America’s nostalgia for a Cuba that no longer exists

{"text":[[{"start":6.45,"text":"In Havana, the pastel facades are faded and crumbling: in Miami, they are plastic."}],[{"start":12.5,"text":"Many of the immigrant communities in South Florida hold festivals to celebrate their cultural heritage but the Cubans go a little further than most. For one weekend every year, the Miami-Dade County Fair Center is transformed into a replica of central Havana. The city’s famous streetscapes are recreated on large sheets suspended from the ceiling which bear photographs of the original. "}],[{"start":37.7,"text":"You can walk from Havana Cathedral at one end, along the Paseo del Prado which was once lined with elegant boutiques and theatres, past El Floridita bar where Ernest Hemingway used to hold court, to the Club Tropicana where bands played late into the night. "}],[{"start":54.300000000000004,"text":"Even the name of the festival hints at an unusually intense emotional relationship: Cuba Nostalgia."}],[{"start":62.400000000000006,"text":"At a time when Havana is falling apart at the seams, the streets lined with uncollected garbage, and US pressure on the communist regime mounting by the day, the Miami festival is a window into the worldview of the American-Cuban community. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":77.25,"text":"Political debate in Miami is still dominated by fierce and strident anti-Castroism. Last month, prosecutors unveiled murder charges against Raúl Castro over the gunning-down of two civilian aircraft 30 years ago — to the delight of many of the leading voices among the Cuban community. "}],[{"start":96.05,"text":"Little of that rancour was on display at Cuba Nostalgia. There were few political statements other than a 1957 Oldsmobile painted in the Stars and Stripes and the slogan “Freedom for Cuba”. José Hernández was the only person I saw wearing a “Make Cuba Great Again” hat. We talked while waiting in the queue at Mr Pork Belly for chicharrón, bite-size pieces of deep-fried, crispy pork — the devil’s cholesterol. He said it was “amazing news, not before time” that Castro was to be indicted. But even this was said more in weariness than anger."}],[{"start":129.9,"text":"Yet if politics was in the background, the emotional architecture behind that sense of bitterness was everywhere. Havana is recreated as a pristine idyll, a paradise that was lost with the revolution. "}],[{"start":142.15,"text":"In previous years, a large map laid out on the floor allowed parents and grandparents to show younger members of the family where they used to live. This is the narrative that has sustained the Miami diaspora for nearly seven decades — that if only the Castros could be ejected, all would be restored."}],[{"start":160.95000000000002,"text":"One of the plastic facades was for Havana’s Cine Payret, a beautiful art deco building. Inside, they showed documentaries about musical stars of that era, including tunes later included in the Buena Vista Social Club, the 1990s album that prompted a global wave of nostalgia for a certain idea of Cuba."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":180.00000000000003,"text":"Mario Alvarez, a 27-year-old who moved to the Miami area after Covid, was looking quizzically at the building. He had spent time in Havana as a student but said he did not remember the Payret. We looked it up online to see that the cinema closed down in 2008. "}],[{"start":195.65000000000003,"text":"Cuban-American leaders often refer to themselves as an exile community, rather than immigrants — a gesture of political defiance against the regime that carries the suggestion that Florida is just a temporary home."}],[{"start":208.00000000000003,"text":"Beneath the surface, however, Cuba Nostalgia is really a celebration of the Miami Good Life. One shop was selling luxury handbags made from Cohiba cigar boxes. Others were promoting dental implants and insurance for boats — the ultimate South Florida status symbol. One of the most popular attractions was a giant image of Havana’s waterfront, the Malecón. It was sponsored by a local health insurer advertising its plan for Medicare Advantage."}],[{"start":235.00000000000003,"text":"Marisol Cabrera, whose parents migrated in the 1960s, was waiting in line to take a photo in front of the Malecón. She said that a cousin once returned to see family during the brief Obama interlude, when relations between the two countries were semi-normalised, but that she had never been interested."}],[{"start":252.65000000000003,"text":"Would she be tempted if the Castro regime were to fall tomorrow? “I am going to be honest, I don’t know anyone who would go back,” she said. “Things are just so much better here.” "}],[{"start":268.05,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780976190_8346.mp3"}