We are thrilled to continue our live, in-person event series, a special Cuban Dinner Adventure featuring  SDSU Professor Emerita, author, San Diego Book Award winner, and native Cuban Oliva Espín. Please join us for an early afternoon Cuban dinner at Havana Grill, where you will dine on traditional, flavorful Cuban food*, while enjoying a presentation by Oliva about her new book, My Native Land is Memory.

Your Adventure includes an authentic Cuban dinner*, soft beverage, tax, gratuity, book discussion, Q&A, author signing, and an opportunity to meet the author up close and personal in an intimate and authentic setting. Seating may be limited due to current COVID restrictions, so you will want to register soon to guarantee a seat.

Books will be available for purchase and signing during the event, or pre-order your copy below for delivery and signing at the event.

*Please include your dinner choice in the notation section of your order below: lechon (roasted pork, white onions, cilantro), mango citrus salmon (grilled wild Alaskan sockeye salmon filet and fresh mango salsa), ropa vieja (natural, hormone-free beef, braised and shedded in a light wine and organic tomato sauce)), pollo (1/2 range-free roasted, house rub, sauteed onions,with bone), citrus grilled boneless chicken breast (naturally raised, hormone-free, carmelized onions, cilantro), vegetarian plate (roasted veggies, yucca fries, rice, signature black beans, sweet plantains), all served with rice (white or brown) & signature black beans, (or congris), sweet plantains & a side of mojo, or perhaps you want to try an authentic el cubano sandwich (sliced roasted pork, smoked ham, cheese, mustard, pickles, hot-pressed).

PLEASE NOTE: If no request is made with your order, the restaurant will serve you their most popular dish, lechon. Alcohol is available and will be sold separately.

About the Author

Oliva M. Espín is Professor Emerita in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University and the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University. Dr. Espín was a pioneer in the practice and theory of feminist therapy with women from different cultural background, and she is the author of Gendered Journeys: Women, Migration, and Feminist Psychology (2015) and Women, Sainthood, and Power: A Feminist Psychology of Cultural Constructions (2019). 

A native of Cuba, she received her BA in Psychology from the University of Costa Rica and her PhD from the University of Florida. She did post-doctoral work at Harvard University with a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Espín held the 2010 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Gender Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

 In her most recent book is My Native Land is Memory: Stories of a Cuban Childhood (2020), which recently won the San Diego Book Award: Best Memoir, is a moving narrative of her life growing up in pre-Castro Cuba, described as “intimate, honest, written with sensuous detail, cultural specificity and psychological insight…the island’s fraught history and violent political shifts are seamlessly interwoven into a beautiful coming of ago story that is at once a love letter, analysis, and celebration of family and nation still alive in the author’s memory.” – Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union-Tribune Arts Critic and Author.

About Havana Grill

Naturally raised and grass-fed meats. Non-GMO cooking oils. Cuban food is one of the most flavorful cuisines in the world, but the folks at Havana Grill believe it should be healthy too. Havana Grill combines traditional, flavorful Cuban cuisine with the purest and most natural ingredients we can find to create food that is not only delicious and flavorful but also good for you. Their goal is to create authentic Cuban cuisine that is organic and locally sourced whenever possible. It’s comfort food with a conscience.