Photos: Frida Zaitman and Magda Danger

Frida Zaitman, 61, and Magda Danger, 88, at their home in Havana. The neat but cramped two-bedroom apartment tells of a generation of lives intertwined.

Frida Zaitman, 61, and Magda Danger, 88, at their home in Havana. The neat but cramped two-bedroom apartment tells of a generation of lives intertwined.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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As a Cuban Jew, Frida Zaitman could have gone to Israel or the United States, maybe even Europe. But Havana was the home she knew and she didn’t want to leave behind her former nanny, Magda Danger.

Baby photo

A photo of young twins Frida and Felix Zaitman. At their home, there are porcelain tchotchkes from Zaitman’s family, and old photographs of handsome black men and babies from Danger’s.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Lifelong companions

Danger was in her 20s when she was hired by Zaitman’s widowed father to take care of her and her two brothers.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Dolls

Dolls from Zaitman’s childhood remain on her bed.   (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Afro-Cuban history

Danger holds photos of her relatives. Afro-Cubans, mostly descendants of slaves brought to work the sugar cane fields in the 18th century, today are probably a majority of the island’s population.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)