and the unemployed” who live with the Cuban Revolution every day, and it is they who can judge it.
For the rest of us, Cuba, Hot and Cold is a great place to start. It’s a short book and hardly encyclopedic, but Miller has so much history with Cuba, has read so widely and talked with so many engaging Cubans that his observations, though casually delivered, are always resonant.
He likes to puncture the common myths and clichés about the island. At a second-rate nightclub he listens to a nine-piece band and watches five undulating dancers. “Well, I’m here to tell you there are lousy Cuban dancers, Havana musicians who can’t carry a tune, substandard food, and batters who always ground into double plays.” He’s not complaining: his affection for the country is both deep and realistic.
We’ve all seen the photos of ’57 Chevies and ‘55 Buicks cruising past the dilapidated buildings of central Havana. “There is a feeling abroad in the land that Cubans love old American cars. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cubans love new American cars, not old ones, but the newest ones that they can get their hands on are more than five decades old.”
Politics enter, of course, and Miller takes his stand: “Embargo supporters through the years have insisted that it helped Cubans, yet from December 1960 to the present, not one Cuban in a million has benefitted by the embargo.”
There is much to quote in this deft portrait of a fascinating country.
April 24, 2018
Having visited Cuba in 2000, my love for this beautiful island only grows so it was a pleasure to meet Tom Miller and read his take on it! He as written several books about Cuba among others and has a fine grasp of its history and people. I'm intending to read more of his work!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews