Havana Real: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth about Cuba Today [Paperback]

Fair warning, I am the "longtime friend" of the translator (42 years) but I'm not letting that bias my review. Up til now, most of what I read was programming code for the translation site hemosoido.com so this is the first time I'm really reading Yoani's story and I am engrossed.

It's a comprehensive view of life in Cuba - from the international to the most intimate of daily activities. For those who are anti-socialist, and are lauding this book as a blow to the Castro regime, I think they are projecting their own feeling because that is not what Yoani wrote.

What it leaves the objective reader thinking, is that there is much corruption and lack of accountability with the Cuban governmental entities and this, in turn, makes day to day life for the average Cuban a real challenge. As does the economic blockade.

Yoani doesn't talk about international policy so much as about the EFFECTS of that policy - chronic shortages of essential items...as trivial as tampons (not that this is trivial when you flat out can't get them) to food and a roof over one's head (the actual roof, that is - not the building).

The story is fascinating, the writing flows and it is hard to put down. The unspoken part of this story is what a courageous woman Yoani is.

The book leaves you inspired.

To any tourists who will be traveling to Cuba: I recommend a book such as this one over any tourist guide. Yoani's writing flows in a way that clearly captures the absurdity of living under a totalitarian state, simply by describing her day to day. It is also a window to an alternative information system in Cuba- the independent blogosphere, which grows more and more each day. In one way or another, Cuba's independent journalists and bloggers like Yoani have become the real reporters of the island, and the voice of the suppressed Cuban people. Their texts, their blog entries, and their "Tweets" have become real news in a country where the media only reports what the government deems necessary. Daily, bloggers such as Yoani, independent journalists, and other dissidents are constantly reporting about arrests, beatings, expulsions, and even assassinations (Zapata, Juan Wilfredo Soto, etc.)

The fact that this book has been translated to English is extremely important. I would definitely recommend it to those non-Cubans who do not know much about Cuba, or who are interested in finding out more, or who simply care about the reality of the island. Yoani Sanchez's "Havana Real" is a must read. Props to the translator for doing such a great job!

Long live a free and democratic Cuba!

I'm reading Havana Real. My thoughts turn to my youth in the seventies. I remember watching news coverage showing what seemed to me valiant people daring shark infested seas in search of freedom. Their 'boats' little more than flimsy rafts pieced together from the most unlikely parts: old tires, planks of plywood, the shell of an old rusting car. I remember seeing the US Coast Guard waiting beyond an invisible barrier silently cheering the refugees on, waiting to bring them to freedom. These were days just after the Cuban Missile crisis and my country was still fearful of our neighbors, fearful of the might of a little island with a strong and passionate leader. Every Cuban that crossed that imaginary boundary in the middle of the Atlantic was a victory for freedom and even I, as a child, was touched by their bravery.
It's been many years since I was first exposed to the desperate plight that plagues this small island yet the struggle of the Cubans still wages on. I recently met a man that told me his story. He first tried to come to The US as a young man, still in his teens. His crossing was not successful and he and his raft mates were caught somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic between America and Cuba. He was held in prison for nine years emerging finally, a man in his late twenties. He told me how he felt that his most important years had slipped away from him. First love, a chance for education, any kind of decent employment were lost to him. He emerged into an island more degraded than the one he had sought to flee and his sadness overwhelmed him. After three years of working, doing anything to earn enough money to buy his right to risk his life on yet another raft he finally made it to the US.
He is free now, he misses his family, he is grateful for his freedom. He spoke of the wonderful people he left behind in Cuba, of his family, of the slow pace of life, the warmth of community and I wondered at the price of freedom. I wondered at the lengths humans will go to so they can be free to speak and think, to worship and simply live. I wonder how those of us fortunate enough to have all of this seem not to notice how millions around the world are living under conditions so severe that they can not even voice an opinion for fear that they may end up in prison. I wonder how many millions of stories there are left to be told. Stories of oppression and desperation. Tales of constant fear, hunger and terrible hardship. We see the news, we hear stories of war and we are saddened at the loss of life. But what do we know of the human tale? What do we know of mothers trying to feed their children when there is little food to be had, of father's leaving in the morning to find work when there is none? What do we know of hunger or seeing your child go barefoot in the cold because shoes can not be found much less bought? What do we know of the little struggles that people go through every day just to survive? Reading a book like Havana Real makes the situations, not just of the Cubans but millions around the world, so personal. We are familiar with the horrific stories but the little daily struggles we can not understand because we have no frame of reference. We have no gauge by which to measure it. At what point would it be too much of a burden to bear? At what point does a young man break under the pressure and leave everything behind to build a life in foreign country where he knows no one? Would I be strong enough do that? The answer I can tell you is no.
Havana Real is a book that needed to be written but more than that it is a book that needs to be read.

I received an advanced reader copy and was in no way obligated to post a review. These opinions are my own.

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