i love lucy the ricardos visit cuba

The Ricardos Visit Cuba

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Making cigars... undercover

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The Ricardos Visit Cuba was the 162nd overall episode of I Love Lucy , also the 9th episode of season 6, the final season of the series. The episode was directed by James V. Kern , originally aired on CBS-TV on December 3, 1956.

• 2 Plot summary
• 5 Guest Starring

Synopsis [ ]

Lucy and Ethel's scheme to prevent the boys from judging a beauty contest leaves the Ricardos and the Mertzes marooned on a desert island. Claude Akins guest stars as himself.

What a cigar!

Plot summary [ ]

After their trip to Florida, since Cuba is so close, everybody's flying down to Ricky's home country to meet his family. Ricky warns Lucy that the only one who is important to impress is Uncle Alberto. But Lucy makes a mess of things, including ruining Uncle Alberto's hat and his expensive cigars! When Little Ricky performs "Babalu" alonside his father, however, Uncle Alberto accepts Lucy, saying that any mother of a boy like Little Ricky is welcome in the family.

• For a long time, due to Cuba becoming Communist during the Cold War and the strife between Cuba and the US from the Cuban Missile Crisis , this episode was not shown in syndication.
• Keith Thibodeaux said that "Babalu" was in the wrong key for him to sing in this episode, so he had to squeak really high to keep up with the notes.
• Lucy reveals in this episode that she took Spanish in high school.
• Ricky has a HUGE family. Besides Uncle Alberto , who is the head of the family, he has Uncle Eduardo (a Cuban judge), Uncle Pedro, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Rafael, Aunt Silvia, Aunt Maria Pepa, Uncle Jorge, Uncle Guillermito Menendez, Nandine, Manuel, Amberta, Amparo, Pepe, Enrique, Josefina, and a pair of unnamed twins in his family!
• Uncle Alberto wanted Ricky to marry a Cuban girl, so Lucy already had quite a bit to do to impress Alberto. Her messing up so badly certainly didn't help things!
• Instead of saying "muchas gracias," Lucy says "mucha grasa" to Uncle Alberto. This literally means "a lot of fat," NOT "fat pig." "Cerdo gordo" would be the literal translation of "fat pig."
• Uncle Alberto wears straw hats so much that it's possible that Ricky adopted his frequent straw hat wearing from his uncle.
• For the flight from Miami to Cuba, the gang once again flies Pan Am.
• Corona Grande is Alberto's choice of cigar brands.
• Lucy saying Ricky has "a memory like an elephant" probably was a reference to Desi's phenomenal memory capabilities.

Starring [ ]

• Lucille Ball ... as Lucy Ricardo
• Desi Arnaz ... as Ricky Ricardo
• Vivian Vance ... as Ethel Mertz
• William Frawley ... as Fred Mertz

Guest Starring [ ]

• Mary Emery ... as Ricky's Mother
• Richard Keith ... as Little Ricky
• Amapola Del Vando ... as Ricky's relative
• Abel Franco ... as Ricky's Relative
• Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. ... as Ricky's Relative
• Lillian Molieri ... as Ricky's Relative
• Manuel París ... as Ricky's Relative
• Jorge Treviño ... as Uncle Alberto
• Nacho Galindo ... as Cigar Store owner
• Eddie Le Baron ... as Emcee
• 1 List of I Love Lucy episodes
• 2 Mrs. McGillicuddy
• 3 Joseph and Michael Mayer

Papermoon Loves Lucy

A Lucille Ball Supersite!

“The Ricardos Visit Cuba”

(S6;E9 ~ December 3,1956)  Directed by James V. Kern. Written by

Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed October 18, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 45.9/64

Synopsis ~ While visiting Florida, the Ricardos and the Mertzes take a side trip to Cuba to visit Ricky’s relatives. 

For a long time, CBS removed this episode from syndication due to the political situation with Cuba. The Cuban revolution started in 1953 and by the time this episode aired guerrilla warfare was starting to occur throughout the country. 

The original title of the episode was “The Ricardos Visit Havana ”. Uncle Carlos was renamed Uncle Alberto, to stay closer to Desi’s real family tree. 

