"Waking in Havana: A memoir of AIDS and Healing in Cuba" by Elena Schwolsky is a good read. This is an important book for at least three reasons. First, it is a comprehensive comparison of how two radically different cultures and systems responded to the early days of the AIDS crisis. Secondly, Ms. Schwolsky's 48 years of life experience in Cuba has given her a keenly observed understanding of what this neighbor so near, and yet so misunderstood, is like. Finally, her personal story is a valuable memoir of one who made a commitment and stuck with it throughout her life. A story those of us of a particular generation can understand and those who are younger can learn from. (There is a need for so many more of these stories..)
Elena Schwolsky comes to the study of AIDS work with a depth of both personal and professional experience having lived with her husband from its onset to his death while working in the field of pediatric AIDS. She comes to Cuba with both a passion and an open minded critical analysis. Her helping us to understand Cuba's initial response of the controversial (and highly criticized) quarantine and sanatoriums in its social context is very helpful. She reminds us of the way our own society "quarantined" and marginalized AIDS patients in the early years. Seeing the sanatoriums evolve into voluntary residences which many choose to stay in is revelatory. The bottom line is, if I read it right, less than 500 Cubans have died since the onset of the epidemic.(p.223). Ms. Scwolsky also helped to bring to reality Memorias, Cuba's version of the AIDS quilt.
Since the revolution, Cuba has remained shrouded in myth, mystery, ideology and rhetoric. Ms. Scwolsky presents Cuba as just another place where people live their own lives with their own particular struggles. And joys. Her objective perspective, albeit one from someone who truly loves the island , helps us to see Cuba as we would any more familiar country, that is normal. Much of this comes through the many portraits she paints of her friends there, most people living with AIDS. Their stories make up the heart of this book, in more ways than one. They become real to us. She wonders how much of the social interconnectivity between people is inherently a part of Cuban culture and how much a result of decades of socialist living.( I can only add that similar observations have been made about how those growing up in East Germany differed from those from the West.)
Elena Schwolsky is truly a child of the sixties. She was a San Francisco hippie and her love of Cuba began with the 1972 Venceremos brigade. Throughout all these years, her core social and political values remained constant and consistent. A life faithfully lived as shared in this book.
Despite her shyness at accepting the title, Elena Schwolsky is indeed a writer. And as she now adds with a smile,"an author." The book has an easy flow to it. One finds oneself eagerly turning to the next chapter, ready to meet the next person, hear the next story, see what happens next. It's not often a book can be a valuable contribution to a field of study and a pleasure to read. This one is.
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