About the Book

The discovery of the Americas is considered by most reputable historians, biologists, and anthropologists as a significant event that brought profound ecological, cultural, and economic changes and transformed the modern world. During the Post Columbian period, the encounters between the Old and the New World relied on winds and sea currents that determined the best routes for the ships to sail across the oceans.

Cuba, a small Caribbean Island named by its discoverer Isabela as a tribute to Spain's revered queen, was favored by a unique geographical location that brought many of the ships to its beautiful shores. In their wake, the Cubans were influenced by the traditions, myths, customs, and religions of the very diverse, and, at times, colliding cultures of the personages that disembarked on this beautiful Island.

This exposure to international visitors and immigrants had a mysterious, elegant, entertaining, sensual, and, at times, scandalous impact, that over the years spawned the surprisingly rich folklore and the unique culture that is elegantly described in rich detail in Julio E. Ulloa's thoughtful, compelling, and entertaining narrative.

Ulloa's inquisitiveness is all-inclusive as he covers the impact on the Cubans as they were inspired and influenced by Europeans, Africans, and Asians that came from different regions of those continents as well as by the French colonizers that fled Haiti to escape the brutality of colonial rule and the chaos that followed during the reign of King Henri Christophe.

The book, rich in spellbinding details, unashamedly transports the reader to the curious world of a pre-1959 era of the demons, spirits, poets, patriots, musicians, and colorful entrepreneurs, that shaped the character of an amazing people.



About the Author

Julio E. Ulloa de Varona was born in Havana, Cuba on December 12, 1943. He studied at the Ruston Academy and Belén schools and in August 1960 he went into exile along with his parents and brothers. He finished his studies at Blair Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He worked and lived in New York City and in different countries in Latin America. He has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia. Today he lives with his wife Martine C. Paulin in Key Biscayne, Florida, United States.