Chapter 12: “The Official Story”

Cuban Farmers’ Market

Comment

This is an explanation of the Cuban system that you won’t hear in the United States.

(And please excuse the recording errors I’ve made. Reading this well is more difficult than I thought — especially while experimenting with foreign accents. I hope readers will understand. As it turns out, reading aloud also brings to the fore editorial problems that I’ll correct in the written version. Thanks in advance for your patience. And feel free to offer suggestions that will make future recordings more bearable.)

Chapter Ten: Damiana Complains about the Revolution

I met a woman like Damiana in Cuba. This is pretty much an accurate account of our first conversation. (For previous chapters of my novel The Pope, His Chamberlain, the Jinetera, and Fidel: a novel about Cuba, prostitution and the Catholic Church, scroll down.)

Chapter Nine: “The Santera’s Disturbing Prophecy”

This is Chapter Nine in my novel, The Pope, His Chamberlain, the Jinetera, and Fidel: a novel about Cuba, prostitution, and the Catholic Church. (Scroll down for previous chapters.)

Chapter Eight: “Lost in Translation”

Comment

I know that listeners will find this hard to believe. However, what’s recorded in this chapter actually occurred during the 1997 meeting of our Global Affairs group with the director of Caritas in Havana. The translator rebelled just as depicted here.

(For earlier chapters of this novel, please just scroll down.)

Chapter 6: “Jineteras,” Prostitution in Cuba

Comment

This chapter reflects almost word-for-word an actual conversation among academics visiting Cuba with the organization Global Exchange during my first trip to the island. We stayed in the El Bosque Hotel as described in the chapter.

(Scroll down for previous chapters in this audio version of my book, The Pope, His Chamberlain, the Jinetera, and Fidel.)