Lazaro Rosenberg-Acosta is a Puerto Rican Jew studying Afro-Cuban music at the International School of Art in Habana, Cuba. Because of his almond shaped eyes, Cubans call Lazaro; el Chino (the Chinaman.) Lazaro spends his mornings taking music classes and is quickly swept into the mystical world of Cuban Santeria in the afternoons. His friend and tutor, Edwardo, takes Lazaro to meet his grandfather, Tato, a Lukumi Priest of Chango and tata (priest) of the Kongolese religion Palo Monte. Lazaro is initiated in Lukumi and Palo, and experiences first hand, the magic of the African religious systems in Cuba. Enchanted by Edwardo's cousin, Maria, a beautiful Priestess of Ochun; the goddess of Love, Art, rivers and sweets, Lazaro experiences Love in a strange land, and feels the flight of the spirit against the explosive entrappings in the lust of the flesh. 
 Initially, Lazaro's Jewish upbringing creates much inner conflict when being exposed to the African religions that base much of their existence on shrines, alters, and physical representations of the ethereal. Tato reads cowrie shell divination for Lazaro and amazes him with accuracy and specific revelation. Cuba facilitates a reconnection with Africa for Lazaro, and he embraces the traditions that he imagines his African ancestors once practiced. In Palo Monte, he is presented to the Ganga, a giant pot filled with sacred earth, iron tools, bones of past priests, metal tools and the chains that slaves once wore. His initiation into Lukumi consists of receiving the warrior deities; Eleggua, Ogun, Ochossi, and Osun.
 Lazaro's enchantment with Cuba begins to wear off as his first class status as an estranjero (foreigner) ferments and leaves a sour taste in his mouth. His first estranging experience takes place at a party with Edwardo. Lazaro is entertaining folks by singing Bob Marley songs in English, an exotic tongue in Habana, and irritates an army Vet who despises estranjeros. He tells Lazaro about spending four years in prison after fighting in the Ethiopian war for the same amount of time, all for possession of one spliff of marijuana. The Vet starts insulting Lazaro in Chabakan (a mix of Creole Kongolese and Spanish slang) until Edwardo pulls him outside. Lazaro follows to see Edwardo pull out a kitchen knife from his back pocket and the Vet runs into the darkness. The party is flattened by the commotion and Lazaro is disenchanted in seeing that brotherly violence is a global social disease. 
  With Maria, Tato's grand-daughter, it was love at first sight, sticks in his mind as the one woman who he feels a genuine bond with.. The problem is that she has a boyfriend of four years, and Lazaro has a fiancé back on the mainland. Their friendship develops as Maria transcribes religious vocabulary words and Tato's folkloric stories for Lazaro and understands the most English of anyone in his community. Maria's boyfriend, Ivàn, walks in on her teaching Lazaro some salsa steps and assumes that something is going on. He pulls her out into an alley and slaps her. Lazaro finds him pulling her hair, and struggles with Iván until he receives a punch to the jaw. They scuffle, and Lazaro uses his Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art) to end the conflict. Romance with Maria is explosive and inevitable. Lazaro receives a letter from his fiancé and feels the weight of his actions and the impermanence of his Cuban flame. He tells Maria that their love is impossible yet can't squelch his affections for her. Maria concedes to continue their romance while he is in Cuba and take it from there. She goes to the river and makes her plea to her patron Orisha, Oshun, who becomes angry with Lazaro and places stigmata on his hands that were once blessed by his patron Orisha, Shango.
 El Chino de la Yuma is a story of romance and romantacizations. It is an ode to the drum, the Rumba, the pervasiveness of rhythm throughout the island, and the strong roots of African mysticism that makes Cuba enchanting for the believer as well as the skeptic. The camera will be moving with the active bustle of the living streets and serene in the tropical landscapes and Spanish Colonial architecture. This film is an attempt to capture the sabor (flavor) of this colorful and spellbinding culture.

  In En Defensa del Innocente  (In Defense of the Innocent,) Renato a Cuban jinetero (giggalo) earns his living   entertaining tourists in the district of Habana Vieja. His story begins in desperation. He lacks the ruthlessness of other giggalos, and is in a financial crisis because of his integrity. He walks out of town seeking a vision by taking mushrooms in Canasi. Here he meets his patron Orisha Eleggua, a small boy with an old mans face, and is given visions of his past and future, and the face of Zoe, a beautiful American girl. He returns to the Habana with a new focus and drive in pursuing a career as a singer in a foreign land. 
  Zoe, 25, is a San Franciscan visiting Cuba with Global Exchange, a leftist solidarity group based in San Francisco, CA. Apparently she just wanted to learn more about Cuba but actually she was looking for a way fill emptiness that her heart was feeling with all the special energy that the exotic Cuban land was offering her. Renato finds her in Vedado, as she browses at a jewelry table. He invites her to the movies, knowing it is closed, and they walk through the colorful streets of Havana talking for hours, until they arrive at Renato's house and test the waters of romance.  
  Renato shows a different Cuba than she had imagined. He brings her to El Patio de Maria, a rockero  (rocker) hang out, and she sees him perform with his band Cerveza Hautuey. Here she is descended upon by jealous jineteros who tell her lies about Renato's past, and planting seeds of hesitation in her mind. Renato takes Zoe to a rootsy Salsa club called La Tropical and teaches her how to dance the Cuban style. Zoe is swept away with the Cuban culture and cariño (tenderness) of the people.
 The island is taken with the heat of discontent on August 5, 1994, with rioting in the streets and the looting of dollar stores and Hotel Duville. Zoe and Renato have a serious debate over the state of affairs and struggles within the US embargoed island. Zoe's host family tries to come in-between the lovers by telling her misinformation about Renato, and framing him for the theft of some of her money. Renato takes Zoe out of their house and she moves in with him. 
  Renato and Zoe's love withstands the tests of jealous jinateros  and Zoe decides to take her love back to the States. Since Renato was out of his designated giggaloing district in his pursuit of Zoe, the news of their marriage incites revenge on the part of the Vedado jineteros. Renato's ex-girlfriend, Silke, a feisty German woman studying Spanish at La Universdad de Habana, barges in on the lovers on their way to their wedding, and takes a stab at dissuading Zoe, in vain. Zoe is firm in her dedication to Renato, and the story ends as the ecstatic lovers await a plane in the airport,  to a new life together.
 En Defensa del Innocente is a more optimistic take on love between people from very different worlds in contrast to El Chino de la Yuma. The two stories are united in their magical realism, Eshu Laguana the patron Orisha of Defensa..., and Oshun and Chango appearing in El Chino... The boy who plays Eshu Laguana is constantly close to Renato and interacts with Lazaro in El Chino..., bridging the narratives in location and providing smooth transitions between the two stories.