In 2005, my cousin Rigoberto Amores emerged from retirement to work for a small peasant cooperative of several families as a salesman at their farm stand in his neighborhood’s agropecuario, located in Havana’s Santos Suárez neighborhood. At the time, hiring someone outside the immediate family of producers was illegal but Rigoberto got away with it, in part because of his authentic peasant charm (he hailed from my maternal grandpa’s farm in Cumanayagua, in the south-central part of the island). The other reason was undeniable: he sold the greatest mangoes in the world and let everybody know it! Called mangos chinos because this type probably came to Cuba by way of Spain’s ships from the Philippines, these mangoes have the delicacy of a tender cantaloupe and a syrupy sweet juice whose flavor combines notes of honey with the richness of peaches.
