ourSuperMANinHavana

Superman of Havana @Roads and Kingdoms

This is the story of Superman of Havana ... a once-legendary figure with 18 inches of manhood. Superman was the star attraction of the notorious Shanghai Theater -- "the best of all the sex shows," according to a journalist who visited Havana in the 1950s. He enchanted Marlon Brando, inspired Graham Greene, and was fictionalized in The Godfather Part II. When the revolution came, Superman vanished without a trace ...

In the American imagination, Cuba has always been exoticized as the hot, humid, sexy, torrid whorehouse of the Caribbean. It was an identity imposed upon the people, much like Castro imposed a national identity of brothers-in-arms socialists. In the years to come, how will Cubans get beyond these two notions of itself, both of which are too easy, too simplistic, and develop a new identity for the 21st Century? Will Cubans be defined on American terms, on Castro’s, or on their own?