Last dance in Havana

Tom Miller

Sublette leaves nothing out, even making the outlandishly logical suggestion that Elvis Presley's early music and movies were derivative of Cuban culture. There have been few, if any, social and political developments in Cuba, he implies, that have not been inextricably related to music and its diffusion. The musicians who created the extraordinary sounds emanating from the island during the last five centuries are the true heroes of Cuba and Its Music. It ranks with works on the same theme by Alejo Carpentier and Helio Orovio.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

The old-time Cuban Buena Vista Social Club may have won riches and international fame with its surprise hit recording and documentary film, but life under Fidel Castro remains a struggle for most of the group's compatriots. This is the story of bands that play in Cuba, hoping to score audiences of foreign tourists or the few Cubans who can cough up a $10 cover charge. This account places life on the island against the backdrop of music, dance and racial politics, and shows how culture is political in Cuba-and for the U.S. officials who control entry visas. Robinson, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, commits two sins common to journalists: an overabundance of taxi drivers' opinions and of accounts of himself taking notes. He also has an annoying tic of referring to the "Carnegie Hall of Cuba," to the "Li'l Bow Wow of Cuba," the "Juilliard of the Caribbean," the "Justin Timberlake of...": you get the picture. But Robinson makes up for that by conveying the energy of, and his passion for, the island, its music and the players. He does an excellent job of recounting how Cuba's hip-hop scene has challenged the regime, getting away with what nobody had until one band finally crossed the line. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn. (July 12) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Age will soon accomplish what the anti-Castro movements have failed to do in Castro's nearly 45 years in power-effect a regime change. The future of Cuba is the backdrop for this fascinating and unusual look inside Cuban life and culture by Robinson (Washington Post). As he roams Havana and interviews musicians, politicians, and ordinary people, Robinson finds lingering appreciation for Castro's triumphs, disgust at the failures of the revolution, and great concern about what will happen after Castro is gone. He also finds some hope beneath the surface, in what he calls the cultural defiance of hip-hop music in the small clubs of Havana. The richest writing here comes from reporting on the importance of music and dance in Cuban life. Robinson even finds some admirable traits in Castro, despite years of fear and repression: "Fidel's brilliance is that...he leads and seduces not just with skill but with emotion as well." A useful complement to such recent books as Volker Skierka's Fidel Castro: A Biography, this book is recommended for all libraries.-Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An African-American journalist travels through Cuba, returning with news that, while the glory days of socialism are gone, Castro and company are very much in charge. "After forty-four years," writes Washington Post editor Robinson, "Fidel is still in firm control of Cuba. He faces no serious challenge." Meantime, the Cuban people make music, dance, and worship ancestral gods brought from Africa and blended with Christian traditions to make a religion quite specific to the island; as Robinson writes, this mixture "allowed the slaves to pray to the orishas in a way that their Spanish overlords not only had to tolerate, but encourage. They probably knew . . . that the slaves who came to the churches to pray so fervently before the statues of the Virgin Mary were in fact praying to a sultry black demigoddess who would help them find their way in affairs of love." Foreigners-Italians, Canadians, and visitors from other nations not strapped by America's longstanding prohibition against free travel to Cuba-bring money and ideas, soak up the atmosphere of storied venues like the Tropical Club, and return with CDs, rum, and cigars, but rarely anything more untoward. (Fidel once remarked that if there were to be prostitutes in Cuba, they would be "the healthiest and best-educated prostitutes in the world.") Those who perforce remain on the island have weathered a long economic crisis brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of its financial support, and, writes Robinson, are now discovering that long-dormant inequalities are returning, since most of the money sent to the island by expatriates comes from whites and goes to whites. What's to come from all this hardship?Perhaps a peaceful transition to a new government, once Fidel shuffles off the mortal coil; perhaps harder times as doctrinaire Communists vie for leadership. Indifferently written, but full of sharp observations on modern Cuba-for policymakers and travelers alike. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn/Sagalyn Literary Agency