Αβάνα: Ένα ταξίδι στην Κούβα

“Why Cuba in particular?”
“Because it's a special country,” I would answer my friends, who either accused me of being a romantic revolutionary, or incurably sick of Cuban kitsch. “Because Fidel Castro has retired, and a change is beginning in one of the last bastions of socialism, the spearhead on the North American side.” After all, the name alone sounded full of promise to my ears. Of adventure. For a long journey. For gambling. Of decadence. But I kept that to myself.

I was determined to get my own picture of this country and its people. Is the situation really as bad as we read about every now and then? Or is Cuba as charming as friends who return from their trip excited about it describe it to me? And what is the situation there really like after Castro's departure?Another reason I wanted to go to this island was to prepare a new book with a biography. To look for the points of the revolution, and to understand the space that lies within the photographic images of those days.

For a few months I prepared slowly, slowly, took Spanish lessons, read stacks of books about Cuban history, got in touch with the very friendly Cuban embassy in Berlin, chatted with Cuban exiles, collected addresses, and finally met people whose friends in Cuba invited me to Havana.

I started in March 2008. I had four weeks ahead of me in Cuba.

Reinhart Kleist collects his impressions and what he experienced on his trip to Cuba in spontaneous sketches, cheerful pictures and vivid comics. He thus creates a unique and very personal travel diary.
From the back cover of the book