For the flight from Miami to Havana, the gang once again flies Pan American Airways, the same carrier they took home from Europe . 

The airline folded in 1991. 

The Pan Am flight attendant was played by Barbara Logan .

Ricky reads to his son from the book “Three of Us.” Lucy hopes Ricky’s family will like her. 

ETHEL :  “What if they don’t [like you]? What are they going to do?  Start another Spanish-American War?”

The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, leading to US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.

At the time, Pan Am owned the historic Hotel Nacional de Cuba where the Ricardos and the Mertzes stay.

Ten years earlier the hotel was the site of a mob summit later depicted in the film The Godfather Part II (1974). The same year this episode was filmed and aired, Nat King Cole wanted to stay at the Nacional, but was not allowed to because he was black. He still fulfilled his contract to perform at the nearby Tropicana, the club that served as the inspiration for Ricky Ricardo’s NYC nightclub.

In the episode, Ricky is performing at the hotel’s new nightclub, the Casino Parisién . It opened in January 1956 with a show starring Eartha Kitt. Fidel Castro closed the Casino in October 1960, almost two years after his overthrow of Batista. Both the Nacional and the Parisién are still in operation today, although the Casino has since been re-named the Cabaret

UNCLE ALBERTO: (To Lucy) “Where did you get that beautiful red hair?” LUCY :  “Oh, I get it every two weeks.”

Unsurprisingly, Ricky has a large family: 

Uncle Alberto, Uncle Eduardo (a judge), Uncle Pedro, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Rafael, Aunt Silvia, Aunt Maria Pepa, Uncle Jorge, Uncle Guillermito Menendez Nandine, Manuel, Amberta, Amparo, Pepe, Enrique, Josefina, and a pair of twins! 

• Mary Emery reprises her role as Ricky’s (unnamed) mother. She first played the character in “Lucy’s Mother In Law” (S4;E7) . This would be her last screen role before retiring. 
• Jorge Trevino (Uncle Alberto) started making films in Mexico in 1934. He would also appear as a Judge in the very first episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” called “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957) . Desi Arnaz’s grandfather was named Alberto, an executive at Bacardi, and it is also Desi’s middle name. 
• Mexican-born Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.  also appeared as one of the two Spanish-speaking party guests in “Lucy’s Mother in Law” (S4;E7) . 
• Lillian Molieri  played ‘Dream’ Carlotta in “Ricky’s Old Girlfriend” (S3;E12) .
• Manuel Paris was a Spanish-born actor who appeared in more than 150 films, including as an extra in Casablanca (1943). His credits include Cuban-themed films like Havana Rose and Cuban Fireball (both in 1951). He died in 1959.  
• Abel Franco was born in El Paso, Texas. He did more than 50 films and television shows, mostly as Mexican characters. 
• Amapolo Del Vando was born in Seville, Spain and came to America at age 9.

Trying to replace the cigars she sat on for Uncle Alberto, Lucy goes shopping.  Things don’t go as planned when she accidentally steps on a $15 box of Corona Grande cigars just as Uncle Alberto and Ricky come through the shop door.  

The Cigar Store Owner was played by Nacho Galindo , a Mexican-born actor whose first film was Week-End in Havana (1941). Eight years later he was in Holiday in Havana (1949) and – along with Manuel Paris – Cuban Fireball in 1959.

Lucy’s fellow cigar-roller is named Angelo , but the actor goes un-credited.

The episode finishes with two songs: “Babalu” and  “A Lucky Guy.”  By this time, Philip Morris was no longer a sponsor, so the word “lucky” was no longer banned to avoid suggestion of Lucky Strike cigarettes (aka Luckys). This episode was actually sponsored by Lilt Home Permanent and Sanka. The song was written especially for this episode.  

Venezuelan-born actor Eddie Le Baron played the nightclub emcee.

This rendition of “Babalu” is probably the most memorable of its many in the series, since Little Ricky joins his father playing the miniature conga drum that Big Ricky used as a child and the scene is set in the nation of Ricky’s birth. Keith Thibodeaux (Little Ricky) later said that the song was in the wrong key for him, so he had to squeak out the really high notes. It only makes the scene more poignant.

BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

The first episode of  “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”  (1957) was a flashback to 1940 and set in Havana, Cuba, where Lucy McGillicuddy met Ricky Ricardo. Although filmed in Hollywood, a second unit was sent to Havana to get establishing footage.  When violence broke out in Cuba, Desi Arnaz instructed them to pack up and come home. 

In Lucille Ball’s 1969 appearance on “The Carol Burnett Show,” two flight attendants encounter a mysterious passenger (Harvey Korman) with a Fidel Castro-like beard, cigars tucked in his breast pocket, and a thick Spanish accent.

LUCY:  “Where are you from, sir?  Havana?” KORMAN (alarmed):  “Havana? What makes you think I’m from Havana?” LUCY:  “Well, if it’s one thing I know, it’s a Cuban accent.”

Fan Fiction – Cuban Style!

Michael T. Mooney

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Ricardos Visit Cuba

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I LOVE LUCY

I love lucy episode guide.

EPISODE #162

The ricardos visit cuba, (featuring ).

The Ricardos and Mertzes fly to Cuba for a visit with Ricky's relatives and for the bandleader's two-day engagement at the Hotel National's Casino Parisien.

Lucy is wary of meeting her in-laws, especially the formidable head of the Ricardo clan, Uncle Alberto. Ricky assures her that all will go well: "Make sure you say muchas gracias to Uncle Alberto all the time. He likes that."

Lucy is a nervous wreck at the reunion, where nothing seems to go right for her. When Uncle Alberto asks her where she got her beautiful hair, Lucy replies: "Oh, I get it about every two weeks." She then proceeds to spill punch on his white jacket, rip his straw hat to shreds, and destroy a pocketful of expensive Cuban cigars.

When Lucy mispronounces muchas gracias, calling the patriarchal uncle "a fat pig" instead, she feels like a doomed woman. Lamenting the next day, she says: "After what I did last night, Cuba might cut off America's sugar supply!"

To take her mind off family relations, she goes souvenir-hunting while her husband and son rehearse for their nightclub appearance. Determined to make up for the Uncle Alberto fiasco, Lucy buys him a box of his favorite cigars, Corona Grandos.

Finding herself short of cash, she promises the tobacco store owner that she will return with the extra funds later. An argument develops, made worse by the entrance of Uncle Alberto himself. To avoid him, Lucy dons a big hat and apron, and proceeds to roll cigars like her co-worker. After completing a foot-long stogie, Lucy retreats.

The night of the big performance, Ricky sings "A Lucky Guy," then introduces Little Ricky and together they perform "Babalu." Proud Uncle Alberto leans over to Lucy and comments: "Anyone who is the mother of a boy like that is all right with me."

Special Notes:  At the time of the episode, the Cuban revolution had already started in 1953. By this time in 1956, Guerrilla Warfare was starting to occur throughout Cuba. When the American and Cuban political relationship faltered in the early '60's, CBS pulled this episode from the morning rerun lineup. The episode finally returned when the series went into syndication again in 1967. Desi Arnaz was a Cuban refugee arriving in Florida on June 27, 1934. Mary Emory reprises her role as Ricky's mother from episode #105, " Lucy's Mother-in-Law ".

Bloopers:  Uncle Alberto's hat goes through a series of events during the show: it's on and off the table several times in between shots, then it winds up in Ricky's hands, then after he throws the hat back to Alberto, the hat again is on and off the table in between shots, finally, Alberto accidentally smashes the hat, and a few shots later, it's undamaged and brand new.

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• Seasons & Episodes
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I Love Lucy Season 6 Episodes

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Sitcom centred on a zany housewife who wants desperately to get into showbiz, and her Cuban bandleader husband who has his hands full trying to dissuade her. Also getting caught up in their shenanigans are the Mertzes, their landlords and best friends.

Season 6 Episode Guide

27 Episodes 1956 - 1957

Lucy and Bob Hope

Mon, Oct 1, 1956 30 mins

Hey, get yer red-hots! That's what Bob Hope does---from that manic redhead---when he takes in a ballgame. The storyline: the Mertzes and Ricardos are at Yankee Stadium when Lucy sees Hope in a box seat. Of course, she has to meet him. Her plan: disguise herself as a hot-dog vendor. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums

Mon, Oct 8, 1956 30 mins

Little Ricky gets drums---and the Mertzes get headaches. So do Lucy and Ricky, but they're not about to evict themselves. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux. Mrs. Trumbull: Elizabeth Patterson.

