History of Havana

This is a popular social history of Havana from its founding in 1519 to the present.   The authors explain what it has been like to live in Havana physically, socially, culturally, emotionally and economically. Crafting a narrative of the city’s history from individual characters, literature, popular culture, and recurring landmarks and neighborhoods, the authors draw on scholarship from both sides of the Florida Straits.   Particular attention is paid to the love-hate relationship between the Cuban capital and the U.S. This vision of Havana ’s life story brings alive the dramatic breaks in the city’s history alongside all the aspects of its personality that have remained the same.    

Dick Cluster is the author of the novels Return to Sender, Repulse Monkey, and Obligations of the Bone. He landed in Havana’s José Martí airport for the first time in 1969 and has been fascinated by the city ever since, exploring it by foot, bicycle, city bus, tour bus, camel bus, car, and other means. Rafael Hernández is the editor of Temas , a Cuban quarterly in the field of history, culture, economics, and politics.  

"History of Havana by Rafael Hernández and Dick Cluster invites general readers to enter and experience modern-day Havana as the product of its past. They will find a city whose citizens developed and changed in moments of revelry and times of crisis, responding to local history and world history, and making history as well. This diverse population negotiated when possible, fought when required, and sought to imagine and sustain revolutionary visions and life-ways of new men and women."