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Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home | 
 enlarge | Authors: Eduardo Machado, Michael Domitrovich
Publisher: Gotham
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $5.50
You Save: $22.00 (80%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 686194
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.597291
ASIN: B0014SYQT8
Publication Date: October 18, 2007
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Condition: *BRAND NEW* BARGAIN Hardcover with perfect DJ. Fresh from the distributor. Has remainder mark on edge. We are FAST!! Check our feedback! Ships next day in padded envelope with barcoded address, delivery confirmation, and tracking number.
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Product Description
Tastes Like Cuba is the moving account of an exile searching for the identity he's lost and becoming someone else in the process.". An internationally acclaimed playwright, Eduardo Machado has grappled with questions of identity, loss and resistance throughout his life and work. He hasmore than any other playwrightbeen able to convey the experiences of both the Cubans who chose to stay in Cuba and those who chose to leave. His fearless style and unabashed politicism in the face of dissent have made him a controversial figure to the Cubans and Americans on opposite sides of an intense conflict.
In his memories and in his more recent travels to Cuba, he has found that the most natural means of connecting with todays Cuban experience is through food. Machado says, When I taste something I havent tasted in twenty years, I cant resist that connection to the past, to the conflict, to the identity that is mine. I know the feeling as I taste the flavor. There are no arguments, no political controversies, just the real sensation. If its that complex, it must be Cuban.
To any exile, food represents not only the lost comfort of home, but the best chance to reclaim it. The stories of Machados lifefrom child of privilege in pre-Revolutionary Cuba; to exile in Los Angeles; to actor, director, playwright and professor in New Yorkare interleaved with recipes for the meals that have enriched him. Every recipe has been updated for the modern home cook, enabling us to recreate the flavors of traditional Cuban dishes such as Machados favorite roast pork and his grandfathers arroz con pollo, as well as the cuisine of necessity he encountered in 1960s suburban America: Velveeta, SPAM, and other processed wonders. What emerges is a larger picture of what it means to be a Latino in America today. For anyone who has ever longed for a home, real or imagined, Tastes Like Cuba delivers a fascinating story of two worldsand one delectable life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Doesn't Taste Like Cuba At All December 30, 2008
A friend who cares deeply for me gave me a book this Christmas entitled "Tastes Like Cuba; An Exile's Hunger for Home." The book's author is Eduardo Machado, a Cuban-American who left Cuba at the age of eight in 1961 for the United States through the Peter Pan Program -- where Cuban kids left their homeland without their parents.
After his parents finally joined Machado in the US, the family moved to Los Angeles. The father got a job in an accounting firm on the second day after his arrival at LA. Subsequently, he took the CPA exam and passed it on his first try. The family moved up the ladder quickly.
Machado developed a liking for the theater at an early age, but his father was unhappy with this choice as he claimed that it was a profession reserved for unmanly guys. Of course, Machado stood up to his father and moved out with a cousin. The mother played a subservient role - she stayed home raising her family. The father played a dominant role and made all the important decisions.
My reaction: I applauded Machado for standing up to his father, and pursuing his acting career.
Shortly after, Machado's father told his wife that he wanted to divorce her and marry a younger Argentinean woman. Thus, the father lost all credibility and authority that he had acquired over the years with his family.
It was during his adolescent years that Machado felt a never-ending nostalgia for Cuba. The US was home, but Cuba never left his mind. He felt like an immigrant without a home. Later on, he visited Cuba during a film festival, and adopted postures that were the antithesis of those shared by most Cuban-Americans. For example, he took part in demonstrations to bring back Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, and he wrote a play that called for the lifting of the US embargo.
Following are some quotes from the book:
Taking about his earlier life in Cuba, he said "And then it hit me. I didn't want to compare them. That was a different home, a different time, with a different family around me. There was no way to get it back. And anyway, I no longer wanted to be the kind of Cuban that let what was lost get in the way of the beauty and joy and life and food that was staring me in the face. "
My Reaction: Machado was treated like royalty when he visited Cuba for several reasons. He brought dollars with him. He was famous. He wrote plays that coincided with the Cuban propaganda machinery regarding the embargo. It is against my convictions that if I similarly visited Cuba, I would be treated better than the Cubans who decided to stick out all this time simply because I brought dollars with me. The average Cuban puts up with many hardships daily to get food when it's available, to buy clothes, to take public transportation - hardships that Machado never had to experience during his trips to Cuba and that he never discussed in his plays.
"In 2001 President Bush declared Cuba off-limits, and not just because of an economic embargo. Cuba, he said, was part of the "axis of evil."" "Evil? Those fun-loving, generous people. Evil? That beautiful city in the middle of the Caribbean. Evil? My birthplace. Evil? My Cuban brother and sisters. No." "No way, President Bush, and all the Florida congressmen, congresswomen, senators, and all the bitter exiles who learned how to vote as block. They are not evil. They are kinder to me than you have ever been."
My reaction: This is one of the "few" issues that I fully agree with the Bush administration. The State Department continues to list Cuba as a terrorist state in its annual report. I love the US too much and support all the measures taken to safeguard its citizens. Consequently, the US embargo has been highly successful in preventing Cuban government officials from carrying out terrorist acts in this country.
My reaction: Machado criticized the bitter Cuban exiles who learned how to vote as a block. What's wrong with this? All other groups do it, too - the African Americans, the Israelis, etc. This is how politics works in the US - in English and in voting blocks.
