With a Cuban song in the heart

Literary Nonfiction, Latino/Latina Studies, Art, Music. Double Vinyl LP Edition. WITH A CUBAN SONG IN THE HEART | CON UNA CANCIÓN CUBANA EN EL CORAZÓN features the artwork from 280 album covers from Iván Acosta's collection of over 5,000 long-playing discs—a collection which hangs in the living room of his New York City home and which includes the two albums that he and his sister smuggled out of Cuba on that August 28th, 1961; and by which he weaves a story of real life passages from his childhood in Santiago de Cuba and "tidbits of history that lay dormant in those album covers," local lore and landmark events. "Not a novel of politics, not a history of Cuban music, not an autobiography, but an anecdotal and musical journey of a soul," "a Cuban, an exile, a Cuban-American" liberated by and with the music. A double album compilation on Un-Gyve Records, packaged as a CD or in an alternate vinyl LP edition, and an exhibition of the album artwork coincides with the publication of WITH A CUBAN SONG IN THE HEART, which includes both the English and Spanish versions of the text. 

The 12.5 x 12.5 card-cover book is 162 pages with 290 full colour illustrations, with an introduction by Wall Street Journal contributor and JazzWax founder, journalist and historian, Marc Myers. 

"A book about love: love for a nation that does not allow itself to be destroyed; love for traditions that cannot be lost; love for music so universal that no one can silence it."—Ileana Fuentes 

"Rich in sentiment, anecdote and history...I recommend it with enthusiasm."—Oscar Hijuelos 

"With this book, Iván Acosta takes us by the hand on a musical and historical journey."—Mirta Ojito 

"...only minutes to gather your things. What would you grab to remind you of the life you left behind? A doll? A toy? A ring? Iván reached for two 12- inch long-playing records, one by Luis Bravo and the other by Ramón Veloz. To take records is both an amazing and fabulous choice. It's a simultaneous act of remembrance and revenge."—Marc Myers

Iván Acosta was born in Los Hoyos, a neighborhood in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. Playwright, theater director, filmmaker, songwriter and producer of Latin Jazz concerts, Acosta has lived in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, since December of 1961, the year he fled Cuba. His play El Super, gained international recognition and migrated to the big screen in 1979, winning more than 20 awards in international film festivals, and hailed as the most important and emblematic film of Cuban exile. Acosta is a founding member of the Cuban Cultural Center of New York (1972).

Marc Myers (born September 4, 1956, New York City) is an American journalist, author, and historian, and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, where he writes on music and the arts. In 2007, he founded JazzWax, a top-ranked daily jazz blog that won the 2012 Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year" award.