Lucy Meets Orson Welles

Mon, Oct 15, 1956 30 mins

Scheming as usual to break into show business, Lucy teams with Orson Welles. She thinks they'll be doing Shakespeare; he wants an assistant for his magic act. They're both right (sort of): Welles levitates Lucy, who bellows: "Romeo, Romeo, get me down from here Romeo!" Miss Hanna: Ellen Corby.

Little Ricky Gets Stage Fright

Mon, Oct 22, 1956 30 mins

Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux) is a little drummer boy---until he gets stage fright just before a school recital. But Lucy and Ricky are determined to get him over it. They want him to perform at Ricky's club. Mr. Crawford: Howard McNear. Mrs. Van Fossen: Marjorie Bennett. Ekelele Player: Earl Robie.

Visitor from Italy

Mon, Oct 29, 1956 30 mins

Lucy tosses pizza dough---in much the same way as she wraps candy or stomps grapes---to help out a visiting Venetian gondolier (Jay Novello), who needs money to get to San Francisco, but can't work or he'll be deported. Dominic: Peter Brocco. Mr. Martinelli: Eduardo Ciannelli. Immigration Officer: James Flavin. Pizza Chef: Aldo Formica.

Off to Florida

Mon, Nov 12, 1956 30 mins

Lucy and Ethel bum a ride to Florida with a health-food nut (Elsa Lanchester)---who they come to think is an ax murderer. Meanwhile, she thinks Lucy and Ethel are wanted criminals. Cafe Owner: Strother Martin. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

Deep Sea Fishing

Mon, Nov 19, 1956 30 mins

It's Lucy and Ethel vs. Ricky and Fred in a fishing contest while they're on a Florida vacation. The wager: $150 (about what Lucy and Ethel had spent in hotel boutiques), so both sides do a little cheating to ensure a victory. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux. Boat Captain: James Hayward. Bellboy: Billy McLean.

Desert Island

Mon, Nov 26, 1956 30 mins

Lucy and Ethel will do anything to keep Ricky and Fred from judging a Miami Beach beauty contest (and end up being menaced on a seemingly deserted island as a result). Claude Akins, Joi Lansing and Jill Jarmyn play themselves. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

The Ricardos Visit Cuba

Mon, Dec 3, 1956 30 mins

In Cuba, Lucy's antics make life difficult for Ricky's rich uncle Alberto (George Trevino). "After what I did," she moans, "Cuba might cut off America's sugar supply." Mother Ricardo: Mary Emery. Cigar Store Owner: Nacho Galindo. Cigar Maker: Angelo Didio. Flight Attendant: Barbara Logan. Nightclub Emcee: Eddie LeBaron. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

Little Ricky's School Pageant

Mon, Dec 17, 1956 30 mins

Little Ricky's school pageant---"The Enchanted Forest"---is coming up and it's coming up short on cast members, so the Ricardos and Mertzes volunteer. Ricky's a hollow stump, Fred's a frog and Ethel's the fairy princess (because she can fit into the costume). And Lucy? She's a witch. Suzy: Candy Rogers Schoenberger. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

Christmas Show

Sat, Dec 21, 2013 60 mins

Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred put up Christmas decorations while reminiscing about the changes in their lives since the arrival of the Ricardos' son, Ricky. Later, Lucy works in an Italian vineyard to "soak up some local color" for a movie role.

Lucy and the Loving Cup

Mon, Jan 7, 1957 30 mins

Lucy's head is stuck in a loving cup (and, not surprisingly, everyone on the subway takes notice). Jockey Johnny Longden has a cameo; he's to receive the cup at an awards dinner. lt lands on Lucy's head because she put it there as a joke. Now it won't budge. Cop: Robert Foulk.

