In recent years, this once pristine area of Varadero Beach has been overrun by the Cuban government’s joint venture schemes with China to develop luxury rentals and even a golf course next to the shoreline. When I first visited, however, it was still a symbol of the power of social revolutions to reverse the evidence that a foreign aristocracy, like that of the Dupont family, could control and enjoy the best resources, vistas, and coastline of Cuba. However, as my students and I discovered, even that anti-colonial configuration of reality was no longer true, if it had ever had been with respect to the Dupont Mansion and its five square miles of beach property: no Cubans, unless accompanied by a foreigner, was allowed on the site. Only tourists and, in this case, U.S. college students, got to enjoy the very best daiquiri natural and ornate, mahogany bar that Cuba had to offer. June 2001.
