The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics / Edition 1

by Aviva Chomsky, Pamela Maria Smorkaloff, Barry Carr

Overview

Cuba is often perceived in starkly black and white terms—either as the site of one of Latin America’s most successful revolutions or as the bastion of the world’s last communist regime. The Cuba Reader multiplies perspectives on the nation many times over, presenting more than one hundred selections about Cuba’s history, culture, and politics. 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.

For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822331971
Publisher:	Duke University Press Books
Publication date:	02/04/2004
Series:	The Latin America Readers
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	736
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Aviva Chomsky is Professor of History and Coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State College. She is the author of West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870–1940 and coeditor of Identity and Struggle at the Margins of the Nation-State: The Laboring Peoples of Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean (published by Duke University Press).

Barry Carr is Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Marxism and Communism in Twentieth-Century Mexico and coeditor of The Latin American Left: From the Fall of Allende to Perestroika.

Pamela Maria Smorkaloff is Director of Latin American and Latino Studies and Assistant Professor of Spanish at Montclair State University. She is the author of Cuban Writers on and off the Island: Contemporary Narrative Fiction and Readers and Writers in Cuba: A Social History of Print Culture, 1830s–1990s and editor of If I Could Write This in Fire: An Anthology of Literature from the Caribbean.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Indigenous Society and Conquest

There are no written accounts of pre-1492 Cuba and no indigenous accounts of the European conquest. Cuba's indigenous population was not organized into the elaborate hierarchies that existed in Mexico and Peru, and the population was virtually wiped out within fifty years of the conquest. Only in the past fifty years have Cuban archaeologists excavated the pre-Columbian artifacts that have allowed them to begin to piece together a picture of the original Ciboney inhabitants of the island and of their replacement by the Taíno prior to 1492.

Nevertheless, indigenous peoples and the experience of conquest remain important in today's Cuba for several different reasons. The conquest itself led to a set of institutions, relationships, and ideologies that had a long-lasting effect on Cuba's development. It was also the conquest that set the stage for Cuba's incorporation into the growing Atlantic economy, later characterized by the importation of slaves and the production of sugar. In addition, although the depopulation of indigenous peoples was severe, they nevertheless left important cultural legacies. In some areas of Cuba, as José Barreiro describes, there are communities that still identify ethnically with their indigenous past. And everywhere in Cuba, stories of indigenous resistance to Spanish rule are an important part of commonsense knowledge of their country's history. Except for Barreiro's contemporary oral histories, we have no written accounts by indigenous sources that describe their own lives and society. The Spanish priest Bartolomé de Las Casas, however, recorded countless indigenous testimonies as part of his crusade to stop the cruelties of the conquest. Although mediated by Las Casas's own agenda, these testimonies still stand as unique historical documents that capture the voices of those who had no other means of entering the historical record.

Christopher Columbus "Discovers" Cuba

Christopher Columbus

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, he was convinced that he was near the coast of Japan and China. Europeans termed his landfall a "discovery," though in recent years those more critical of Europe's endeavor have pointed out that while it was a discovery for Europe, the terms encounter or even invasion more accurately capture the nature of the event for the inhabitants of the Americas.

The natives Columbus encountered in the Bahamas indicated that a large island lay to the south, and he concluded that it must be Japan (which he called Cipango) they were talking about. Although there may be some wishful thinking in his comment about Cuba's trade and wealth, it does indicate that the Caribbean natives had a good knowledge of the region's geography and were less isolated than some accounts have suggested. The following excerpts from Columbus's logbook constitute the first written accounts of Cuba and give the first European impressions of the island.

Columbus's original logbook has been lost. The text has come down to contemporary readers through a handwritten manuscript by Bartolomé de Las Casas (author of the second selection in this book), who transcribed and summarized the journal entries from the original. Las Casas copied the sections in quotes directly from Columbus's logbook; the quotes are interspersed with Las Casas's summaries of Columbus's words.

