An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba

Ruth Behar

Rutgers University Press, 2007 - Biography & Autobiography - 297 pages

Yiddish-speaking Jews thought Cuba was supposed to be a mere layover on the journey to the United States when they arrived in the island country in the 1920s. They even called it "Hotel Cuba." But then the years passed, and the many Jews who came there from Turkey, Poland, and war-torn Europe stayed in Cuba. The beloved island ceased to be a hotel, and Cuba eventually became "home." But after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the majority of the Jews opposed his communist regime and left in a mass exodus. Though they remade their lives in the United States, they mourned the loss of the Jewish community they had built on the island.

As a child of five, Ruth Behar was caught up in the Jewish exodus from Cuba. Growing up in the United States, she wondered about the Jews who stayed behind. Who were they and why had they stayed? What traces were left of the Jewish presence, of the cemeteries, synagogues, and Torahs? Who was taking care of this legacy? What Jewish memories had managed to survive the years of revolutionary atheism?

An Island Called Home is the story of Behar's journey back to the island to find answers to these questions. Unlike the exotic image projected by the American media, Behar uncovers a side of Cuban Jews that is poignant and personal. Her moving vignettes of the individuals she meets are coupled with the sensitive photographs of Havana-based photographer Humberto Mayol, who traveled with her.

Together, Behar's poetic and compassionate prose and Mayol's shadowy and riveting photographs create an unforgettable portrait of a community that many have seen though few have understood. This book is the first to show both the vitality and the heartbreak that lie behind the project of keeping alive the flame of Jewish memory in Cuba.

Reader Guide (http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages/behar_reader_guide.aspx)

Contents

• Blessings for the Dead: 39
• Cemeteries in Cuba and for Raquels Mother: 45
• Havana: 57
• The Dancing Turk: 108
• May Day with a Jewish Communist: 120
• The Whispering Writer: 126
• The Three Things José Martí Said All Real Men Must Do: 129
• Einstein in Havana: 133
• Salomón the Schnorrer: 138
• Mr Fishers TwiceYearly Gifts: 141
• Becoming Ruth Berezniak: 145
• After Everyone Has Left: 150
• The Ketubah That Became a Passport: 153
• When I See You Again There Will Be No Pain or Forgetting: 158
• Traces 23 Traces: 163
• In the Provinces 24 Simboulitas Parakeet: 173
• Seven Jewish Weddings in Camagüey: 179
• Che Waits for a New Frame: 183
• Pearls Left in Cienfuegos: 187
• The Moses of Santa Clara: 193
• A Conversation Next to El Mamey: 202
• Villa Elisa: 204
• Shalom to Cuba: 235
• My Room on Bitterness Street: 245
• How This Book Came to Be a Photojourney: 257
• Chronology: 265
• Notes: 279
• Acknowledgments: 289
• About the Author and Photographer: 299

About the author

RUTH BEHAR is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellows award, she is the author of The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart and director of the documentary, Adio Kerida (Goodbye Dear Love). Ruth's website is www.ruthbehar.com. HUMBERTO MAYOL is an award-winning photographer living in Havana, Cuba. His work has been widely exhibited in Cuba, the United States, Europe, and Latin America.

Bibliographic information

• Title: An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba
• Author: Ruth Behar
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0813541891, 9780813541891
• Length: 297 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Hispanic & Latino; Biography & Autobiography / General; Biography & Autobiography / Jewish; History / Caribbean & West Indies / Cuba; Photography / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General; Social Science / Anthropology / General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Hispanic American Studies; Social Science / Jewish Studies