Reporting Texas

In 2011, in a non-descript storefront in a small strip mall in North Austin, Enrique Reyes laid the foundation for what has become the central hub of Cuban culture in the city. Serving island staples ranging from ropa vieja (a shredded pork stew), to the potent, sugary Cuban coffee, the idea behind was to Cuban Sandwich Cafe offer Texans a taste of Reyes’ cultural heritage and to give local Cubans a taste of home.

The brain-child of the Miami-born Cuban-American whose family immigrated to the United States shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, patrons at Cuban Sandwich Cafe vary widely in ethnicity, age, and mother tongue, and the conversation of changing relations between Cuba takes on a more personal tone here. For many it such conversations touch an open wound related to their sense of family, home, and identity.