Book
The Cuba reader : history, culture, politics
Edition
Second edition, revised and updated.
Publication Information
Durham : Duke University Press, 2019.
Physical Description
xiii, 727 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Summary
"Beginning with the first written account of the island, penned by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the selections assembled here track Cuban history from the colonial period through the ascendancy of Fidel Castro to the present. The Cuba Reader combines songs, paintings, photographs, poems, short stories, speeches, cartoons, government reports and proclamations, and pieces by historians, journalists, and others. Most of these are by Cubans, and many appear for the first time in English. The writings and speeches of José Martí, Fernando Ortiz, Fidel Castro, Alejo Carpentier, Che Guevera, and Reinaldo Arenas appear alongside the testimonies of slaves, prostitutes, doctors, travelers, and activists. Some selections examine health, education, Catholicism, and santería; others celebrate Cuba's vibrant dance, music, film, and literary cultures. The pieces are grouped into chronological sections. Each section and individual selection is preceded by a brief introduction by the editors. The volume presents a number of pieces about twentieth-century Cuba, including the events leading up to and following Castro's January 1959 announcement of revolution. It provides a look at Cuba in relation to the rest of the world: the effect of its revolution on Latin America and the Caribbean, its alliance with the Soviet Union from the 1960s until the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989, and its tumultuous relationship with the United States. The Cuba Reader also describes life in the periodo especial following the cutoff of Soviet aid and the tightening of the U.S. embargo."--Publisher's website.
Contents
- Indigenous society and conquest. Christopher Columbus "Discovers" Cuba / The devastation of the Indies / Spanish officials and indigenous resistance / A world destroyed / "Transculturation" and Cuba / Survival stories / Sugar, slavery, and colonialism. A physician's notes on Cuba / The death of the forest / Autobiography of a slave / Biography of a runaway slave / Fleeing slavery / Santiago de Cuba's fugitive slaves / Rumba / The trade in Chinese laborers / Life on a coffee plantation / Cuba's first railroad / The color line / Abolition! / Cecilia Valdés / Sab / An Afro-Cuban poet / The struggle for independence. Freedom and slavery / Memories of a Cuban girl / José Martí's "Our America" / Guantanamera / The explosion of the Maine / U.S. cartoonists portray Cuba / The devastation of counterinsurgency
- Neocolonialism. The Platt Amendment / Imperialism and sanitation / A child of the Platt Amendment / Spain in Cuba / The Independent Party of Color / A survivor / Rachel's Song / Honest women / A crucial decade / Afrocubanismo and son / Drums in my eyes / Abakuá / The first wave of Cuban feminism / Life at the mill / Migrant workers in the sugar industry / The Cuban counterpoint / The invasion of the tourists / Waiting tables in Havana / The brothel of the Caribbean / Sugarcane / Where is Cuba headed? / The chase / The fall of Machado / Sugar mills and Soviets / The United States confronts the 1933 Revolution / The political gangster / The United Fruit Company in Cuba / Cuba's largest inheritance / The last call / Three comandantes talk it over / History will absolve me / Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War / The United States rules Cuba, 1952-1958 / The Cuban story in the New York Times / Building a new society. Troubadours of the Revolution / Castro announces the Revolution / How the poor got more / Fish à la Grande Jardinière / Women in the swamps / Socialism and man / In the fist of the Revolution / The Agrarian Revolution / 1961 : the year of education / The literacy campaign / The family code / The original sin / Where the island sleeps like a wing / Silence on Black Cuba / Black man in Red Cuba / Postmodern maroon in the ultimate Palenque / From utopianism to institutionalization / Culture and revolution. Caliban / For an imperfect cinema / Dance and social change / Revolutionary sport / In hard times / The Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba's patron saint / A conversation on Santería and Palo Monte / The Catholic Church and the Revolution
- The Cuban revolution and the world. The Venceremos Brigades / The Cuban Revolution and the New Left / The U.S. government responds to Revolution / Castro calls on Cubans to resist the Counterrevolution / Operation Mongoose / Offensive missiles on that imprisoned island / Inconsolable memories : a Cuban view of the Missile Crisis / The assassination plots / Cuban refugee children / From welcomed exiles to illegal immigrants / Wrong channel / City on the edge / Singing for Nicaragua / Cuban medical diplomacy / The Período Especial. Silvio Rodríguez sings of the special period / Zippy goes to Cuba / "Special period in peacetime" : economic and labor reforms / The Revolution turns forty / Colonizing the Cuban body / Pope John Paul II speaks in Cuba / Elián González and the "Real Cuba" of Miami / Civil society / Forty years later / Cuba after Fidel : continuities and transitions. Raúl's reforms / Emigration in the twenty-first century / Tourism and the many faces of Havana's Chinatown / The antiracist debate in today's Cuba / Afro-Cuban activists fight racism between two fires / Race and Cuban hip-hop / The "Pavonato" / Short stories / His cigar / Gender, sexuality, and AIDS / A theory of Reguetón / Spies, counterspies, and dissidents / Francis, Obama, and Raúl / Obama and us / "Visit Cuba before it changes!" / New Cuban voices / "El Paquete" : Internet in Cuba / A new film law / So as not to throw out the sofa (Editorial song) / Spyglass / Commentaries on Fidel Castro's death