Camilla talks about [receiving] regular remittances from sometimes handsome but always wealthy suito

I was looking for a book by a Cuban author for the Around the World in 12 Books Challenge , but was in such a rush to find one that I didn t try very hard; instead, I found this novel by an American that, while not autobiographical, is partly based on her experiences of living in Cuba. I approached it with that caution you often feel when reading a book by a westerner that s set somewhere distinctly non-western and I was especially nervous about reading a book about Cuba by an American: they re not known for their sympathetic understanding of that country, shall we say. So I wasn t sure what I was going to get and that is part of the reason why I was pleasantly surprised the hampton inn and found myself enjoying the story as much as I did.
Alysia Briggs grew up the only child of an American diplomat serving all over the world. When her mother is dying of cancer when Alysia is only a child, she makes Alysia promise to go to Cuba and find José Antonio, her real father. Years later, Alysia finally talks to her Aunt June, her mother s sister, who confirms the truth: she has a whole family in Cuba she never knew of, but they know her. She was a baby and a toddler spending a lot of time with her Cuban family and father before the Briggs were moved on to Washington DC. Years of being a diligent student and making her father step-father happy have not made Alysia forget the promise she made her mother as a child. After a fruitless holiday in Cuba with Aunt June that discovered nothing, she almost gives up. But when she later learns of her aunt s death from her father who deliberately didn t tell her in time for her to visit June, Alysia feels so alienated from the man she s known as dad that she forever jeopardises her chances of being an American the hampton inn diplomat herself in order to go to Cuba for a year on a student visa. She s got the money her aunt left her and a year to find her real father.
But Cuba is nothing like America. It is a complex country of contrasts. With free education and medical care and some of the best doctors in the world, people the hampton inn struggle to live on $18 a month if they re lucky. Food rationing, supplies hard to come by, and isolation have created a unique people with their own social mores. the hampton inn When Alysia s money is stolen by the family she is lodging with a family of doctors no one is surprised and the police just shrug. Destitute and homeless, Alysia is helped by a doctor, Camila, who finds her a new place to live an illegal setup in a country where everything is regulated by the government but where everyone is forced to do whatever the hampton inn they can for some extra cash.
And so Alysia does what so many others in the country do, including her friend Camila: the oldest job in the world. But in Cuba, as Camila explains, it s not prostitution. the hampton inn It s an art form. Like the courtesans and geishas of cultures mostly long gone, being a jinetera is about being sexy, intelligent, a good listener, socially adept and, yes, great in bed. The remittances from these foreigners women as well as men is the biggest source of income in the economy, bigger than tourism. It is a serious profession, with some women and men doing it full-time and others, like Camila, doing it to supplement their legitimate income.
Alysia is not good at being a jinetera , but she gets a bit of money along the way, enough to pay her rent and the many bribes the hampton inn she has to pay to people to help her find her father. Along the way, over the course of the year, she learns more about her homeland, the country where she was born, and tries to understand it through her American-cultured eyes. So that when she does finally meet her real father, the decision of whether to stay in Cuba or return the hampton inn to America becomes the toughest of all.
This novel began life as an online series called Havana Honey at Salon.com and it does have a tendency to read as the primary textbook-disguised-as-chicklit (or vice versa?) for young affluent white American the hampton inn women studying Cuban Culture 101. But to dismiss it as such would be to ignore its many positives. Either a novel with a journalistic bent or a freelance journalism piece presented as a novel, the hampton inn it is highly readable and plenty educational as well as being a good if at times cliched story. What Wixon lacks in terms of original prose or fresh characters she makes up for in many other ways.
First of all, it will teach you the non-Cuban, probably white, western reader about modern-day Cuba, or Cuba in the mid two thousands anyway, before the hampton inn the embargo was sort-of lifted in 2009. Wixon doesn t smother you in history but parcels out fascinating bits here and there that provide context and enlightenment for what Alysia is experiencing. And because the story is told through Alysia s eyes and in her voice, it is of course a white, affluent, western perspective on this unique country. I was worried that, being written by an American, it would be judgemental or, on the flip side, too romantic. It is neither. It doesn t pass judgement, and while it is sympathetic towards the hampton inn Cuban citizens, it neither dramatises their everyday lives nor glosses over unsavoury facts, or ignores the positives. (There is drama though, lots of it, and it can come across as a bit overly-dramatic because of the writing: the hampton inn this is Wixon s debut novel, so I cut her some slack. the hampton inn It s too entertaining to quibble over the way it s written.)
