From Mango Cuba to Prickly Pear America: An American's Journey to Castro's Cuba and Back - Paperback

by Melinda Voss (Author)

In March 2014, award-winning journalist Melinda Voss headed to the Miami airport to travel to Cuba, a country that had fascinated her since she was a girl growing up amid animated dinner conversations about the Cuban revolution, Castro's leadership, and the missile crisis. After her plane landed, she disembarked with thirty-one other Americans and prepared to explore Cuba's complexity, its leaders, people, culture, and relationship with America.

Offering a thoughtful glimpse of Cuban life, Voss not only interweaves interesting facts about Cuba's history, customs, housing, education system, agriculture, health care, family life, and aging, but also provides perspective on the differences and similarities between American and Cuban cultures. While sharing valuable insight into landmarks such as the stately University of Havana, Santeria Cultural Center, Che Guevara's tomb, Revolution Square, tobacco and organic farms, and community projects, Voss introduces others to an impressive array of Cuban musicians and artists and includes excerpts from unusually frank conversations with locals as well as Americans.

From Mango Cuba to Prickly Pear America shares a concise and carefully researched comparison between two New World countries as a new and uncertain era of Cuban-American relations dawns.

Author Biography

Melinda Voss was an award-winning staff writer for the Des Moines Register for twenty-six years. She taught journalism at three universities and co-founded the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Gannett newspapers, Columbia Journalism Review, Harvard's Nieman Reports, the American Journal of Public Health, and A Field Guide for Science Writers. Now retired, she lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with her dog, Bunny.