As I have learned from bringing more than 80 students to Cuba in the last twenty three years, Cubans who have spent the last sixty-plus years isolated from the corporate capitalist world of fast and processed foods can sometimes misinterpret what we from the United States consider “a great lunch”. For Cubans who cannot afford and often have never eaten mustard, ketchup and hotdogs in the same sitting, being able to provide a foreign guest with such a meal not only honors the alleged preferences of the guest, but it reflects great effort on the part of the host. In this case, Matt Joseph, a Yale graduate and special student at UF’s Center for Latin American Studies at the time, got to enjoy what a Cuban cook told him was “exotic food in Cuba and comida típica [typical food] of the United States.” Happy to learn how some Cubans believed hotdogs were eaten in the United States—with cucumbers, tomatoes as well as drips of condiments and a side of papaya—Matt dove straight in. Bahía de Cochinos, October 2012. Photograph by Matthew Joseph.
