Next Year In Havana

Old Havana is the site of places that are important to Perez and Cuban national history, including the Cathedral de Havana, La Cabaña Prison, and the Museum of the Revolution. The buildings in Old Havana are typical of former Spanish colonies, so Old Havana is a symbol of Cuba’s colonial history. The repurposing of the sites like La Cabaña during the Cuban Revolution is symbolic of Castro’s efforts to throw off Cuba’s colonial and neo-colonial status.

When Elisa visits Old Havana, it is primarily a tourist district that capitalizes on nostalgia for pre-Revolutionary Cuba. As an international tourist district, Old Havana is mostly off limits to native Cubans and is dominated by Cuban convertible pesos. Old Havana is a symbol of Cuba after the thaw, one in which native Cubans’ access to their national heritage is denied and American money and influence seem destined to assume control once again over the country. The Vedado district is in stark contrast to Old Havana because Vedado is dominated by ordinary Cubans during the 1950s and the 2010s. Vedado represents authentic Cuban life.

The founding member of the Perez family is “a French corsair who amassed a fortune through ill-gotten gains and won himself a wife of impeccable lineage” (32). He used this money to invest in sugar and build the mansion in Miramar. Portraits of this ancestor are in the entrance hall of the Miramar mansion and Emilio’s library during the 1950s. The portrait of this ancestor represents the Perezes’ economic status, especially their participation in imperialist industries that benefited the elite.

The corsair is a disreputable figure, however, one whose actions violated the law and depended upon a certain boldness. Elisa uses the painting and the stories that surround the corsair as inspiration when she needs to engage in actions that violate norms for women of her class. The corsair’s portrait is thus a symbol of rebelliousness. 

Pablo gives Elisa a ring during one of their last visits before his supposed death. The ring is the traditional symbol of their commitment to each other. The ring is among the treasures Marisol discovers in the box that Ana gives her upon Marisol’s arrival in Cuba, and Pablo insists that Marisol keep the ring despite her attempt to give it to him before she returns to the United States. The ring in this case is a symbol of the other side of Marisol’s identity, namely that she is biologically the granddaughter of a Garcia and a revolutionary. 

When Elisa and Luis are forced to flee Cuba, they make the Antigua-Miami leg of the trip aboard a corporate plane that is owned by Marisol’s family. This mode of travel contrasts with the dangerous rafts that people like Cristina use to travel to the United States; the corporate plane is a symbol of Marisol’s class privilege and the mobility that privilege buys. This plane echoes the same kind of privilege that allowed the Perez family to fly out of Cuba in 1959.

In her will, Elisa tasks Marisol with finding the most appropriate place in Cuba to sprinkle her ashes after Elisa dies in 2017. Elisa’s ashes symbolize the special relationship Marisol had with her grandmother and Elisa’s desire for her granddaughter to establish a firmer connection to her Cuban heritage. That task eventually exposes Marisol to danger and revelations that undercut Elisa’s version of Cuba. Marisol’s surrender of the ashes to Pablo symbolizes Marisol’s more realistic take on Cuba after her sojourn as well her ability to escape the past handed down to her by her grandmother.

The Malecón is the Avenida de Maceo in Havana, Cuba, a street that runs along the shore. Elisa and Pablo, as well as Marisol and Luis, traverse this street during their dates. In this public space, these two unlikely pairs explore their relationships out of sight of disapproving onlookers. The street is associated with love’s ability to overcome social and political boundaries.