All the Way to Havana
by Margarita Engle
illustrated by Mike Curato
illustrated by Mike Curato
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I thank God for people who keep working to solve overwhelming problems instead of giving
00:22up.
00:23I'm grateful for the inspiring ingenuity and perseverance of the Cuban people in the
00:28face of more than half a century of poverty and scarcity.
00:33Special thanks to Laura Godwin for the fantastic idea, Mike Curato for his stunning illustrations,
00:40my cousins for showing him around the island, my wonderful agent Michelle Humphrey and the
00:45entire publishing team.
00:48Me.
00:49All the way to Havana.
00:51By Margarita Engel.
00:54Illustrated by Mike Curato.
00:56We have a gift and we have a cake.
00:59And today we're going to drive all the way to the big city to see my new baby cousin
01:04on his zero year birthday.
01:07Some of this island's old cars purr little kittens.
01:11But ours is so tired that she just chatters like a busy chicken.
01:15Cara cara cara cara cluck cluck cluck.
01:19Today cara cara sounds like a tiny baby chick.
01:23P I O P I O P I O P I O P F F F F T.
01:28Papa opens the trunk and lets me hand him the heavy toolbox.
01:33Then he raises the hood to show me all the rattling parts that have been fixed with wire
01:38tape and mixed up scraps of dented metal.
01:42He listens to each tapping taka taka noise that cara cara makes as together we struggle
01:47to fix all the grunts squeals and grumbling clunks clunks that should be busy cluck cluck
01:52clucks.
01:53I chose a wrench and a bolt and a belt.
01:57No luck, but we keep trying and trying.
02:01Even though all the silly noises are still a mystery unsolved.
02:06We don't give up.
02:08We experiment.
02:10We invent.
02:11A twist here.
02:13A tightening there.
02:15Move this.
02:17Hold that.
02:18Try one way.
02:20Then the other.
02:22All finally after discouraging minutes that feel like endless hours.
02:27Cara cara once again begins to sound like a chattering hen.
02:32The road is bumpy and our noisy car ends up so crowded with friendly neighbors who need
02:37a ride that I feel like we're traveling in a barrel of elbows and knees.
02:42But we have a gift, and we have a cake.
02:46And we're driving to my new baby cousin's zero year birthday.
02:50So we purr cara cara and we glide tar car tar car and we zoom zoom.
02:56Zoom cluck cluck beside farms, forests, beaches, and forts.
03:02Toward the curved road by the seawall where mama points out noisy old cars of every color.
03:08Yellow, pink, purple, green orange.
03:12And even a bright red car with huge fins like a lurking shark.
03:17I'm glad that cara cara is peacefully blue like the clear sky above and the wide sea
03:22beyond.
03:24Some of the noisy old cars around us have torn seats shattered windows and cracked mirrors.
03:30Many of the cars roar growl whine or putt putt.
03:34But most just honk honk honk as they glide bumpity bump on potholed city streets.
03:41Where people lean over crumbling balconies as laundry dances and a sea breeze sings.
03:47When we finally reach Tia's house.
03:50I hug Abuelo and everyone smiles as we admire the funny baby boy who is too little to know
03:55how to open a gift or play with the boy and the ribbon, or build a teetering mango and
04:01pineapple tower.
04:03After lunch, cake, music, and a happy birthday fiesta.
04:08I need a quiet siesta.
04:11But when I wake up, I discover that it's already time to start driving home.
04:16So we zoom and bump all the way back to our little village where we will soon have a chance
04:21to cara cara tar car tar car pio pio clunk sleep.
04:26The next morning, we have to work under the hood once again.
04:31Never giving up, never losing hope.
04:34Amiga to help Papa guess which tool is best.
04:38When he asks me which city trip car I liked most, the answer is easy our car.
04:44This noisy blue one with its ragged seats and cloudy windows.
04:49Because cara cara already belonged to our family on the day when Abuelo my old grandpa
04:54celebrated his zero year birthday.
04:57Someday Abuelo's car will be yours, Papa promises.
05:02Making me feel as proud and powerful as the bold eagle that makes cara cara's sky blue
05:07hood look so brave.
05:09Author's note.
05:11Due to a complex historical situation, many of the American cars on the island of Cuba
05:17are pre-1959 and so old that parts under the hood have been replaced many times often with
05:24makeshift inventions.
05:27Despite more than half a century of poverty and hardship the Cuban people remain so creative
05:33that they manage to keep machines of all sorts running long past the age when wealthier people
05:38would discard them.
05:41This simple poem about the island's noisy old cars is intended as an expression of admiration
05:46for the everyday ingenuity of poor people everywhere who have to struggle, preserve,
05:52create, and invent on a daily basis never losing hope.
05:56Undoubtedly, a boy like the one in this story would dream of modern cars and space age inventions
06:03along with plans to keep his family's antique car running smoothly.
06:08Illustrator's note.
06:10I had the great fortune to visit to Cuba to research this book.
06:15My friend and fellow artist Eric Ladesma came with me to act as a translator.
06:21We stayed with Margarita's cousins, Julio and Isabel at their casa particular, the Cuban
06:27equivalent of a bed and breakfast, in the heart of Havana.
06:31We hired a driver named Rui who picked us up in a 1954 Chevy 210 series, also known
06:39as the Chevy Del Rey no pun intended.
06:42The car has been in his wife Marbalisa's family for more than 30 years.
06:48Rui and Marbalisa drove Eric and me across the beautiful Cuban countryside and back to
06:53Havana.
06:55I wanted to experience the trip that the family in this book makes.
07:00I created the illustrations by combining pencil drawings paintings and textures from
07:05photographs I took while in Cuba.
07:08Some auto experts might took at this book and point out mistakes in this cars I drew.
07:15In Cuba, people have to work with what they have so some cars have parts that used to
07:20belong to completely different cars, and sometimes entirely different machines.
07:27This includes Cara Cara who has a different steering wheel, rearview mirror, side mirrors,
07:32reflective orange decals where the front white blinkers used to be and a completely different
07:38engine.
07:40She's also missing a few chrome details here and there, but she still looks good and gets
07:45people where they need to go.
07:48Rui and Marbalisa now call their 54 Chevy Cara Cara.
07:52So she is real.
07:54For me, she has come to represent everything that I love about Cuba, classic beauty perseverance
08:01and family loyalty.
08:03The end.