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Havana Dreams: A Story of a Cuban Family
A fascinating, powerfully evocative story of four generations of Cuban women, through whose lives the author illuminates a vivid picture--both personal and historical--of Cuba in our century.
"When I want to read a culture," writes Wendy Gimbel in her prologue, "I listen to stories about families, sensing in their contours the substance of larger mysteries." And certainly in the Revuelta family she has found a source of both mystery and revelation.
At its center is born in 1925, educated in the United States, a socialite during the Batista era, who after marriage to a prominent doctor and the birth of a daughter became intoxicated with Castro and his revolution (here, published for the first time, are the letters they exchanged while he was in jail). Though her husband and daughter immigrated to the United States after Castro's victory, Naty remained in Cuba to raise her second child, Castro's unacknowledged daughter, only to be ultimately confronted by his dismissive, withering "Naty missed the train." Her two daughters, one of whom settles well into life in America, while the other never recovers from her father's intransigent repudiation of her; her granddaughter, who Naty desperately believes will return to Cuba when--not if--Castro is removed from the island; and her mother, an unregenerate these are the lives that complete this extraordinary story.
Each of the women is irrevocably marked with a part of the island's terrible and poignant tale, and Wendy Gimbel has created a rich and intense narrative of their lives and times. Havana Dreams leaves us with an indelible impression of familial obligation and illicit love; of the heady but doomed romanticism of revolution; and of the profound consequences of Cuba's contemporary history for the ordinary and most intimate lives of its people.
"When I want to read a culture," writes Wendy Gimbel in her prologue, "I listen to stories about families, sensing in their contours the substance of larger mysteries." And certainly in the Revuelta family she has found a source of both mystery and revelation.
At its center is born in 1925, educated in the United States, a socialite during the Batista era, who after marriage to a prominent doctor and the birth of a daughter became intoxicated with Castro and his revolution (here, published for the first time, are the letters they exchanged while he was in jail). Though her husband and daughter immigrated to the United States after Castro's victory, Naty remained in Cuba to raise her second child, Castro's unacknowledged daughter, only to be ultimately confronted by his dismissive, withering "Naty missed the train." Her two daughters, one of whom settles well into life in America, while the other never recovers from her father's intransigent repudiation of her; her granddaughter, who Naty desperately believes will return to Cuba when--not if--Castro is removed from the island; and her mother, an unregenerate these are the lives that complete this extraordinary story.
Each of the women is irrevocably marked with a part of the island's terrible and poignant tale, and Wendy Gimbel has created a rich and intense narrative of their lives and times. Havana Dreams leaves us with an indelible impression of familial obligation and illicit love; of the heady but doomed romanticism of revolution; and of the profound consequences of Cuba's contemporary history for the ordinary and most intimate lives of its people.
248 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 23, 2012
This book is written about my family and it's an accurate account of our history. Herbert Clews was my great-grandfather. I only wish I could've met him, he was a great man.
January 10, 2017
Well written, well thought out account of a Havana that was and what the Revolution did to one family closely connected to the island's power brokers. A tale of bourgeois insensibility on the one hand and the difficult times that developed once the tyrant Baptista was gone and, according to the book, the tyrant Castro was born. One might not agree with the tenor of the political assessment given throughout, but it is nonetheless a highly readable work that takes us inside Cuba old and new, providing unexpected insights in spite of a certain perhaps unavoidable gossipy quality.
May 23, 2020
An interesting book in which the author, who has family ties to Cuba, returns but rather than writing about her own family history, writes a biography, essentially of Naty Revuelta, confidant and lover of Fidel Castro (for a brief period on his behalf, much longer on hers!), but delves into the rest of her family - her mother Dona Natica, a Batista-era socialite who likes to compare herself to the queen, and Alina Fernandez Revuelta, daughter of Naty and Fidel, who escaped to the USA is disguise, and is actively critical of Castro's regime. The fourth generation is Alina's daughter Mumin.
The book is a relatively easy read, it focusses on a person or an event per chapter, it gives critical appraisal of the stories being told by the three women (who all tell their version of events, which under some scrutiny are, as one might expect, twisted in their favour), although there is little to make these three women particularly inspirational or perhaps even very unique. Perhaps that is a bit harsh, but there is a quote on the cover which promotes this book as A haunting Wild Swans-type interweaving of four female generations in revolution-riven Cuba - for me it doesn't live up to this hype.
