Little Havana Nights

La Reina Del Baile

By the time she reached her late teens, Cassandra had grown into a successful model, as did her cousin Danielle. They both made good money from it and sometimes young girls would recognize them in the street. They also performed on a regular basis at the Cuba Pasado restaurant, which often had live performers.

Cassandra often performed Spanish language ABBA covers with Danielle, backed by other band members employed by the restaurant (singers would book gigs while the backing band were permanent employees).

Now that Cassandra was a known model among the youth, the restaurant was attracted more revenue than usual, making great profits because everyone wanted to see the Cuban beauty on stage with her beautiful voice.

Every week after a performance, Cassandra would come home and watch an episode of the Golden Girls, her favorite show. Her favorite Golden Girl was Dorothy Zbornak, as she loved her sass.

Sometimes, she'd be joined by her grandmother Leticia and great-grandmother Rosa, as her Leticia was taking care of her mother Rosa, and they liked the show too. (Cassandra would sometimes spend the night at their place if her modelling location was close to their place than that of her parents.)

"I should start saying 'Picture it! Havana 1930!'" Said Rosa. "Oh you look so beautiful as always, querida." She said to Cassandra. "You look just like your Abuela Leticia when she was your age. Boys wanted to marry her all the time."

"Many boys must be interested in you, Cassandra." Said Leticia.

"Si." Said Cassandra. "But it's not like they're worth dating."

"Muy bueno." Said Rosa. "You ought to choose a nice, but also handsome husband, like a wife should not only be beautiful, but also make herself beautiful for him. That way it'll be easier to make yourself available to each other."

"Mama!" Said Leticia.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Leticia! That's the most importante part of the marriage!" Said Rosa. "I couldn't wait to marry your father, he was so handsome. That was why we were so happy together, very much in love until he died."

"I remember you and papa being happy, mama." Said Leticia.

"And I'm telling you why, niña." Said Rosa. "You need to be intimate regularly if you want to be happy."

"Mama, por favor!" Said Leticia. "You already gave me that talk on my wedding day."

Cassandra giggled at the whole conversation. But she knew her bisabuela was right - sex was very important in a marriage, and it was discussed openly. Despite being a Catholic family, no one in Cassandra or Danielle's family for that matter, were prudes.

"You're starting to remind me of that Sophia Petrillo sometimes, mama." Said Leticia.

"I guess I do relate to her. Talking about the old days and what not." Said Rosa. "I'm so happy we have this place to call home, like we've built another Cuba for ourselves, the Cuba we all knew and loved before that greedy idiot Castro took everything away from us!"

Cassandra had no memory of Cuba as she came to America when she was a baby, but living in Little Havana gave her a very good feel for it, especially since those who had memories of Cuba said that this was how Cuba was before communism, filled with culture, and laughter and wonderful memories. Little Havana couldn't have been better.

Cassandra and Danielle often stayed the night at their grandmother's on Friday or Saturday nights. The elder women were also ABBA fans, and sometimes all 4 would sing along to an ABBA CD while setting the table for dinner.

However, one night, the girls got in trouble for seeing a movie they weren't supposed to see. A friend of the family saw the girls come out of "Club Madonna" which was an adult movie theater, and immediately called their parents who immediately went to Leticia's place to take them home.

Not only were they in trouble for going somewhere they shouldn't but that they lied to their grandmother and great-grandmother.

"What were you thinking going somewhere like that?!" Asked Soledad.

"And more to the point, how were you two able to go in there?!" Asked Safira.

The girls remained silent.

"We're waiting!" Said Safira.

"We snuck in." Cassandra confessed.

"How?!" Soledad demanded to know.

"The halls were dimly lit so no one recognized us." Said Danielle.

"Look. The two of you may be 'minor celebrities' but you're not adults! Being models doesn't mean you can just go wherever and do whatever you want. Especially not at 16 years old!" Said Soledad.

Soledad and Safira then decided that the girls should do a day of volunteering at the Women & Girls Emergency Center with Aunt Alice to learn their lesson - Spanish-speaking volunteers were always needed as there was a constant language barrier, and so having Cassandra and Danielle around to translate helped to break that barrier.

Aunt Alice volunteered there on a regular basis when not working so she was known and as well as loved there, and the staff thrilled to have her bring two extra Spanish-speakers to assist.

Despite the reason for having to go, the girls actually enjoyed their day there, after Aunt Alison was so impressed with their performance that she treated them to a dinner at Maxine's Diner a 1950s style diner that the girls frequented.

The girls explained the situation to Aunt Alison when she asked why their parents suddenly wanted them to volunteer with her.

"Girls, do you know the kind of people that frequent those places?" She said, in shock. "Something could've happened to you! There are drugs in that area, and God knows what else!"

The girls listened to everything Aunt Alice had to say, and they understood it all. She explained how she was curious like they were when she was a teenager, and went to bar with exotic dancers. There was a fight at the bar later in the night, and she had to call her parents to pick her up. They punished her, but in retrospect it was certainly better than being in danger.

The anecdote resonated with the girls, and all was forgiven when they returned home.

"Just don't scare us like that again girls, ok?" Said Soledad. The girls agreed. After Danielle and her parents went home, Cassandra went to bed, put on her headset and listened to the ABBA song that bore her name - Cassandra. She bought the second last ABBA single in France "The Day Before You Came", and when she saw that the B-side was a song after her name, her excitement and thrill could not be contained! Her mother and aunt Safira immediately bought it for her (she subsequently got the last ABBA single Under Attack/You Owe Me One for Christmas that year).

Cassandra drifted off to the sounds of Agnetha & Frida's beautiful voices.