Langston Hughes is perhaps best known as the premier poet of the Harlem Renaissance, but he was also known to make a trek or two down to Havana, Cuba.  He was comfortable speaking Spanish and identified with many of the struggles of the residents of Havana, who were known as habaneros.  What is more, he developed a close relationship with Cuban poet, Nicolas Guillén, and there is substantial evidence to suggest that both writers greatly influenced each other. 

Keith Green, PhD, associate professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden and One Book, One Cherry Hill humanities scholar, provides an overview of Langston Hughes’s visits to Cuba and discusses some of the poems that memorialize his interest in the island.