Lucy and Superman

Mon, Jan 14, 1957 30 mins

"Superman" star George Reeves appears at Little Ricky's birthday party---just in time to save a Super-suited Lucy, who's stuck on the ledge outside her apartment. What she's doing out there has to do with her competing with Caroline Appleby (Doris Singleton), who was planning a party for her son the same day.

Little Ricky Gets a Dog

Mon, Jan 21, 1957 30 mins

Little Ricky brings home a puppy, which is fine---except that dogs aren't allowed in the apartment and a grouchy new neighbor is complaining about the noise. Naming the pooch "Fred" solves problem No.1, but solving problem No. 2 will require some quick thinking (and dog-biscuit eating) by Lucy. Mr. Stewart: John Emery. June Foray, the voice of Rocky on "Rocky and His Friends," provides the voice of the dog.

Lucy Wants to Move to the Country

Mon, Jan 28, 1957 30 mins

Lucy's fed up with the city and wants to move to Connecticut. But then it occurs to her that that would mean leaving the Mertzes, so she changes her mind. Too late: Ricky has already put a down payment on a house. Maybe it's not too late---all they have to do is make a bad impression on the sellers (Frank Wilcox, Eleanor Audley).

Lucy Hates to Leave

Mon, Feb 4, 1957 30 mins

Fred has rented the Ricardos' apartment before they can move into their Connecticut house---so Lucy and Ricky move in with the Mertzes, furniture and all. Good thing it's only for a few days. Or is it? Mr. Taylor: Gene Reynolds. Mrs. Taylor: Mary Ellen Kaye.

Lucy Misses the Mertzes

Mon, Feb 11, 1957 30 mins

The Ricardos, lonely in their new Connecticut home, decide to visit the Mertzes in New York. But they're not home---because they've decided to go to Connecticut to visit the Ricardos. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux. Harry Munson: Tristram Coffin. Station Clerk: Jesse Kirkpatrick. Moving Man: Robert Bice. Deliveryman: Gary Gray.

Lucy Gets Chummy with the Neighbors

Mon, Feb 18, 1957 30 mins

It's love at first sight---and confusion later---when Lucy goes to a furniture store to furnish the new house in Connecticut. This episode introduces Frank Nelson and Mary Jane Croft as the Ricardos' new neighbors, Ralph and Betty Ramsey. Mr. Perry: Parley Baer. Bruce Ramsey: Ray Ferrell.

Lucy Raises Chickens

Mon, Mar 4, 1957 30 mins

The Ricardos need money to pay for their new Connecticut house so Lucy decides to raise chickens. The expenses are low ("chicken feed," Lucy cackles), but they have no experience, so they advertise for help. Who answers the ad? The Mertzes (Fred's eggsperience: "for the last 25 years I've been henpecked"). Betty Ramsey: Mary Jane Croft.

Lucy Does the Tango

Mon, Mar 11, 1957 30 mins

It's no yolk when the Ricardos' hens won't lay any eggs, a situation that may doom the Ricardo-Mertz poultry business. So Lucy and Ethel buy some eggs and put them under the hens to "show them what they're supposed to do." But Ricky and Fred come home before they can distribute their stash, so they must quicky stash them in their clothes. Now, Ricky insists, Lucy must dance the tango with him. Now!

Ragtime Band

Mon, Mar 18, 1957 30 mins

Lucy has promised that Ricky will play for a benefit at the Westport Historical Society but Ricky refuses---Ricky Sr. refuses, that is. So Lucy decides instead to showcase the talents of Little Ricky, plus those of Fred and Ethel and, of course, her own. There's only one problem: no talent. Little Ricky: Keith Thibodeaux.

Lucy's Night in Town

Mon, Mar 25, 1957 30 mins

Too bad about Lucy's evening at the theater: her tickets were for the matinee. Ricky sort of saves the day, but he's able to buy only two box seats, so they decide that the women will see the first act and the men the second. It doesn't work out that way, of course, and soon more eyes are focused on the Ricardo-Mertz box than on the stage. Theater Manager: Joseph Kearns.

Housewarming

Mon, Apr 1, 1957 30 mins

Lucy and Ethel become rivals for a neighbor's friendship. First, it's Ethel who's jealous, so Lucy brings Ethel and Betty Ramsey (Mary Jane Croft) together and they hit it off---too well, as far as Lucy's concerned. Bruce Ramsey: Ray Ferrell.