Wednesday, 24th of October

"At midnight I weighed the anchors and left the anchorage at Cabo del Isleo, in the island of Isabella. From the northern side, where I was, I intended to go to the island of Cuba, where I heard of the people who were very great, and had gold, spices, merchandise, and large ships. They showed me that the course thither would be W.S.W., and so I hold. For I believe that it is so, as all the Indians of these islands, as well as those I brought with me in the ships, told me by signs. I cannot understand their language, but I believe that it is of the island of Cipango that they recount these wonders. On the spheres I saw, and on the delineations of the map of the world, Cipango is in this region. So I shaped a course W.S.W. until daylight, but at dawn it fell calm and began to rain, and went on nearly all night. I remained thus, with little wind, until the afternoon, when it began to blow fresh. I set all the sails in the ship, the mainsail with two bonnets, the foresail, spritsail, mizen, main topsail, and the boat's sail on the poop. So I proceeded until nightfall, when the Cabo Verde of the island of Fernandina, which is at the S.W. end, bore N.W. distant 7 leagues. As it was now blowing hard, and I did not know how far it was to this island of Cuba, I resolved not to go in search of it during the night; all these islands being very steep-to, with no bottom round them for a distance of two shots of a lombard. The bottom is all in patches, one bit of sand and another of rock, and for this reason it is not safe to anchor without inspection with the eye. So I determined to take in all the sails except the foresail, and to go on under that reduced canvas. Soon the wind increased, while the route was doubtful, and there was very thick weather, with rain. I ordered the foresail to be furled, and we did not make two leagues during that night." ...

Sunday, 28th of October

"I went thence in search of the island of Cuba on a S.S.W. coast, making for the nearest point of it, and entered a very beautiful river without danger of sunken rocks or other impediments. All the coast was clear of dangers up to the shore. The mouth of the river was 12 brazos across, and it is wide enough for a vessel to beat in. I anchored about a lombard-shot inside." The Admiral says that "he never beheld such a beautiful place, with trees bordering the river, handsome, green, and different from ours, having fruits and flowers each one according to its nature. There are many birds, which sing very sweetly. There are a great number of palm trees of a different kind from those in Guinea and from ours, of a middling height, the trunks without that covering, and the leaves very large, with which they thatch their houses. The country is very level." The Admiral jumped into his boat and went on shore. He came to two houses, which he believed to belong to fishermen who had fled from fear. In one of them he found a kind of dog that never barks, and in both there were nets of palm-fibre and cordage, as well as horn fish-hooks, bone harpoons, and other apparatus "for fishing, and several hearths. He believed that many people lived together in one house. He gave orders that nothing in the houses should be touched, and so it was done." The herbage was as thick as in Andalusia during April and May. He found much purslane and wild amaranth. He returned to the boat and went up the river for some distance, and he says it was great pleasure to see the bright verdure, and the birds, which he could not leave to go back. He says that this island is the most beautiful that eyes have seen, full of good harbours and deep rivers, and the sea appeared as if it never rose; for the herbage on the beach nearly reached the waves, which does not happen where the sea is rough. (Up to that time they had not experienced a rough sea among all those islands.) He says that the island is full of very beautiful mountains, although they are not very extensive as regards length, but high; and all the country is high like Sicily. It is abundantly supplied with water, as they gathered from the Indians they had taken with them from the island of Guanahani. These said by signs that there are ten great rivers, and that they cannot go round the island in twenty days. When they came near land with the ships, two canoes came out; and when they saw the sailors get into a boat and row about to find the depth of the river where they could anchor, the canoes fled. The Indians say that in this island there are gold mines and pearls, and the Admiral saw a likely place for them and mussel-shells, which are signs of them. He understood that large ships of the Gran Can came here, and that from here to the mainland was a voyage of ten days. The Admiral called this river and harbour San Salvador.

