Tastes Like Cuba is the moving account of an exile
searching for the identity he's lost and becoming someone
else in the process.". An internationally acclaimed
playwright, Eduardo Machado has grappled with questions of
identity, loss and resistance throughout his life and work.
He has—more than any other playwright—been able to convey
the experiences of both the Cubans who chose to stay in Cuba
and those who chose to leave. His fearless style and
unabashed politicism in the face of dissent have made him a
controversial figure to the Cubans and Americans on opposite
sides of an intense conflict.
In his memories and
in his more recent travels to Cuba, he has found that the
most natural means of connecting with today’s Cuban
experience is through food. Machado says, “When I taste
something I haven’t tasted in twenty years, I can’t resist
that connection to the past, to the conflict, to the
identity that is mine. I know the feeling as I taste the
flavor. There are no arguments, no political controversies,
just the real sensation. If it’s that complex, it must be
Cuban.”
To any exile, food represents not only the
lost comfort of home, but the best chance to reclaim it. The
stories of Machado’s life—from child of privilege in
pre-Revolutionary Cuba; to exile in Los Angeles; to actor,
director, playwright and professor in New York—are
interleaved with recipes for the meals that have enriched
him. Every recipe has been updated for the modern home cook,
enabling us to recreate the flavors of traditional Cuban
dishes such as Machado’s favorite roast pork and his
grandfather’s arroz con pollo, as well as the
‘cuisine’ of necessity he encountered in 1960’s suburban
America: Velveeta, SPAM, and other processed wonders. What
emerges is a larger picture of what it means to be a Latino
in America today. For anyone who has ever longed for a home,
real or imagined, Tastes Like Cuba delivers a
fascinating story of two worlds—and one delectable life.
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