Building a Barbecue

Mon, Apr 8, 1957 30 mins

Lucy and Ethel take apart the new barbecue Ricky built, brick by brick. The reason: Lucy's wedding ring might be embedded in it. She had left it near a cement bucket, and Ricky finds it---but doesn't tell her that he did in order to teach her a lesson. Instead, he should have taught her how to build a barbecue.

Country Club Dance

Mon, Apr 22, 1957 30 mins

A suburban siren makes the girls jealous. So they decide to fight fire with fire.

Lucy Raises Tulips

Fri, Apr 19, 1957 30 mins

It's Lucy vs Betty Ramsey for the Wesport tulip title, and Lucy has an inadvertent secret weapon: Ricky's power mower.

The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue

Mon, May 6, 1957 30 mins

Lucy's stone-faced in the series finale: she's impersonating Westport's Revolutionary War statue. The reason for that, of course, is that she did something dumb (she ran over the statue with her car), and to repair the damage she does something dumber.

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‘I Love Lucy’ and the Cuba of America’s dreams

Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, on the set of “I Love Lucy,” circa 1955. (Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

This story is part of a weeklong Yahoo series marking one year since the opening of relations between the United States and Cuba.

If you were a typical American in the early 1950s, you probably thought you knew Cuba pretty well. You knew it was a country of dangerously handsome nightclub singers given to hilarious malapropisms in broken English, and of brassy, rumba-dancing sirens in slit dresses and fruit-salad headdresses. You knew the people lived among chickens and burros while strumming “Cielito Lindo” on their guitars. You knew all this, even if it wasn’t remotely accurate, because you saw it on “I Love Lucy,” in its time the most popular program on television, a cultural force so powerful it created its own reality. Although set in New York and filmed in a Hollywood studio, “Lucy” invented, through the character of Ricky Ricardo, a fictitious Cuba that loomed as large in American culture as any Latin American country save Mexico.

It almost didn’t happen that way. In 1950, when CBS sought to move Lucille Ball’s popular radio program to television, the star insisted on casting her actual husband, Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, as her on-screen spouse. According to James Sheridan, the unofficial “I Love Lucy” scholar-in-residence at the Paley Center for Media in New York, the response by the network amounted to: “Forget it — nobody will believe you’re married to him.”

Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo in “I Love Lucy,” circa 1955. (Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

“She said, ‘But I am married to him,’” Sheridan recounts, and to prove her point, she embarked on a months-long national tour with Arnaz and his orchestra, whose success persuaded CBS to go along with the then daring notion of portraying the marriage of a redheaded American beauty and a member of an ethnic group that would later be called Hispanic. Sheridan points out that in the early years of television, audiences didn’t balk at the appearance of ethnic minorities in situation comedies, nor were the networks especially concerned about political correctness in exploiting stereotypes for laughs. Contemporaneous series included “Amos ’n’ Andy,” “The Goldbergs,” “Life With Luigi” and even “I Remember Mama,” about a family from that exotic land of … whatever it was that Norway was known for at the time. It wasn’t until the latter half of the decade that they were elbowed aside by the Cleavers and Nelsons and the rest of the all-American sitcom families we think of as quintessentially 1950s.

It undoubtedly helped that Arnaz, a descendant of Spanish nobility, was, to put it directly, a white man — albeit one who would exclaim, “Now, Loosy, take-a-tizzy!” when he was trying to calm his wife. Arnaz’s accent and mispronunciations were more than a running joke in “I Love Lucy”; they were the key to the character of Ricky Ricardo, who believed he was fitting smoothly into American society even as he struggled with its most basic requirement. At moments of high emotion, he would erupt into bursts of rapid-fire Spanish that were usually left untranslated; no line of dialogue could be funnier than the cascade of long vowels and clipped sibilants he poured down on his uncomprehending wife. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the first words of Spanish many Americans heard spoken were by Arnaz (or that the first Spanish words whose meaning they understood were Lucy’s hesitant efforts to wrap her tongue around a word for “thank you” she pronounced “grassy-ass”).