And there are many positives about Cuba. It leads the world in many areas, especially health care and education (I myself attended a presentation by a leading Canadian expert, Dr Fraser Mustard recently passed away, sadly on early child development and the need to combine free health care with free education from before birth), and contributed hugely to music and other aspects of culture the world over. But it has also suffered. It is worth noting that Wixon never mentions Castro (either of them), never talks in broader terms about the government, only in the context of the effect on the people Alysia meets, and for the impact on her. America s invasion of Iraq, for example, which occurs during Alysia s year in Cuba (2005), comes up a few times, because this is also a country of highly politicised people.
In the context of the jockeys , or jinetera , the broader economic and political context of the country is hugely relevant. It is a matter of survival, and no one looks down on a jinetera or labels the hampton inn them sluts . Take her friend Camila, a heart surgeon:
in her teens and twenties, [she] entertained foreign dignitaries at the behest of her government. [As] a reward for her success and beauty and brilliance, and upon finishing medical school, [she] was granted the prestigious position as head of the renowned heart institute. And with it, continued access to foreign men.
Camilla talks about [receiving] regular remittances from sometimes handsome but always wealthy the hampton inn suitors abroad. About the countless marriage proposals she s turned down to stay in her country, with her family. To continue la lucha . The struggle.
Camila graduated top of her class. She speaks five languages. Dignitaries from Mexico and South America and the Middle East subject their hearts to her expertise in medical matters and those of love.
[...] The modern-day courtesans in Cuba, and most particularly in Havana, speak foreign tongues and hold respected degrees. In a society that praises a woman s sexual talents and beauty, and makes no judgement on the trading of those for money, the Cuban courtesan the jinetera lures the most discriminating men in the world.
[...] Prostitutes accept pay for one night, she says with a dismissive wave. Jineteras use their education and skills to weave fantasies of love. Our eyes meet in the reflection the hampton inn of the mirror. Never forget that distinction. [pp57-8]
It s fascinating, the complexity of a country where doctors, lawyer, architects, engineers and others who, in western countries, are at the top earning range, earn next to nothing in Cuba mostly because of the trade embargo, so that there s no money to pay doctor s salaries, there are no buildings to be built or wealthy clients to defend at court. In fact, it is the maids and bartenders who earn the most and have the sought-after jobs.
El Floridita s barkeeps have the snappiest job in Havana and are paid far better than engineers or lawyers. Leonel and Chico both hold PhDs in engineering, and practiced their trade for several years before being rewarded with the lusted-after slots as rum pullers. Hotel maids, tour guides, and taxi drivers are, in fact, the best-paid legal professions in the country. Many who hold them consider themselves the hampton inn lucky, and have typically given up previous careers in accounting, management, and dentistry. [p.153]
It is a country of contradictions and polar opposites, and Alysia is vividly aware that her North American upbringing hasn t prepared her to understand these many shades of grey that are constantly in flux. I m unaccustomed to the Latin way, that idea that opposing beliefs can be held simultaneously, in one human heart, the hampton inn without a need for settlement. [p.101] Alysia brings with her a whole shitload of American white, privileged mores, the hampton inn expectations and values much like the book s readers. Forced to do the one thing her upbringing has taught her to feel immense guilt and shame for just in order to survive and fulfil her quest, her journey, to find her father, it is like stripping her of everything familiar and drenching her in the truth of what it means to be really Cuban, the hampton inn not just pretending the hampton inn at it (though there are times, like when there s no more toilet paper for sale, that she uses her U.S. passport to go to the hotel bathroom, reserved for tourists).
In my own country, in my social circles back home, broadcasting one s sexuality with provocative dress or demeanor is frowned upon, as is an aggressive chasing of men. These things happen, of course, but where I come from, the art is in the subtleties. In Cuba, I m adjusting to the extremes. Men are expected to be men , and women are