The Pearl of the Antilles, or an Artist in Cuba

A rare glimpse into colonial Cuba through the eyes of a British artist who arrived in Santiago de Cuba in the 1860s, when the island still hummed under Spanish rule. Walter Goodman and his Cuban companion Nicasio Rodriguez y Boldú step off the boat into a world of sharp contrasts: the bureaucratic chill of Spanish colonial authorities, who subject them to inspections and paperwork, gives way almost immediately to the overwhelming warmth of local hospitality a feast thrown by Nicasio's friends and family, the kind of generosity no customs officer can regulate. Goodman writes with a painter's eye for detail, capturing Cuban life in all its texture: the food, the customs, the intricate social rituals, the landscapes. This is Cuba before the wars of independence, before the revolution a world of fading colonial elegance and deep local culture, preserved in amber by a sympathetic foreign visitor.