ABOUT THIS BOOK

Tracking Cuban history from 1492 to the present, The Cuba Reader includes more than one hundred selections that present myriad perspectives on Cuba's history, culture, and politics. The volume foregrounds the experience of Cubans from all walks of life, including slaves, prostitutes, doctors, activists, and historians. Combining songs, poetry, fiction, journalism, political speeches, and many other types of documents, this revised and updated second edition of The Cuba Reader contains over twenty new selections that explore the changes and continuities in Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped down from power in 2006. 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.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Aviva Chomsky is Professor of History at Salem State University.

Barry Carr is Emeritus Professor of Latin American History at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Alfredo Prieto is an independent researcher and editor.

Pamela Maria Smorkaloff lives and writes in Mexico City.

REVIEWS

"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."

-- Ytasha Womack Boston Globe

"[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."

-- Susan Fernandez The Miami Herald

"[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."

-- Julie Schwietert Collazo The Guardian

"For a solid introduction to all things Cuban, start with this edited collection of primary sources, including speeches, articles, songs, poems, book excerpts, and other publications spanning 500 years of Cuban history and culture."

-- Boyd Childress Library Journal

"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."

-- L. K. Miller Choice

“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.”

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

"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.”

-- Matt D. Childs History: Review of Books

“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.”

-- Rubrick Biegon Latin American Politics and Society

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
I. Indigenous Society and Conquest 7
II. Sugar, Slavery, and Colonialism 37
III. The Struggle for Independence 111
IV. Neocolonialism 141
V. Building a New Society 309
VI. Culture and Revolution 405
VII. The Cuban Revolution and the World 453
VIII. The Período Especial 517
IX. Cuba after Fidel: Continuities and Transitions 577
Suggestions for Further Reading 683
Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources 697
Index 709

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