When my friend and former student Raymond Hall (que en paz descanse) suggested that we travel together to a conference in Cuba in the summer of 2000, I was already out the door. Any Latin Americanist, and especially, any student of music in Latin America, is necessarily as well a Cubanist. The conference wasn’t that hot, so Raymond and I spent a week in July getting to know the people, sights, and sounds of La Habana, Matanzas, and Santiago. Highlights of the trip? Cerveza Crystal; hanging out with our friends, Henry and Carlos and their families, in La Habana Vieja; dancing to the orisha in Havana and Matanzas; experiencing Cuba’s carnival on the streets of Santiago; and soaking in the wonderful sounds of Sol y Son, a Santiago band. With my camera and tape recorder in hand, I was able to document a small fragment of the folkloric spectacle that is Cuba today.
I had the opportunity to weave these experiences into a talk I did at the Indiana University Emeriti House in 2012, titled “Music in the Shadow of the Cuban Revolution.”
Santiago Street Music
Scenes of Cuba