My reaction: You are damned right that Cuban-Americans are bitter. The Cuban government officials fired them on the spot when they announced their intentions to emigrate to the US. They had to give to the Cuban Government all their material possessions - bank accounts, houses, jewelry, cars, etc. They were forced to emigrate without a cent to the US, as punishment. Most will only go back when they can drink Cuba Libres in a Cuba that is truly Libre. And before they invest again, they want the new Cuban Government to compensate them somehow for their lost properties. This was done in an orderly fashion in Germany and other countries. Cuba should not be the exception.
Referring to the main character in the play entitled "The Cook," Machado indicates that "in Cuba you're not supposed to claim property. Your house in fact belongs to the state. For almost forty years Gladys deferred ownership further, all the way back to the woman who left in 1959. When she says, "Yes my history, my house," she's claiming her property, but more than that, she's claiming her life. She's claiming her struggle. She is claiming Cubans for the Cubans that stayed.
My reaction: Pure nonsense. The house did not belong to Gladys. The Cuban Government stole it from its rightful owners who emigrated to the United States. When Gladys says that she's claiming her struggle for the Cubans that stayed, she becomes delusional. What struggle? Living in a stolen house without paying rent all these years?!! As to claiming Cuba for the Cubans that stayed, this is also farcical. Cuban-Americans are granted more privileges when they visit Cuba simply because they carry dollars with them.
My reaction: Machado is not for me. I know plenty of Cuban-Americans who also came to the US through the Peter Pan Program, and who are fierce patriots in demanding the release of all Cuban prisoners, the holding a free elections that are monitored by international organizations, and the establishment of private property as the business norm. To name just three, Cuban-American musicians Willy Chirino and his wife Lisette, and Senator Mel Martinez.
 Emotional and Inspiring True Life Story - And Some Good Recipes Too October 5, 2008
The author had me hooked from page one. The writing is excellent, and my only complaint is the fact that the author included Cuban recipes in the main text of the book - it was a little bit distracting, and would have been more useful if the recipes were all in one place, at the end of the book.
However, the story that Eduardo Machado tells is wonderful, detailed and rich with memory about his Cuban childhood, and the significance that familiar foods and traditions have in our lives, especially for those who can't go home. For some American immigrants, the home country is part of their lives - they can fly back home easily, knowing that things will be the way they left them; friends will still be there, and so will most of their relatives.
For refugees, the situation is different - they know they can never go back home, and the new country is their home country. Machado's longing for food and all that is familiar will ring true to any reader who has experienced a life-altering situation, one in which things will never be the same as they were before. I completely understand the author's fascination and near-obsession with the details of food, spices and aromas.
The author's description of the downtown Los Angeles Grand Central Market is so accurate, and I have been told by many people that visiting this open-air market for the first time made them feel like they were back home again. I highly recommend this book.
Tastes Like Cuba May 8, 2008
Just finished reading this story..It is fantastic, has all, loved it. I related to it. The food, the story, the pain of Cuba..
Self-Absorbed and Annoying March 23, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have read many Cuban exile memoirs as well as those of Polish, Russian and other exiles groups. I also have several cookbook/memoirs about "old Cuba." This memoir is really one of the most irritating of the lot. Mr Machado goes on and on about loving his homeland and yearning for the taste of its food etc. That is fine. But he also goes on and on about his issues with his family - especially about his resentment towards his parents for sending him as a "Peter Pan" child to the US (Operation Peter Pan was a way for Cuban parents to send their unaccompanied children out of Cuba under the auspices of Catholic charities. This was at a time when parents in Cuba believed that their children would be rounded up and shipped to the Soviet Union to be "re-educated." Out of desperation, they were willing to send their children and then hoped to follow them). Mr Machado at one point rants about how they sent him and his 5 yr old brother just so they could make sure he grew up the way they thought he should. Well, one would wonder at any parent who willingly separated from their child for any other reason except to save them from a fate they viewed as horrible. This is just one example of a general trend to make rather vicious statements about his family, the US govt., other Cuban exiles (especially in Miami) and anyone else that disagrees with his view. It wasn't that gripping a memoir and the it wasn't really a great food related book. I would say that if you want a better Cuban exile memoir, try Pablo Medina's Exiled Memories or Gustavo Perez-Firmat's Next Year in Cuba. And if you really want have a useful cookbook that includes lots of memories and background flavor, then try A Taste of Old Cuba by Maria Josefa Lluria de O'Higgins or Memories of a Cuban Kitchen by Mary Urrutia Randelman. Both are excellent and authentic and filled with family photos and stories. Oh and the Nitza Villapol book(Cocina Criolla or Cocina al Minuto)from the 1950's which Mr Machado mentions is readily available in reprints -- you don't have to go secretly to Cuba and look in a second hand book stall.
A Tasty Treat February 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Eduardo Machado wrote a wonderful memoir of his early life in Cuba, to his young adult life in Miami and then Los Angeles, and then in his later years in New York and back in California.
His food recollections of his early days of Newspaper Soup, Bistec Empanizado, Arroz con Pollo, etc., he describes in such delicious detail.
His journey from Cuba to Hialeah and then to Miami pulled at my heart-strings. When him and his family got to Los Angeles, he wrote about many incidents. One in particular affected me very much. Him and his family went shopping at the Central Market in the valley. They were trying to find the foods they had grown up with in Cuba.
I could go on with this review, but in short, this book was one of the best memoirs in the food/immigration subjects.
Eduardo, thank you very much for a wonderful, tasty, and can't put it down read. Bravo!
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