Havana

Havana is the capital city of Cuba and serves as the country's economic and trading center. Diego Velazquez, a Spanish conquistador, founded Havana in the early sixteenth century. Cuba itself is the largest Caribbean island, with over 11 million residents. Cuba is currently well known for its status as a communist country. Particularly under the rule of Fidel Castro, the state of Cuba has been accused of multiple human rights violations. However, Cuba's culture, including food, literature, and music, is and always has been vibrant.
==Stevens and Havana==
Though Stevens traveled primarily to Florida and spent almost all of his leisure time in the states, he did spend some time in Havana, Cuba. Stevens greatly enjoyed his time in Havana; the refereces to the city in his poetry are complimentary. According to Jose Rodriguez Feo,
"… He said he enjoyed Havana very much, but the thing he enjoyed most was the climate, nature, the sky, the natural aspect. Not the city, the tropics. And the air. He said he thought the air in Cuba had something very special about it. And I said, "Are you saying about the air something similar to what is said in The Tempest? It’s a wonderful description of the air in the Bahamas. There’s something soft and sweet about the air." He said, "Yes, and how funny that you should talk about The Tempest," because obviously he was remembering that, too. He always talked with nostalgia about the South and south Florida. And the climate, too. Of course, this is typical of the people who live in the cold country, but to him it was not going to Florida or going to Havana to get away from the cold. It was something sensuous in his appreciation of being in Florida: what he felt in the skin. He said that [there] you live with your senses more than when you live in a cold place. This has to do with his poetry; it was part of his personality." [1]
==Havana References in Stevens' Poetry==
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*The Comedian as the Letter C, i: The World without Imagination, line 54: "Bordeaux to Yucatan, Havana next"
*The Comedian as the Letter C, v: A Nice Shady Home, line 6: "Beyond Bordeaux, beyond Havana, far"
*From the Journal of Crispin, line 59: "Bordeaux to Yucatan, Havana next"
In addition to these references, Stevens also wrote "Academic Discourse at Havana," in which he clearly demonstrates his affinity for this city. [2]	
*The Comedian as the Letter C, i: The World without Imagination, line 54: "Bordeaux to Yucatan, Havana next"
*The Comedian as the Letter C, v: A Nice Shady Home, line 6: "Beyond Bordeaux, beyond Havana, far"
*From the Journal of Crispin, line 59: "Bordeaux to Yucatan, Havana next"
In addition to these references, Stevens also wrote "Academic Discourse at Havana," in which he clearly demonstrates his affinity for this city. [2]
==References==
1. From Peter Brazeau, ed. Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985), 141. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/bio.htm 
2. http://www.wallacestevens.com/concordance/WSdb.cgi