Arnaz “really did talk like that,” Sheridan says. “In fact, some people said he was harder to understand when he was talking to you in real life.” But he was an actor; writers quickly discovered that if they tried to write dialogue the way they thought Arnaz would mispronounce it, he crossed them up by saying the lines correctly. And it became a rule that the only character allowed to make fun of Arnaz’s accent was Lucy herself, perhaps because her on-screen Spanish was, if anything, worse than his English.

Although Americans could visit Cuba freely in those years, the producers didn’t see a need to waste money on actually filming there. It wasn’t until the sixth and final season of “I Love Lucy,” in 1956 — the same characters appeared for several years thereafter in a series of one-hour specials — that the Ricardos get around to paying a visit to Havana, and much of that episode was actually set in a hotel room where Lucy meets Ricky’s family. (Spoiler alert: Lucy sits on Uncle Alberto’s cigars.) According to Sheridan, for almost a decade after Castro took power, CBS — sensitive to the explosive political implications of depicting a visit to the forbidden island, by fictitious characters, set before the revolution, and not actually filmed there at all — refused to air the episode in reruns.

Lucille Ball in the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Ricardos Visit Cuba,” which aired Dec. 3, 1956. (Photo: Everett Collection)

The notional Cuba of “I Love Lucy” was exotic in ways small and large. In one early episode, the Ricardos and their sidekicks, Fred and Ethel Mertz, open a diner, serving a “Little Bit of Cuba” special that could only have been concocted as a way to discourage Americans from traveling there: a hamburger smothered in Tabasco, with mashed bananas, served between two tortillas. Probably no more than a handful of viewers knew that when Arnaz picked up his conga drum for his signature number, “Babalu,” he was actually intoning a prayer to the Santeria deity Babalú-Ayé, the god of disease and healing. But in the character of Ricky, the exotic mixed with the domesticated, a television dad who worried about paying the bills and tried to impose some notion of practicality on his zany television wife. He was viewed by Americans , according to the astute Cuban journalist Alfredo Prieto, “with a mixture [of] exoticism, assimilationism and paternalism.” Those were not qualities that would later endear him to Fidel Castro who, after taking power, made one of the world’s most famous Cuban expatriates a nonperson in his home country. In an era when foreign travel was an exotic luxury, “I Love Lucy” was the lens through which mid-century Americans viewed the alluring, tropical Neverland they hoped to visit someday. As history turned out, most never got there.

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The Ricardos Visit Cuba

• Edit source

Previous episode: Desert Island         Next episode: Little Ricky's School Pageant

Making cigars undercover

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/TioAlberto.jpg http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/ABMfisher/LongCigar.jpg

After their trip to Florida, since Cuba is so close, everybody's flying

What a cigar!

down to Ricky's home country to meet his family. Ricky warns Lucy that the only one who is important to impress is Uncle Alberto. But Lucy makes a mess of things, including ruining Uncle Alberto's hat and his expensive cigars, as well as calling him a big fat pig in Spanish! When Little Ricky performs "Babalu" alonside his father, however, Uncle Alberto accepts Lucy, saying that any mother of a boy like Little Ricky is welcome in the family.

• Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo
• Jorge Trevino as Uncle Alberto
• For a long time, due to Cuba becoming Communist during the Cold War and the strife between Cuba and the US from the Cuban Missile Crisis, this episode was not shown in syndication.
• Keith Thibodeaux said that "Babalu" was in the wrong key for him to sing in this episode, so he had to squeak really high to keep up with the notes.
• Lucy reveals in this episode that she took Spanish in high school.
• Ricky has a HUGE family. Besides Uncle Alberto , who is the head of the family, he has Uncle Eduardo (a Cuban judge), Uncle Pedro, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Rafael, Aunt Silvia, Aunt Maria Pepa, Uncle Jorge, Uncle Guillermito Menendez, Nandine, Manuel, Amberta, Amparo, Pepe, Enrique, Josefina, and a pair of unnamed twins in his family!
• Uncle Alberto wanted Ricky to marry a Cuban girl, so Lucy already had quite a bit to do to impress Alberto. Her messing up so badly certainly didn't help things!
• Instead of saying "muchas gracias," Lucy says "macho grasa" to Uncle Alberto. This literally means "fat male" NOT "fat pig." "Cerdo gordo" would be the literal translation of "fat pig."
• Uncle Alberto wears straw hats so much that it's possible that Ricky adopted his frequent straw hat wearing from his uncle.
• For the flight from Miami to Cuba, the gang once again flies Pan Am.
• Corona Grande is Alberto's choice of cigar brands.
• Lucy saying Ricky has "a memory like an elephant" probably was a reference to Desi 's phenomenal memory capabilities.
• In the conga drumming scene, Uncle Alberto is seen pounding on the table and accidentally ripping his straw hat. Moments later, when he is talking to Lucy, the straw hat is untouched.
• Lucy: well, weren't you [scared] when you met Fred's family for the first time?

