HAVANA ?La Habana
by Nancy Stout and Jorge Rigau

Rizzolli, 1994
English and Spanish
ISBN 0-8478-1782-2

Havana: vibrant center of the Antilles, land of famous hotels and nightclubs, city of lush colors and eclectic architecture, oasis of tropical beaches and royal palm trees, host to Hemingway and many others writers-and most recently, home of Castro and the Communist dictatorship that has closed it to most Americans for decades. Photographer Nancy Stout and writer Jorge Rigau have taken several trips to Cuba to create their deeply affectionate but realist portrait of this most beautiful and magical of Caribbean cities. They have come back with a wealth of photographs and information that appears for first time in this book.

Their personal tour of Havana visits its daily rituals and activities: an open-air dance rehearsal, habaneros enjoying their favorite view from the Malecón sea wall, crowds waiting outside restaurants and cafés, distinctive and individualized house and apartment interiors, the Chinese section of the city, graffiti artfully painted on walls or scratched into iron fences. They also visit the important local monuments, like the lush Tropical Beer Gardens, the tree-lined Paseo del Prado boulevard, and the evocative and poignant Columbus Cemetery. In all of these, the unique fusion of city and nature that characterizes Havana in ever present.

These travels through Havana's neighborhoods depict the city's architecture and urban planning. The Spanish-colonial architecture of local churches and fortifications, the many styles borrowed from the dominant foreign cultures of Europe and North America as seen in the presidential palace and the university, the academic classicism of houses for the local elite, the ornamentation inspired by European baroque and rococo, the art nouveau and the art deco houses and institutions, the International Style housing, the amalgam of many different aesthetics in El Tropicana nightclub-all form a catalog of the myriad styles of Havana. And the special elements that personalize all buildings-delicate mampara doors, beautifully crafted ceramic tiles, brilliantly colored stained glass-are featured prominently. Always at the fore is the singular blending of European traditions with Cuban characteristics-typical not only of the architecture but of the whole city.

from the book cover