A readable 3 stars, probably of particular interest to those with particular interest in Fidel Castro, and the Cuba of his era.
The book is a relatively easy read, it focusses on a person or an event per chapter, it gives critical appraisal of the stories being told by the three women (who all tell their version of events, which under some scrutiny are, as one might expect, twisted in their favour), although there is little to make these three women particularly inspirational or perhaps even very unique. Perhaps that is a bit harsh, but there is a quote on the cover which promotes this book as A haunting Wild Swans-type interweaving of four female generations in revolution-riven Cuba - for me it doesn't live up to this hype.
A readable 3 stars, probably of particular interest to those with particular interest in Fidel Castro, and the Cuba of his era.
August 26, 2016
This is the story of Dona Natica and her daughter and granddaughters. Most of the story is told from the perspective of Dona's daughter Naty set mostly in the city of Havana and all the magic and wonder that was there and many hope will return. It tells the story of the women not hidding their flaws and failures or the consequences. Included are letters of a failed love affair between Naty and Fidel.
What I found most interesting was the dream of communism on the small island of Cuba fell to the same traps in other systems of government that are so often used as justification for revolution. A child of one of the revolutionists that died in the early days of the revolution was elevated to hero status that is so much easier for the dead to maintain. His son was afforded more freedom and privilege than most made the following observations:
“The courts of kings and those of Communist leaders thrive on hierarchies, and position determines privilege. Herein is the decline, the rot, of revolution: a dream of social justice fades, replaced not by idealism but with favoritism. The chosen circle the leader like ravenous vultures.”
“He taught himself to understand patronage, to savor the delicacies offered to the favored, to accept the privileges that attend a fortunate birth.”
“The revolution had grown complacent, self-centered. In the most conventional matters, privilege asserted itself.
w baby chicks for sale. She was "fascinated by how small they were, so easy to crush."
What I found most interesting was the dream of communism on the small island of Cuba fell to the same traps in other systems of government that are so often used as justification for revolution. A child of one of the revolutionists that died in the early days of the revolution was elevated to hero status that is so much easier for the dead to maintain. His son was afforded more freedom and privilege than most made the following observations:
“The courts of kings and those of Communist leaders thrive on hierarchies, and position determines privilege. Herein is the decline, the rot, of revolution: a dream of social justice fades, replaced not by idealism but with favoritism. The chosen circle the leader like ravenous vultures.”
“He taught himself to understand patronage, to savor the delicacies offered to the favored, to accept the privileges that attend a fortunate birth.”
“The revolution had grown complacent, self-centered. In the most conventional matters, privilege asserted itself.
w baby chicks for sale. She was "fascinated by how small they were, so easy to crush."
April 10, 2016
"In the best of times, history is gentle; in Cuba, it has been severe." Although fascinating in its use of memoir and family ethnography to tell the history of Cuba, it is perhaps more interesting (compelling) in its explanation of the exile experience: "The myth of exile runs something like this. When someone goes to live in a foreign country, he can't take enough of the past with him to matter. In his own land, when someone sees him, even for a few minutes, he is more understood than he is in exile after twenty years. Ans so the exile begins to imagine the homeland as paradise and to inhabit it in his dreams. But there is no coming home. Even if the house remains the same, those who there grow and change. A person without a present doesn't exist at all...In resisting change, in arresting the flow of time and circumstance, an exile becomes fractured, a lost soul."
May 2, 2019
I did not like this book. It was too confusing and I was thoroughly disappointed by the author. The summary made me think it was going to be about her family, then I learn it's about a completely different family. I didn't like how biased she was in her views against Fidel. I thought she should've been more objective. She spent way too much time on the historical aspects of things. I think it's important for context, but she got too long-winded. Then she kept inserting herself into the book which I thought did a disservice to these women's stories. Dona Natica was completely racist/prejudice against Black folks and I felt like the author just skimmed over that like it was no big deal. I honestly would've liked a straight forward book about these women and Fidel. No inserts about the author or her feelings on things.