Translated by Clements R. Markham

The Devastation of the Indies

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Bartolomé de Las Casas was a Dominican friar who became famous — or notorious — in the 1500s for his denunciations of Spanish atrocities against the indigenous populations of the Americas. In the Spanish court, Las Casas found an audience among those who wished to curb the growing power of local Spanish officials in the colonies and to reassert greater centralized authority. His works were seized upon a century later by northern European colonizers who used them to defend their own, supposedly kinder and gentler, conquests in the Americas, giving rise to the so-called Black Legend of the cruelties of Spanish conquest.

Las Casas (1484–1556) came to America in 1502, and after living in living in Hispaniola for several years he traveled to Cuba, where he was granted an encomienda, or entrustment, of the indigenous village of Canarreo (near Trinidad). The encomienda was essentially a grant of Indian labor, enforced by the Crown and the new colonial authorities. After several years, Las Casas renounced his encomienda and dedicated the rest of his life to trying to convince the Spanish public and the Spanish Crown to abolish the institution.

The story of Hatuey recounted here remains an important historical myth in Cuba today. It is interesting to note the contrast between this story and the story of Pocahontas, perhaps the best-known mythical Indian in U.S. popular culture. Unlike Pocahontas, who is revered for her collaboration with the Europeans, Hatuey is celebrated for his resistance and martyrdom at the hands of the Spanish.

The Island of Cuba

In the year 1511 they went on to the island of Cuba, which, as I said, is as long as the distance from Valladolid to Rome, and which contained large provinces of peoples. They began and ended in the same way there, and with even more cruelty. Some very notable things occurred here.

A cacique and high lord, named Hatuey, had fled from the island of Hispaniola to Cuba with many of his people, to escape from the calamities and inhuman acts of the Christians. Once in Cuba, he received news from certain Indians that the Christians were coming there. He gathered many or all of his people together and said to them: "By now you know that they are saying that the Christians are coming here. And you know how they have finished off this one and that one, and those peoples in Haiti (which is Hispaniola). They are coming to do the same thing here. Do you know why they do it?" They answered, "No, unless it is because they are by nature cruel and evil." Hatuey said, "That is not the only reason that they do it. They have a God whom they worship and love very much, and to get this God from us to worship it, they try to subjugate us and kill us." In his house Hatuey had a basket full of gold and jewels, and he said, "Here you can see the God of the Christians. If you like, let's do an Areito (traditional dance) for this God; maybe that way we will please it, and it will order them not to harm us."

Everyone said, "Good idea, good idea." They danced in front of it until they were all tired. Then Lord Hatuey said, "Look, anyway, if we keep this, they are going to kill us in order to get it from us. Let's throw it in the river." Everyone voted that this was what they should do, so they threw it in a big river and there it stayed.

This cacique and lord, because he knew the Christians, went on always fleeing from them when they arrived on the island of Cuba, and he defended himself when he came across them. And finally they captured him. And just because he fled from people so iniquitous and cruel, and defended himself against those who wanted to kill him and all of his people and his generation, and torture them to death, the Christians decided to burn him alive.

As he was tied to the stake, a Franciscan priest, a saintly man who was there, told him a bit about God and our faith, which he had never heard, as much as he could explain in the short time the executioners allowed. And the priest told him that if he chose to believe, he would go to heaven, where he would find glory and eternal rest. Otherwise, he would have to go to hell and endure eternal torment and suffering.

After thinking a bit, Hatuey asked the priest whether Christians went to heaven. The priest responded that they did, but only the good ones. The cacique then answered without hesitation that he did not want to go there, but rather to hell, so as not to have to be where the Christians were and not to have to see such cruel people. This is the fame and honor that God and our faith have earned because of the Christians that have gone to the Indies.

Once we went twenty leagues away to claim a large town, with food and supplies. When we arrived they gave us large quantities of fish and bread and food with everything else they could. Suddenly the devil took hold of the Christians, and they pulled out their knives and in my presence and with no motive or cause, slaughtered more than three thousand souls, people who were sitting before us, men, women, and children. I saw great cruelties there that no living person could imagine seeing.

