Life — January 19, 1928 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page This page contains humorous dialogue between two Americans in Havana, joking about U.S. naval history. The speakers reference Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet," Admiral Dewey's Manila Bay victory (1898), and the Spanish-American War—early 20th-century American military exploits. The jokes play on malapropisms and dialectal speech ("thassawhatawannao"), poking fun at working-class American soldiers/sailors discussing their country's imperial adventures with casual ignorance. One cartoon depicts rowdy American servicemen in a bar. The right panel shows a woman captioned "Shake Hands with Havana"—likely referring to Cuba's status as an American sphere of influence post-Spanish-American War. The satire mocks both American military braggadocio and the cultural gap between educated readers and ordinary soldiers abroad.