January 25, 2013
I had to give this 5 stars,since it made the history of Cuba so compelling, as told through the family that was interviewed. (noted one other review by a family member who confirmed the accuracy of the author. I have been fascinated by Cuba for a long time, inheirited a set of maracas from my parents that were a gift from friend who went there prior to the Cuban embargo. Have read a few novels set in Cuba, and found them lacking. This historical account was fascinating.
August 29, 2022
A gift from some years back that I recently got around to reading. Yes, I'm interested in Cuba and love an occasional Cohiba cigar, so I understand why it was bought for me, but it was only marginally interesting. Some interesting background on the the history of Cuba, but really the problems of the Revuelta family were really trivial compared to the problems of the Cuban working class under Batista or his predecessors. In the ends it feels like a TV soap, even thought these are real people who seem to have aided and abetted in their own destruction. Gimbel concentrates on the suffering of the Cuban upper class and the lower orders seldom appear, except as walk on parts as maids. It seems to deny the reason for the revolution and, consequently, what made Fidel Castro attractive to Naty Revuelta. It rather feels like an essay for The New Yorker stretched beyond its limit.
December 28, 2024
It was interesting to read about life in Cuba prior, during, and after the revolution, from the point of view of the author, as she is interviewing the Revuelta family.
The author mentions new people, ideas, events with no context, which was often confusing. There are many judgments about people and their motivations based on what appears to be only a few interactions and many assumptions.
The book provides perspective that is unique because this family was close to Castro and many people in power in Cuba.
The author mentions new people, ideas, events with no context, which was often confusing. There are many judgments about people and their motivations based on what appears to be only a few interactions and many assumptions.
The book provides perspective that is unique because this family was close to Castro and many people in power in Cuba.
March 18, 2011
Wendy Gimbel writes in Havana Dreams: A Story of Cuba “A fascinating,powerfully evocative story of four generations of Cuban women, through whose lives the author illuminates a vivid picture – both personal and historical – of Cuba in our century.” So says the book jacket. And we know those blurbs are impartial!
How did this book come to be on my shelf? It must have been one that I inherited from my parents who went to Cuba illegally on several occasions to bring aid and comfort to the U.S. embargoed island nation. But it is strangely about an elite, even bourgeois matriarchy of a Cuban family. It has a soap opera tinge with Naty’s adulterous relationship with Fidel Castro. The book is a combination of material opulence and emotional poverty. The author made many childhood visits to the family of her paternal grandmother in pre-Castro Cuba. There is a wistfulness about what might have been or what might yet be in the absence of Castro who is both a love interest and a dictator in the book, a delicate balance.
The story of the love between Naty and Fidel is the heart of this book. There is the early history of Cuba as an occupied island. And there is the story of Dona Natica, the aristocratic mother of Naty. I found the first third of the book hard to wade through and even found myself reading the words without comprehension just to traverse the pages. But when the letters between Fidel and Naty become the bulk of the story, things get interesting. Fidel’s personal life is not something that I know anything about. But I do know about writing letters. So reading letters as a primary source of history was a fascinating experience for me. Often letters can be one sided, only half of the conversation is available. In this case the letters of both parties have been brought together as Fidel gave Naty’s letters back to her, suggesting that they would be valuable for historians. But Naty has mostly kept the letters private. And Castro is a political person in most historical encounters. So his personal side was very interesting to me. I have never been a revolutionary leader but I have been in love.
Naty Revuelta is the wife of a prominent doctor and an unindicted co-conspirator in the failed July 26, 1953 tipoff of the revolution led by Castro. Her role, to distribute Castro’s manifesto after a successful overthrow of Batista, is not carried out as Castro narrowly avoids death but is imprisoned, eventually overthrowing Batista who goes into exile January 1, 1959.
Gimbel doesn’t hold any punches in dealing with Castro. In talking about his biological daughter, Naty’s daughter, Alina, she says:
Nor does she find Naty an admirable character, portraying her as neglectful of her young daughter as she tried to reconnect with Fidel.
Havana Dreams is the story of a family diaspora, a coming apart caused by economics and politics just as the people of Cuba have been separated from each other and their homeland. The book ends with the idea that Castro, a man whose time has passed, still believes that he is a great star whose fans are clamoring for him.
Released on Kindle and Nook on March 9, 2011.