Again a few days later I sent messengers to all of the lords of the province of Havana, assuring them that they need not fear us. They trusted me, and I told them not to hide, but to come out and receive us, and that nobody would harm them. For the whole land was terrified because of the earlier massacres. I did this with the approval of the captain. And when we arrived in the province, twenty-one lords and caciques came out to receive us. And the captain seized them, breaking the promise that I had made to them. He wanted to burn them alive the next day, saying that it was the right thing to do, because those lords would surely commit evil in the future. I had to work very hard to get them released, but some succeeded in escaping.

Once all of the Indians of this island's land had been reduced to servitude and calamity by the Spanish, all of them dying or perishing without recourse, some began to flee to the mountains. Others began to hang themselves in desperation. Men and women hanged themselves and took their children with them. Because of the cruelty of one Spanish tyrant I knew, more than two hundred Indians hanged themselves. An infinite number of people perished in this manner.

A royal official in this island was given three hundred Indians in repartimiento [a system of draft labor]. After three months, 270 of them had died working in the mines, and only thirty remained. Later he was given some more, and he killed them also, and they gave him more, and he killed them, until he himself died and the devil took his soul.

In three or four months, in my presence, over seven thousand children died of hunger because their fathers and mothers were taken to the mines. These are only some of the horrifying things I saw.

Later the Christians agreed to go hunt down the Indians who had fled to the mountains, and they carried out shocking outrages. This is how they depopulated all of this island that we saw not long ago. It causes great shame and pity to see how they have turned this island into an empty wasteland.

Translated by Aviva Chomsky

Spanish Officials and Indigenous Resistance

Various Spanish Officials

Although Hatuey is the best-known indigenous rebel-hero, indigenous resistance to the Spanish continued after his death, belying the myth that the indigenous population simply disappeared without a fight. The following brief documents were collected from the Cuban archives by Cuban historian Hortensia Pichardo.

[In 1530 the cabildo (town council) of Santiago, in eastern Cuba, wrote to the Crown:]

Over the past four years we have continually informed Your Majesty how in this island there are always rebel Indians who have greatly harmed the Christians and the tame Indians. ... Your Majesty should know that in addition to other Indians that have rebelled in other provinces, in the Province of Baracoa there is one who is called Guamá, who has a following of over fifty Indians and has been in rebellion for a long time, and he has cultivated a good deal of land in the backlands, and even though up till now he has not done us any harm besides the fact that every day he takes in more tame Indians, we believe that much harm might come to the island in the future as more and more join him: we humbly beg Your Majesty to take care of this because it could be that this problem leads to an explosion in the land that would be difficult to calm. We have spoken to [Governor] Gonzalo de Guzmán about this, but it seems to us that he is not giving the problem the serious attention it deserves.

[A report three years later described the ongoing struggle between the town and the unsubdued followers of Guamá.]

