Snow in Havana
by Jilliana
Ranicar-Breese
My love and
interest in Cuba began 25 years ago after I had
heard the music of the Cuban bolero and seen the
movie ‘Buena Vista Social Club’. Then
read a book from the library called ‘Snow in
Havana’ telling of the history of Cuba and
its musical origins. There was mention of rumba
dancing on a Sunday morning in Calle Hamel,
Havana and ‘The blue huron’ on a
Wednesday evening at 7.00. I had to go to Havana.
Fate intervened. I went to a local fair in
Brighton on Hove lawns when I saw a stand
enticing people to join the Cuban society of the
UK and to subscribe to their monthly magazine.
Suddenly a leaflet floated into my path and lay
trodden on the lawn.
I picked it up and saw it advertised a guided eco
10 day eco-trip to Cuba. I had to go. A decision
that changed my life forever.
When the tour in Havana finished on a Wednesday,
I took a taxi to ‘The blue huron’, paid
the tourist price of five dollars but found it
was so crowded with locals that it was impossible
to sit down.
A woman was watching me and beckoned me over to
the brick wall she was sitting on. It was as if
she was waiting for me. She spoke not a word of
English so I had an excuse to speak my halting
Spanish. Her name was Amalia and her 16 year old
Americanised daughter, dancing the rhumba, was
called Ingrid. That was the start of a life long
friendship with Ingrid who is forty today in 2024
and living happily in Florida with her mother,
husband, a son of six and a baby daughter of one
named after me!
This is my extended family.
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