How did this book come to be on my shelf? It must have been one that I inherited from my parents who went to Cuba illegally on several occasions to bring aid and comfort to the U.S. embargoed island nation. But it is strangely about an elite, even bourgeois matriarchy of a Cuban family. It has a soap opera tinge with Naty’s adulterous relationship with Fidel Castro. The book is a combination of material opulence and emotional poverty. The author made many childhood visits to the family of her paternal grandmother in pre-Castro Cuba. There is a wistfulness about what might have been or what might yet be in the absence of Castro who is both a love interest and a dictator in the book, a delicate balance.
The story of the love between Naty and Fidel is the heart of this book. There is the early history of Cuba as an occupied island. And there is the story of Dona Natica, the aristocratic mother of Naty. I found the first third of the book hard to wade through and even found myself reading the words without comprehension just to traverse the pages. But when the letters between Fidel and Naty become the bulk of the story, things get interesting. Fidel’s personal life is not something that I know anything about. But I do know about writing letters. So reading letters as a primary source of history was a fascinating experience for me. Often letters can be one sided, only half of the conversation is available. In this case the letters of both parties have been brought together as Fidel gave Naty’s letters back to her, suggesting that they would be valuable for historians. But Naty has mostly kept the letters private. And Castro is a political person in most historical encounters. So his personal side was very interesting to me. I have never been a revolutionary leader but I have been in love.
Naty Revuelta is the wife of a prominent doctor and an unindicted co-conspirator in the failed July 26, 1953 tipoff of the revolution led by Castro. Her role, to distribute Castro’s manifesto after a successful overthrow of Batista, is not carried out as Castro narrowly avoids death but is imprisoned, eventually overthrowing Batista who goes into exile January 1, 1959.
Naty’s passion for Fidel brackets her period of revolutionary fervor, when she believed that everything was possible. Their letters reveal the contours of a liaison between two brave and formidable, if misguided, people in their late twenties: a political prisoner and a restless young woman. Enamored of Naty, Fidel remained connected to her until the fever passed; then he wanted nothing more to do with her. But Naty, who thought she had given her heart, refused to be discarded; she would live frozen in that moment of time, the moment in which Fidel had loved her.
. . .
Fidel Castro knew how to make love to a woman without ever touching her. Naty Revuelta was a beauty, but Fidel didn’t have to tell her so; that was for the men who flirted with her at the Vedalo Tennis Club. Instead, he courted her with his intelligence – and his convictions. Fidel made her feel that he relished her lively mind, doted on her intuitive sensibilities. He never mentioned her fabulous green eyes.
Gimbel doesn’t hold any punches in dealing with Castro. In talking about his biological daughter, Naty’s daughter, Alina, she says:
Fidel’s desire to dominate a young woman would eventually replace his impulse to visit with a little girl. It wasn’t Alina’s character that would make Fidel want to bend her to his will, but his own narcissism, his own grandiose imagining of himself – the vanity, the power, the glory, the exalted sense of himself as a redeemer. Alina was a minor player in the pageant of egotism.
Nor does she find Naty an admirable character, portraying her as neglectful of her young daughter as she tried to reconnect with Fidel.
Havana Dreams is the story of a family diaspora, a coming apart caused by economics and politics just as the people of Cuba have been separated from each other and their homeland. The book ends with the idea that Castro, a man whose time has passed, still believes that he is a great star whose fans are clamoring for him.
From Havana to Miami – in fact, all across Cuba and the United States – the stories multiply of families separated from each other by a stretch of water that governments have made treacherous. It’s hard to conceive of political ideologies so brilliant, so radiant that they’re worth all the human suffering they’ve created. And what has been achieved? It’s probable that the real legacy of the Cuban Revolution is little more than estrangement, brutality, self-delusion, and the pain of exile.
Released on Kindle and Nook on March 9, 2011.
January 24, 2020
I learned something about Fidel Castro and his misguided lover that I didn't know before. This story of Naty and her devotion to Castro shows how mesmerized people become and how they can easily narrow their focus on what they shouldn't versus what they should. I feel sorry for her children that they didn't have the mother they deserved.
October 10, 2017
This is a fairly interesting tale of a well to do family caught up in the turmoil of pre and post revolutionary Cuba.The crux of the story is that of Naty who has an illegitimate daughter with Fidel Castro.Things do not go well.
