Before her father–an engineer and contract worker—found his way from Namibia to Spain and reclaimed his family, my goddaughter Sabrina attended a model government school in the Havana neighborhood of San Miguel de Padrón. Because the government often used the school to display the benefits of socialist education to visiting tourists and foreign dignitaries, Sabrina and her classmates enjoyed unique opportunities there like a class of zapateo, which they called “Spanish dance”. Because the school and the neighborhood were majority Black and poor, the fact that the kids learned to honor their colonial roots rather than the dramatic dance expressions of Cuba inherited from our enslaved ancestors was ironic. Dressed in sparkling white outfits that the school provided, the kids’ enthusiasm and skills were nonetheless beautiful and striking. San Miguel de Padrón, Havana, November 2011.
