Naked in Havana Read Free

you’re not carrying a flame for that boy? Because I’m telling you now, this girl is getting a bad bargain-- he only cares about one thing, and that’s money.”
    “Oh, Papi! I don’t care who he marries. It just seems a shame, that’s all. I’m glad you’re not like that to make me marry someone I didn’t love.”
    “I don’t care who you marry. I just want you to be happy, cariña . And I’ll tell you this, you’d never be happy with a boy like that. I’d never let you marry a Macheda, and they’d never let him marry you.”
    “Why? We’re old blood, just like them.”
    “They’re hardly old blood; they’re from Argentina. They only got here a hundred years ago. Their ears are still wet.”
    “So why aren’t I good enough for him?”
    “Good enough? That has nothing to do with it, cariña. Angel’s father wants to get out of Cuba, and the best way is to marry his son to a wealthy American girl, like Esmeralda Salvatore.”
    I screwed up my nose. ““Esmeralda,” is that her name? It will never last.”
    “Because her name’s Esmeralda?”
    I almost said: “because can you imagine shouting: “Esmeralda!” in bed?” Four syllables. Angel wouldn’t have time to shout her whole name before it was all over. But I bit my tongue just in time. Instead, I said: “Esmeralda is an unlucky name.”
    “Well it’s unlucky for her, if you ask my opinion.”
    I was feeling so angry and humiliated it didn’t hit me straight away. But then I realised what Papi had said. “They’re leaving Cuba?”
    “They’ve sold their house; he only got half what it’s worth. He’s bought an apartment in Miami. Can you imagine living in an apartment? What kind of life is that?”
    “What’s in it for Esmeralda’s father then?”
    “You’re like the son I never had,” he said, admiring my calculation. “It’s like this: they’re both hedging their bets. Angel’s father has an option in America if things go bad here. If things carry on like they are, Salvatore gets half of his casino in Marianao.”
    “If things go bad?”
    “There’s a lot of frightened people in Havana these days, they worry about what will happen if Batista goes.”
    “What do you think will happen?”
    “The same thing that happened when the last president was thrown out. We get a new dictator and carry on like we did before. It doesn’t matter whether they have a beard and a green uniform or wear a suit with a gardenia in the buttonhole. If it’s power they want, they’ll stop at nothing to get it, and that’s their political position. Why shouldn’t we have a president who wears a forage cap? I think it will make a refreshing change.”
    “Would you ever leave Havana, Papi?”
    “Why would I leave? We’ve been here for three hundred years. Our blood is in this country, there’s a dozen generations of our family buried here. I’m not like Macheda, I can’t walk away from the country that made me what I am.” He patted my knee. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.” He stood up. “Now I’m going to get ready for dinner. The smells from the kitchen are making me hungry.”
    I waited until he had gone upstairs to his room before I stopped smiling. It was making my face hurt. I saw Maria watching me from the kitchen. She knew, of course; not the details, but a woman knows when another woman is lying.
    I got up and went outside. The afternoon humidity was suffocating. There had been a brief shower during the afternoon; I remembered hearing the shutters bang in the wind while I was making love to Angel. But now it had passed, it only made the air feel even hotter.
    Luis was polishing the car in the shade of the ceiba tree that dominated the driveway. He had stripped off his shirt, and his black muscles gleamed with sweat.
    He had the car radio tuned to Radio Rebelde, and when he saw me he looked up guiltily and quickly tuned it to another channel. He frowned and stopped what he was doing, the polishing