Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub

by Rosa Lowinger

in Havana, the idea has always been to keep them staring. Rodney looked for that quality directly when he scouted for modelos on the streets and in el campo, where he could spot a guajirita with the proper raw material a mile away. “He chose them mainly for their bodies, not their faces,” remarked Gomery, Tropicana’s former makeup man, when I visited him in Miami. “An ugly face can be disguised with makeup, but you can’t fake a tiny waist that blossoms into colossal thighs and hips or monumental height. Por dios, those women were magnificent!” he cried, looking at photos of Sandra Taylor and Zita Coalla, two of Tropicana’s most celebrated modelos. Raw material was only the beginning of the process of becoming a Tropicana modelo. “The women had to carry themselves regally, like true diosas de carne,” said dancer Hector Leal, referring to Rodney’s April 1958 production, Diosas de Carne (Goddesses of the Flesh)—a tribute to female sexuality that was based on the women of Greek literature and mythology.