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

by Rosa Lowinger

magazine ran a photo of her with the caption “bella entre bellas” (a beauty among beauties). Actually, Ana Gloria was not as striking physically as Leonela González, Jenny León, or Alicia Figueroa; but she emanated playful sexuality. She oozed it and winked it from the pages of the February 1958 Show, where she is pictured crouching in a leotard on the cover, and smoldering in a black halter bikini on the pages inside. She was twenty-two then, and had been a star for seven years. The article in Show describes her body almost as much as it does the spice and speed of the mambos she performed with her longtime partner, Rolando. But this was the 1950s, when such things were applauded without reservation. More importantly, this was Cuba, where, even now, broad hips, a well-formed pair of legs, and most of all, full, round nalgas (the most elegant term used to describe a woman’s bottom) can still elicit block after block of heartfelt, if disingenuous, marriage proposals.