Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2016

An Englishman in Havana (from my book, Life On Mars)

View from Coco Cab Havana. Photograph copyright  © Darcie Goldberg www.darciegoldberg.com When the Rolling Stones played their historic concert in Havana on Friday , it marked, for many Cubans, a major turning point: “This will be one of those weeks that people will use to measure other events. In the future, they’ll ask, was it before or after the Stones played,” predicted Tania Livia, a businesswoman attending the concert. “This is the biggest moment in my life,” said tattooed club owner Ferrer Castillo, who had travelled 200km by bus and taxi to see his heroes. (Quoted in the Guardian article, Pleased to meet you: Rolling Stones treat Cuba to spectacular and historic gig ) Likewise, President Barack Obama's visit of the preceding days - the first by a sitting United States president since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928 - underlined the huge changes in the US-Cuba relationship that Obama's policy toward Cuba has brought about: “Obama is doing this no