November 8, 2018
I liked how the author was unbiased in her observations of Naty and her daughter, Nina. The author being Cuban added to the authenticity while remaining respectful to the culture of the Cuban people. A good little read about Castro & Cuba of the past.
January 28, 2021
Factual depiction of the life and family of Naty Revuelta, one of Fidel Castro’s mistresses. The four generations of women in the story illustrate the history and lifestyle of Cuba before and during the revolution through exile.
April 17, 2021
It was a little slow going at first and then halfway through I had a hard time putting it down to go to bed. A little insight to the personal side of Fidel and the history of his Cuba. I want to learn more though, I enjoy people centered history, but this was very people centered.
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April 18, 2021La storia di Cuba raccontata attraverso cinque generazioni di donne, una meravigliosa avventura tra i colori, i paesaggi e le storie caraibiche. L'ho adorato fin dalle prime pagine, la scrittura è coinvolgente, la presenza delle foto ci rende i personaggi vivi. Meraviglioso!!!!
September 25, 2025
I think this author was a little too involved with her subjects, but all the same, she paints a fascinating picture of one family's struggles in modern-day Cuba. Her memories of pre-Castro Cuba were very evocative, as well.
July 27, 2017
This was a fascinating story about three fascinating women that was written so poorly.
August 30, 2019
3.5 Stars
September 5, 2019
This is the story of Naty Revuelta, mistress of Fidel Castro.
March 2, 2020
Beautifully written look at one family's experience of Cuba before and after Castro.
February 17, 2024
An interesting read about 4 generations in a Cuban family and how their life in Cuba was affected by its history and the revolution. Took me ages to finish, it didn’t keep my attention enough.
October 9, 2025
Not bad, not great. Kind of interesting view into the rise and fall of a bourgeois Cuban family connected to Fidel Castro.
May 20, 2009
Really enjoyed this story. The author did a nice job weaving the stories of 4 generations of women in this cuban family. Interesting mix of history, memoir, and reporting. Overall a worthwhile read.
One of my favorite passages towards the end of the book is in reference to cuban exiles.
" The myth of exile runs something like this. When someone goes to live in a foreign country, he can't take enough of the past with him to matter. In his own land, when someone sees him, even for a few minutes, he is more understood than he is in exile after twenty years. And so the exile begins to imagine the homeland as paradise and to inhabit it in his dreams.
But there is no coming home. Even if the house remains the same, those who live there grow and change. A person without a present doesn't exist at all... In resisting change, in arresting the flow of time and circumstance, an exile becomes fractured, a lost soul."
One of my favorite passages towards the end of the book is in reference to cuban exiles.
" The myth of exile runs something like this. When someone goes to live in a foreign country, he can't take enough of the past with him to matter. In his own land, when someone sees him, even for a few minutes, he is more understood than he is in exile after twenty years. And so the exile begins to imagine the homeland as paradise and to inhabit it in his dreams.
But there is no coming home. Even if the house remains the same, those who live there grow and change. A person without a present doesn't exist at all... In resisting change, in arresting the flow of time and circumstance, an exile becomes fractured, a lost soul."
March 18, 2012
Interesting sociological study but a little too much of the author's opinion of the characters undermined it. A slightly discouraging present and abandoned future for Cuba is portrayed and I no longer want to visit there.
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June 12, 2012Through this book we see the comforting feeling of memory, insights on the positive experience of holding on to visions of the way things used to be,and that it's ok to do so. This type of thinking is a valuable tool to apply to other areas of life.
April 7, 2014
An interesting novel about the impact of Cuban travails for freedom on four generations of Cuban women.
The interweaving of the revolution, international politics,and how exile leaves all those both off Cuba/still in Cuba affected and damaged.
The interweaving of the revolution, international politics,and how exile leaves all those both off Cuba/still in Cuba affected and damaged.
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July 8, 2008Absolutely fascinating memoir of the lives of four Cuban women, one of whom had an affair with Castro. A look at life in Cuba, historical and cultural events, and the intimate lives of real women.
November 16, 2015
a mix of history and the contemporary of ordinary and extraordinary people in the diaspora of Cubans
March 27, 2019
Now that I've actually been to Havana, I can say Gimbel absolutely nails it. Such a beautiful, crumbling city, like something out of a surreal storybook.
(Photo by me.)
(Photo by me.)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews