The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba follows the lives of three revolutionary women, two of whom actually lived in the 1890s when the story takes place. The novel was inspired by real-life events in Cuba as well as the true story of a legendary Cuban woman - Evangelina Cisneros.  The novel also shows the real-life struggle between two newspaper publishers for the top circulation in New York City: Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. 

The publisher's summary:

"A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.  When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearst's newspaper in 1896, she's caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but its a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life.  

Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women's jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression.  When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her "The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba," she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence.

With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearst's staff attempt to free Evangelina.  But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom."

The Cuban setting comes to life with the author's meticulous descriptions of the homes of the rich and the poor.  She presents the awful truth about the conditions of the women's prison in Havana, the Recogidas. The prisoners all lost a tremendous amount of weight, froze during the night and many just hugged their bodies and stared into space. The prison is what I remember most from the novel. I learned a great deal about the battle between Pulitzer and Hearst. Pulitzer ran a news focused paper that did not earn much profit.  Hearst, on the other hand, ran news stories that were sensationalized and his profits soared. Does this sound familiar in today's society?

The only character that interested me was Evangelina.  Perhaps she was easier to write about since there are many news articles about her.  We know from history what she thought and how she lived during this time period.  The other two main characters did not seem as prominent, although the chapters that were told from their points of view had just as many pages as Evangeline's chapters.  Evangelina was brave but she had to be.  Before her arrest and incarceration, she was spoiled, rich girl.  We don't see her slowly becoming brave, she just rose to the occasion when it was necessary.

I enjoyed reading The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and highly recommend it to historical fiction fans.  It isn't every day that we get a novel set in Cuba. This should be appreciated by those of tired of reading about books set in England, France and Italy.  4 out of 5 stars.