Next Year In Havana

After an uneventful flight to Havana, Marisol lands. She is expecting to be greeted by Ana, the next-door neighbor who was Elisa’s best friend before the Perez family left Cuba. Ana is ill, so Luis, Ana’s grandson, meets Marisol instead. Marisol finds him to be handsome. He is a university professor of history, and his blatant criticism of the inequality he sees in Cuba surprises Marisol.

As they drive to the Rodriguez household (now turned into a paladar, a house-based restaurant and inn for rich tourists), Luis points out the decay and lack of infrastructure of post-revolutionary Cuba. Marisol sees the city as beautiful but also notices these signs of decay. She also feels disoriented because Havana is so similar to her hometown of Miami. They arrive at the Rodriguez house. Marisol takes a long look at the house where the Perez family once lived, but it is occupied by a Russian diplomat who is out of town at the moment; she won’t get the chance to look inside. Despite never having been to Cuba before, all the exposure to her Cuban culture growing up makes her feel at home. 

Back in 1958, the Perez family is hearing news of the departure of President Batista and the successes of the Cuban revolutionaries under the leadership of Fidel Castro. The Perez family, especially the girls, is insulated from much of this upheaval because they are rich, but even they feel some restlessness as they hear about the revolution. It is perhaps for this reason that Elisa, Isabel, and Beatriz (the rebellious beauty of the family) agree to sneak out of the house to go to a party attended by people outside of their family circle. The party is hosted by Guillermo, a family acquaintance. Elisa meets a handsome man, one dressed in off-the-rack clothes that members of Elisa’s social class would never wear. His name is Pablo. The two dance. At some point, the man realizes Elisa is tipsy, so they step outside for some air.

Once Pablo and Elisa step outside to walk on the waterfront on the Malecón (the seaside boulevard), sexual tension between the two immediately rises because they are away from the crowd. Elisa is self-conscious because being an affluent girl alone with a man (and one so obviously not of her class) is risqué. As Elisa listens to the sounds of distant explosions, she considers that women of her class are being trained for a life that is fast disappearing; rich girls like her are still taught to be wary of men like Pablo, however.

The couple engages in banter about their different social classes, but Elisa feels a bolt of dangerous attraction when Pablo fastens a loose button on her dress. Pablo tells Elisa that he lives in the surrounding neighborhood (not a very good one), is a lawyer, and is 30; she tells Pablo that she lives in the exclusive Miramar enclave and is 19. Although Pablo eventually puts a little physical distance between the two of them, Elisa is so drawn to him that she flirts even more overtly. The two agree to meet again at the waterfront.

From her room window, Marisol sees the tables have been set up for guests at the restaurant. Marisol is pleasantly surprised when Luis begins playing a classic tune by Cuban singer Celia Cruz on a saxophone. Marisol gets dressed and heads down to the kitchen. Ana greets her and brushes off Marisol’s offer to help in the kitchen. Marisol gratefully accepts a plate of food and tells Ana that she is in Cuba to spread Elisa’s ashes, but Elisa did not specify a location. Ana suggests the old Perez home next door might be what Elisa intended for her resting place. Marisol helps Ana wash dishes and shares what Elisa’s life was like in Miami, especially her grief when her husband died after 40 years of marriage.

After some awkward interactions with the other members of the household—Luis’s mother and his wife, Cristina—Marisol sits in the kitchen until Ana returns to the kitchen with a wooden box that belonged to Elisa. Ana rescued it from the Perez backyard after the Russians moved in. Ana did so at Elisa’s request; Elisa was concerned that the contents would fall into the wrong hands. Ana warns Elisa not to judge Elisa too harshly based on what is in the box: Elisa was just a 19-year-old girl when she fled Cuba. Marisol takes the box to her room. The box contains old letters, a stunning emerald and diamond ring that fits Marisol perfectly, and some bits and trinkets (a petal from a white rose, a Chinese restaurant matchbook, and a map) that seemingly have no monetary value. Marisol begins to read the letters. 

Back in 1959, it is the next day, and Elisa is on her way to meet Pablo secretly. She is scandalized and excited by her own actions. Pablo greets Elisa with a white rose, and despite fearing that someone may see her, Elisa walks along the Malecón with Pablo. There is such an attraction between them that the air around them “crackles with energy” (64). That tension is not just about the two of them, however. Although life for people like Elisa is seemingly going on without a hitch, the city has daily explosions and attacks that make it clear that the revolution is steaming ahead. Pablo tells Marisol he saw her on the society pages; he knows who she is now. She tells him a brutal truth: She can never see him again because he is not a suitable man of her class. His subsequent conversation makes it clear he is a passionate, committed revolutionary. Elisa is a pragmatic woman. At 19 and with no marketable skills, she knows being disowned by her family would leave her with no options. Elisa finds herself attempting to explain the difficult place in which a woman of her class finds herself.

Elisa tells Pablo that she is aware of how unfair it is that she has so much and other people so little; nevertheless, the Revolution has an impact on her family because her brother, Alejandro, is estranged from the family because of his opposition to Batista. The Perez family tried early on to support a more just government, but opposing Batista is so dangerous now. Elisa also explains that the patriarchal expectation that she will simply move from her father’s house to her husband’s makes her own situation one in which rebellion seems unimaginable. Elisa loses her heart to Pablo at the end of this scene. Swept away by his passionate argument for a better Cuba and his admiration for Elisa’s small rebellions, Elisa shares a kiss with Pablo. This act makes her feel more in control of her own destiny.