In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd

Widowed in middle-age, Máximo plays dominoes in a Miami park with Antonio, Carlos, and Raúl. The story alternates between his time in the park with his friends and his memories.

In the park scenes, Máximo tells jokes about Cubans and Castro. In one, a politician resurrected in the future discovers that Cubans continue to be hopeful that Castro will fall. In another, Fidel Castro attempts to leave Cuba on a raft. A third features Castro asking a young boy what he would like to be when he grows up; the boy responds, “a tourist” (20).

Not wanting tourists to gawk at him, Máximo had not wanted to play dominoes in the park, but Raúl convinced him. One day, as they are playing, a young woman walks by and stares at the men. Raúl reminisces about beautiful Cuban women and looks at Máximo for confirmation, but Raúl looks away. His wife died the previous year, and he had been having nightmares that she was trying to tell him something.

Máximo and Raúl had been neighbors in pre-revolutionary Havana. When Máximo was 36 years old, he left Cuba, thinking he would return in a few years. Too old for manual labor and unable to use his Cuban university credentials, he went into food service with his wife, Rosa.