Mojito Sunset (excerpt)

....The women, coming from town or market or work, walk miles on cobblestone streets in high heeled shoes. They walk with their backs straight as boards, gliding on legs that glow like bronze pillars. Yet they never falter or fail.

Cuban women are hot and cool at the same time. They ooze sexuality, while simultaneously they command respect. They have a certain poise that makes them all the more beautiful. I was as captivated by their full switching hips and long batting eyelashes as much I was touched by how they bore their endless struggles and countless burdens with dignity.


The old women are just as beautiful. Yet they are possessed of a certain melancholy that is not found in the young. They teeter through the streets carrying heavy bags in their hands and the weight of yesteryears sacrifices on their backs. I watch an old lady stoop slowly to play with a baby in her path. The innocent child caresses her wrinkled skin as if tracing the history of their country in the lines of her face....