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
I. Indigenous Society and Conquest
Christopher Columbus "Discovers" Cuba / Christopher Columbus 9
The Devastation of the Indies / Bartolome de Las Casas 12
Spanish Officials and Indigenous Resistance / Various Spanish Officials 15
A World Destroyed / Juan Perez de la Riva 20
"Transculturation" and Cuba / Fernando Ortiz 26
Survival Stories / Jose Barreiro 28
II. Sugar, Slavery, and Colonialism
A Physician's Notes on Cuba / John G. F. Wurdemann 39
The Death of the Forest / Manuel Moreno Fraginals 44
Autobiography of a Slave / Juan Francisco Manzano 49
Biography of a Runaway Slave / Miguel Barnet 58
Fleeing Slavery / Miguel Barnet, Pedro Deschamps Chapeaux, Rafael Garcia, and Rafael Duharte 65
Santiago de Cuba's Fugitive Slaves / Rafael Duharte 69
Rumba / Yvonne Daniel 74
The Trade in Chinese Laborers / Richard Dana 79
Life on a Coffee Plantation / John G. F. Wurdemann 83
Cuba's First Railroad / David Turnbull 88
The Color Line / Jose Antonio Saco 91
Abolition! / Father Felix Varela 94
Cecilia Valdes / Cirilo Villaverde 97
Sab / Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda y Arteaga 103
An Afro-Cuban Poet / Placido 110
III. The Struggle for Independence
Freedom and Slavery / Carlos Manuel de Cespedes 115
Memories of a Cuban Girl / Renee Mendez Capote 118
Jose Marti's "Our America" / Jose Marti 122
Guantanamera / Jose Marti 128
The Explosion of the Maine / New York Journal 130
U.S. Cartoonists Portray Cuba / John J. Johnson 135
The Devastation of Counterinsurgency / Fifty-fifth Congress, Second Session 139
IV. Neocolonialism
The Platt Amendment / President Theodore Roosevelt 147
Imperialism and Sanitation / Nancy Stepan 150
A Child of the Platt Amendment / Renee Mendez Capote 154
Spain in Cuba / Manuel Moreno Fraginals 157
The Independent Party of Color / El Partido Independiente de Color 163
A Survivor / Isidoro Santos Carrera 167
Rachel's Song / Miguel Barnet 171
Honest Women / Miguel de Carrion 180
Generals and Doctors / Carlos Loveira 186
A Crucial Decade / Lolo de la Torriente 189
Afrocubanismo and Son / Robin Moore 192
Drums in My Eyes / Nicolas Guillen 201
Abakua / Rafael Lopez Valdes 212
The First Wave of Cuban Feminism / Ofelia Dominguez Navarro 219
Life at the Mill / Ursinio Rojas 226
Migrant Workers in the Sugar Industry / Levi Marrero 234
The Cuban Counterpoint / Fernando Ortiz 239
The Invasion of the Tourists / Rosalie Schwartz 244
Waiting Tables in Havana / Cipriano Chinea Palero and Lynn Geldof 253
The Brothel of the Caribbean / Tomas Fernandez Robaina 257
A Prostitute Remembers / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon 260
Sugarcane / Nicolas Guillen 264
Where is Cuba Headed? / Julio Antonio Mella 265
The Chase / Alejo Carpentier 270
The Fall of Machado / R. Hart Phillips 274
Sugar Mills and Soviets / Salvador Rionda 281
The United States Confronts the 1933 Revolution / Sumner Welles and Cordell Hull 283
The Political Gangster / Samuel Farber 287
The United Fruit Company in Cuba / Oscar Zanetti 290
Cuba's Largest Inheritance / Bohemia 296
The Last Call / Eduardo A. Chibas 298
For Us, It Is Always the 26th of July / Carlos Puebla 300
Three Comandantes Talk It Over / Carlos Franqui 302
History Will Absolve Me / Fidel Castro 306
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War / Che Guevara 315
The United States Rules Cuba, 1952-1958 / Morris Morley 321
The Cuban Story in the New York Times / Herbert L. Matthews 326
V. Building a New Society
And Then Fidel Arrived / Carlos Puebla 337
Tornado / Silvio Rodriguez 340
Castro Announces the Revolution / Fidel Castro 341
How the Poor Got More / Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott 344
Fish a la Grande Jardiniere / Humberto Arenal 354
Women in the Swamps / Margaret Randall 363
Man and Socialism / Ernesto "Che" Guevara 370
In the Fist of the Revolution / Jose Yglesias 375
The Agrarian Revolution / Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott 378
1961: The Year of Education / Richard R. Fagen 386
The Literacy Campaign / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon 389
The "Rehabilitation" of Prostitutes / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon 395
The Family Code / Margaret Randall 399
Homosexuality, Creativity, Dissidence / Reinaldo Arenas 406
The Original Sin / Pablo Milanes 412
Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing / Nancy Morejon 414
Silence on Black Cuba / Carlos Moore 419
Black Man in Red Cuba / John Clytus 424
Post-modern Maroon in the Ultimate Palenque / Christian Parenti 427
From Utopianism to Institutionalization / Juan Antonio Blanco and Medea Benjamin 433
Carlos Puebla Sings about the Economy / Carlos Puebla 443
VI. Culture and Revolution
Caliban / Roberto Fernandez Retamar 451
For an Imperfect Cinema / Julio Garcia Espinosa 458
Dance and Social Change / Yvonne Daniel 466
Revolutionary Sport / Paula Pettavino and Geralyn Pye 475
Mea Cuba / Guillermo Cabrera Infante 481
In Hard Times / Heberto Padilla 488
The Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba's Patron Saint / Olga Portuondo Zuniga 490
A Conversation on Santeria and Palo Monte / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon 498
The Catholic Church and the Revolution / Ernesto Cardenal 505
Havana's Jewish Community / Tom Miller 509
VII. The Cuban Revolution and the World
The Venceremos Brigades / Sandra Levinson 517
The Cuban Revolution and the New Left / Van Gosse 526
The U.S. Government Responds to Revolution / Foreign Relations of the United States 530
Castro Calls on Cubans to Resist the Counterrevolution / Fidel Castro 536
Operation Mongoose / Edward Lansdale 540
Offensive Missiles on That Imprisoned Island / President John F. Kennedy 544
Inconsolable Memories: A Cuban View of the Missile Crisis / Edmundo Desnoes 547
The Assassination Plots / Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities 552
Cuban Refugee Children / Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh 557
From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants / Felix Roberto Masud-Piloto 561
Wrong Channel / Roberto Fernandez 566
We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? / Achy Obejas 568
City on the Edge / Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick 581
Singing for Nicaragua / Silvio Rodriguez 588
Cuban Medical Diplomacy / Julie Feinsilver 590
VIII. The "Periodo Especial" and the Future of the Revolution
Silvio Rodríguez Sings of the Special Period / Silvio Rodríguez 599
From Communist Solidarity to Communist Solitary / Susan Eckstein 607
The Revolution Turns Forty / Saul Landau 623
Colonizing the Cuban Body / G. Derrick Hodge  628
Pope John Paul II Speaks in Cuba / Pope John Paul II 635
Emigration in the Special Period / Steve Fainaru and Ray Sánchez 637
The Old Man and the Boy / John Lee Anderson 644
Civil Society / Haroldo Dilla 650
Forty Years Later / Senel Paz 660
A Dissident Speaks Out / Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz 664
One More Assassination Plot / Juan Tamayo 666
An Errand in Havana / Miguel Barnet 671
No Turning Back for Johnny / David Mitrani 678
Suggestions for Further Reading 691
Acknowledgment of Copyrights 701
Index 713

