The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers)

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.

• History of Cuba (Palgrave Essential Histories Series)
• The History of Cuba, 2nd Edition (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)
• Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution
• Cuba Libre!: Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution That Changed World History
• Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause
• Islands in the Stream
• Cuba: A New History (Yale Nota Bene)
• The Other Side of Paradise: Life in the New Cuba
• Cuba: What Everyone Needs To Know®
• A History of the Cuban Revolution (Viewpoints / Puntos de Vista)