Habaneros hate rain and can be cast into depression by what any British person, accustomed as one is to endless meteorological variations on the theme of wetness, would consider a mere caprice. The slightest hint of impending rainfall can keep the city's entire workforce at home and no demur whatsoever is made by their bosses if workers fail to appear on a wet day. The very notion of venturing out of the house in the rain is seen as dangerous madness, likely to bring on agues, seizures, fevers and a whole range of obscure disorders which may only be countered by a series of stressful and expensive visits to the babalao. “When necessity compels them to appear," wrote one nineteenth-century observer of habaneros in the rain, “they walk with the peculiar circumspection of a cat, picking their way with a care and timidity that often seems highly ludicrous." |
||
| Full article in 2008/9 edition of Cuba Absolutely |
 |
|