What People are Saying About This

On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture - Louis A. Pérez Jr.

"The Cuba Reader offers a splendid overview of the Cuban experience, past and present, through a dazzling array of points of view. . . . The very fullness of its vision makes The Cuba Reader an indispensable book for courses—of every academic discipline—on Cuba.”

Medea Benjamin

“What a beautiful journey through five hundred years of Cuban history, culture, and politics! The Cuba Reader is a sumptuous medley of poetry, song, speeches, interviews, and vignettes from novels new and old. You'll hear the voices of santeros and sugar workers, prostitutes and politicos, revolutionaries and reporters, dissidents and dancers. It's the next best thing to being in Cuba, so sit back with a mojito and enjoy the masterfully guided tour.”

On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture - Louis A. Pérez Jr.

"The Cuba Reader offers a splendid overview of the Cuban experience, past and present, through a dazzling array of points of view. . . . The very fullness of its vision makes The Cuba Reader an indispensable book for courses—of every academic discipline—on Cuba.”

Achy Obejas

“Cuba is often a mirage, especially for North Americans, who feel they must know something about the place because of its proximity and the outsized influence the island has had on the United States. And yet it often still feels just out of reach. What The Cuba Reader does is provide incisive, intimate insight, not so much a road map as a vision of what has been and what could be. It's indispensable.”

