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This interview is part of a collaboration with Penguin Random House to celebrate Latine and Hispanic Heritage Month. We sat down with acclaimed Cuban-American writer, Cristina García, the author of eight novels including Dreaming in Cuban, a finalist for the National Book Award which tells the story of a Cuban family across three generations as they experience the country’s revolution.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started writing. 

I was born outside of Havana in 1958, six months before Castro came to power. My parents stuck around for a couple of years before leaving for the United States as many people did at that time. There was an initial enthusiasm for Castro but after a couple of years, my parents were among the first wave of people who left the country. I grew up in New York where I had a roaring time as a kid. It’s where I was educated and started my career as a journalist for almost ten years before I started writing fiction. I’ve been writing novels for the last 30 years but have recently retired.

Cuba has played a huge part in your work. What about it inspires you the most?

Though being a relatively tiny country, Cuba has had an outsized impact on global history, because of its geographical location at the foot of the United States. Even before the revolution, there’s so much interesting history—Columbus first landed on the eastern coast of Cuba; it had a fight for independence before the revolution; it’s where the first Chinese landed in the ‘new world’ pulled in by Cuban plantation owners to work their fields.* It had the largest Chinatown in the Americas for many years. It’s just endlessly interesting. There have been so many divisive issues but Cuba is one that keeps on giving. 

*Christina’s book, Monkey Hunting, explores the Chinese migration to Cuba.

What’s something that you wish more people knew about Cuba?

Something that is absolutely fascinating and unique is Cuba’s environment. There are creatures that don’t exist anywhere else. To give you a small idea, it’s home to the tiniest frog in the world and the tiniest hummingbird, the zunzuncito. It has a vast underwater network of caves filled with blind fish and other creatures you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Ecological tours would be fascinating here. Another thing I would say to tourists is to get out of Havana and go to the eastern part of the island to Santiago de Cuba. After the slave uprising in Haiti, a lot of slave owners came with the enslaved to the eastern part of Cuba and there’s a whole culture there that has stayed fixed as it wasn’t part of an evolving culture. They still do dances from that period of the early 1800s and their language is almost frozen in time. 

Where should lovers of literature go in Cuba? 

I don’t have literary recommendations, however if you’re someone who likes to write, here’s my advice. Don’t write while you’re in Cuba. Just watch, travel, move around, dance, talk to people, and get into the jungle. 

Aside from your own, what book should first-time travelers to Cuba pack in their suitcase?

• Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas

• The poems of Dulce María Loynaz who stayed in Cuba after the revolution and lived by herself

• The Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez if you’re after something more gritty

Where are your favorite places to go for Cuban culture in Los Angeles?

• Versailles - it’s a well-known place but they serve the best garlic chicken

• Porto's - a Cuban bakery based in Glendale that I order from for my daughter's birthday  

Number one travel tip for anyone visiting Cuba?

Even if you consider yourself fluent in Spanish, you still might struggle to understand the locals in Cuba. The pronunciation and the speed are very different. Before you go, you might want to watch a couple of YouTube videos on Cuban accents to catch on a little more quickly. 

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