Ethel: After marrying Fred, nothing could scare me!

• Ethel: What are they gonna do [if they don't like you]? Start another Spanish-American War?
• Ethel: Sometimes, I wish I'd married a Cuban.

Fred: That makes two of us!

• Lucy: I don't think that's very nice, making fun of my Spanish!

Ricky: Well, you've been making fun of my English for 15 years.

Lucy: Well, that's different. Spanish is a foreign language.

Ricky: Well, English is a foreign language to ME!

Lucy: Well, the way you speak it, it is to me, too!

• Lucy: (after hearing all the members of Ricky's huge family) If you asked me, you did not leave the island of Cuba voluntarily. You were squeezed off!
• Lucy: (to Ricky) I might not be able to undertand what you say when you say it, but before you say it, I can understand what you're going to say perfectly!
• Ricky: Well, you took [Spanish] in high school, didn't you? Don't you remember anythin'?

Lucy: I remember I flunked!

• Uncle Alberto: And where did you get that beautiful red hair?

Lucy: Oh, I get it every two weeks.

• Lucy: Why don't you tell [Uncle Alberto] it's an old American custom?

Ricky: What?

Lucy: Well, when you like somebody, you break their hat!

• Lucy: well, I ruined his straw hat, spilled punch on his clothes, crushed his cigars, and called him a "big, fat pig" in Spanish.

Fred: Well, that's pretty bad, even for YOU!

Lucy: After what I did last night, Cuba might cut off America's sugar supply.

• Lucy: Well, if the first time I met you I said awful things, spilled stuff all over you, and acted like a first-class nincompoop, what would you have done?

Ricky: Just what I did- wait for my clothes to come back from the cleaners, and then marry you.

Lucy: Oh, he's got a memory like an elephant!

• Lucy: Oh, look at me- brown purse, blue shoes.

Fred: Heavens to Betsy!

Lucy: I'll only be a second. I wanna get my other purse.

Fred: I'm gonna get my other wallet. I left my money in this one!

• Ethel: Oh, I just wanna buy a pair of those maracas.

Fred: Swell. Then we can mambo all the way tot he poor house!

• 1 Ethel Mertz
• 2 Lucy Gets a Paris Gown
• 3 Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Ricardos Visit Cuba

I love lucy.

• Ricky Ricardo : Ricky, what are you going to say when you meet your grandmother?
• Little Ricky Ricardo : 'Buenos días, abuela.'
• Ricky Ricardo : Very good. Very good.
• Little Ricky Ricardo : What are you going to say, Mommie?
• Lucy Ricardo : What, dear?
• Ricky Ricardo : What are you going to say when you meet my mother?
• Lucy Ricardo : Oh. 'Bonos dyes, may-dree.'
• Ricky Ricardo : 'Bonos dyes, may-dree?' Heh, heh, Honey, it's 'Buenos días, madre.'
• Lucy Ricardo : I don't think that's very nice, making fun of my Spanish.
• Ricky Ricardo : Well, you've been making fun of my English for fifteen years.
• Lucy Ricardo : Well, that's different. Spanish is a foreign language.
• Ricky Ricardo : Well, English is a foreign language to me.
• Lucy Ricardo : Well, the way you speak it, it is to me, too.
• Ethel Mertz : Oh, just think. You'll be visiting your relatives in a foreign land. Sometimes I wish I had married a Cuban.
• Fred Mertz : That makes two of us!

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