Editorial Reviews

What a beautiful journey through five hundred years of Cuban history, culture, and politics! The Cuba Reader is a sumptuous medley of poetry, song, speeches, interviews, and vignettes from novels new and old. You’ll hear the voices of santeros and sugar workers, prostitutes and politicos, revolutionaries and reporters, dissidents and dancers. It’s the next best thing to being in Cuba, so sit back with a mojito and enjoy the masterfully guided tour.”—Medea Benjamin, activist and cofounder of Global Exchange


"The Cuba Reader offers a splendid overview of the Cuban experience, past and present, through a dazzling array of points of view. The voices of participants and observers and perspectives on the extraordinary and the commonplace—with imagery conveyed by way of photography and poetry, through the lyric of music and the nuance of the novel—make for a compelling collection of material. The very fullness of its vision makes The Cuba Reader an indispensable book for courses—of every academic discipline—on Cuba.”—Louis A. Pérez, Jr., author of On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture

From the Publisher

"[An] ambitious and impressive anthology, a sweeping collection of source materials by and about Cubans both on the island and living in other countries. The editors . . . have wisely chosen songs, paintings, photographs, short stories, essays, speeches, government reports, cartoons and newspaper articles that span Cuban history. . . . What The Cuba Reader does extraordinarily well is to reveal the nuances and complexity of the Cuban experience. All shades of politics are here, and they infuse Cuban dance, music, film and religion."

Miami Herald - Susan Fernandez

"[A] classic. The editors of this book and their many accomplices deserve nothing but praise for producing the best introduction to Cuba one can possibly find."

Latin American Review of Books - Gavin O'Toole

"[A] crash course in Cuban history. If you’re looking for a single (hefty) volume to get you up to speed about the past 500 years of Cuban politics and culture, this is it."
 

The Guardian - Julie Schwietert Collazo

"[T]he editors should be congratulated for their Herculean effort. The reader will be most useful for undergraduate courses where it will provide students with an impressive overview of the Cuban experience over the last five centuries. In fact, anyone interested in obtaining a comprehensive and multifaceted firsthand account of Cuban history will benefit from this book."

The Americas - John J. Dwyer

"This Reader provides a wonderfully eclectic selection of writings from and about Cuba. . . . [A] very useful resource for the teaching of courses relating to Cuba, providing a taster of many aspects of the island's history that should encourage those who dip into it to come away with a more nuanced understanding of an island that has been plagued by caricature."

Journal of Latin American Studies - Jonathan Curry-Machado

Part of Duke’s excellent series of Latin Amer­ica readers, [The Cuba Reader] weaves together the writings, experiences, and analyses of indi­viduals from an array of backgrounds and perspectives, giving voice to a diverse multitude of Cubans (and non-Cuban observers) across more than five hundred years of history.

Latin American Politics and Society - Rubrick Biegon

One of the great strengths of this collection is the manner in which, through perceptive selection of writings..., we readers are offered the opportunity to process for ourselves how it can be that an achievement as promising as the overthrow of a repressive dictatorship ... could turn out so badly.

European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies - Judith Adler Hellman

"The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Aviva Chomsky was really insightful for me. It has all these essays from people who lived in Cuba at different times, including a priest who came with the Spanish, so you get a different perspective on the attacks on native people and their resistance."

Boston Globe - Ytasha Womack

"The Cuba Reader is an indispensable book for scholars interested in Cuban, Caribbean, and Latin American history.... The editors’ judicious selection of classic primary sources, complemented by lesser-known contemporary accounts ... make this an ideal volume for classroom use or for the lay reader with an interest in Cuba’s past and present.

History: Review of Books - Matt D. Childs

"This is a balanced, far-ranging, equitable, and insightful book, and the suggestions for further reading list and comprehensive index add to its usability. Altogether an essential addition to any Latin American studies collection. . . . Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty."

Choice - L. K. Miller