Cuba in American pop culture
 

I'm getting ready to write a paper on images of Cuba in American pop culture for a conference in Havana this summer. I've been focusing mainly on popular fiction with a sidebar on pop music (Buena Vista) and some pop film (Havana w/Bob Redford mainly).

Here's my list of pop novels on Cuba. If you have any additions, please let me know. (Caveat: I'm interested in novels written by Americans and popular fiction - - i.e. neither Dirty Havana Trilogy nor Before Night Falls is on the list, though I've been collecting stuff on the reception/reviews of BNF. Also, I've been avoiding fiction by Cuban-Americans - - that's a subgenre of its own - - Ana Garcia, Oscar Hijuelos, Jose Latour, etc.)

Lia Matera, Havana Twist
Elmore Leonard, Cuba Libre
John Blackthorn (aka Gary Hart), I Che Guevara
Marilyn Quayle and Nancy Northcott, Embrace the Serpent
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Havana Heat
Martin Cruz Smith, Havana Bay
Randy Wayne White, North of Havana
John Lantigua, Ultimate Havana
William F. Buckley, Jr., See You Later Alligator
James Coltrane, A Good Day to Die
Pico Iyer, Cuba and the Night
Jim DeFelice, Havana Strike
Margaret Truman, A Murder in Havana
Tim Wendell, Castro's Curveball

Separately, Ben Corbett's This Is Cuba and some other older travelogues (Codrescu, Tom Miller, Chris Hunt, etc.).

A couple of quick notes: Quayle's novel is a hoot, probably more for its vision of the unholy alliance of American media, politicos, and shadowy international conspirators than anything about Cuba; the question of post-Castro Cuba is a major theme in the novels - - with most conjuring up some kind of Cuban Thomas Jefferson to lead the Cuban people to free markets, mass media, and democracy; there is also an interesting theme of lost or forgotten treasure - - folks returning to Cuba to rescue lost objects - - ranging from Unicorn tapestries to biomedical research to Hemingway's Cadillac. Oddly, the book with the most interesting take on Cuba for my money is Margaret Truman's - - it's the most contemporary vision and the one that points to Cuba less as timeless gem/wasteland and more as evolving, globally connected developing nation. Pico Iyer's is the most romantic of the novels.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Re: Cuba in American pop culture
 

For a truly trashy novel - Stephen Coonts "Cuba".

The heroes are two brothers - a politicised priest and a star baseball player - another brother is finance minister, and their sister-in-law is Castro's mistress. *(What a family, hey ?)

It's not very well written either.

Re: Cuba in American pop culture
 

Yeah, I forgot to include that on the list. I read the Coonts novel . . . a weird mix of Dynasty and Tom Clancy . . . or something. The priest-leader figure is familiar from the other pop novels - - the saintly savior of post-Castro Cuba. Didn't the Coonts novel also feature the hapless Cuban MIG pilot who spends most of his time drinking rum and itching for a dogfight? If you think Coonts' novel was badly written, I dare you to self-flagellate yourself with the Marilyn Quayle novel . . ..

Re: Cuba in American pop culture
 

But the drunken MIG pilot still managed to shoot down a US plane.

Re: Cuba in American pop culture
 

For your pop music sidebar, don't forget Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon".

Twyla Tharp set a piece to it in the early 80's.

I don't know if the song on the Santana album carrying the same name is a cover.