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The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Aviva Chomsky

Authors: Aviva Chomsky (Editor), Barry Carr (Editor), Pamela Maria Smorkaloff (Editor), Robin Kirk (Editor), Orin Starn
ISBN-13: 9780822331971, ISBN-10: 0822331977
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Date Published: December 2003
Edition: 1st Edition

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Author Biography: Aviva Chomsky

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, 18701940 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, 1830s1990s and editor of If I Could Write This in Fire: An Anthology of Literature from the Caribbean.

Book Synopsis

The essential collection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, history and cultral writing from and about Cuba. The latest in the series that also includes the Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru Readers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction1
IIndigenous Society and Conquest
Christopher Columbus "Discovers" Cuba9
The Devastation of the Indies12
Spanish Officials and Indigenous Resistance15
A World Destroyed20
"Transculturation" and Cuba26
Survival Stories28
IISugar, Slavery, and Colonialism
A Physician's Notes on Cuba39
The Death of the Forest44
Autobiography of a Slave49
Biography of a Runaway Slave58
Fleeing Slavery65
Santiago de Cuba's Fugitive Slaves69
Rumba74
The Trade in Chinese Laborers79
Life on a Coffee Plantation83
Cuba's First Railroad88
The Color Line91
Abolition!94
Cecilia Valdes97
Sab103
An Afro-Cuban Poet110
IIIThe Struggle for Independence
Freedom and Slavery115
Memories of a Cuban Girl118
Jose Marti's "Our America"122
Guantanamera128
The Explosion of the Maine130
U.S. Cartoonists Portray Cuba135
The Devastation of Counterinsurgency139
IVNeocolonialism
The Platt Amendment147
Imperialism and Sanitation150
A Child of the Platt Amendment154
Spain in Cuba157
The Independent Party of Color163
A Survivor167
Rachel's Song171
Honest Women180
Generals and Doctors186
A Crucial Decade189
Afrocubanismo and Son192
Drums in My Eyes201
Abakua212
The First Wave of Cuban Feminism219
Life at the Mill226
Migrant Workers in the Sugar Industry234
The Cuban Counterpoint239
The Invasion of the Tourists244
Waiting Tables in Havana253
The Brothel of the Caribbean257
A Prostitute Remembers260
Sugarcane264
Where Is Cuba Headed?265
The Chase270
The Fall of Machado274
Sugar Mills and Soviets281
The United States Confronts the 1933 Revolution283
The Political Gangster287
The United Fruit Company in Cuba290
Cuba's Largest Inheritance296
The Last Call298
For Us, It Is Always the 26th of July300
Three Comandantes Talk It Over302
History Will Absolve Me306
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War315
The United States Rules Cuba, 1952-1958321
The Cuban Story in the New York Times326
VBuilding a New Society
And Then Fidel Arrived337
Tornado340
Castro Announces the Revolution341
How the Poor Got More344
Fish a la Grande Jardiniere354
Women in the Swamps363
Man and Socialism370
In the Fist of the Revolution375
The Agrarian Revolution378
1961: The Year of Education386
The Literacy Campaign389
The "Rehabilitation" of Prostitutes395
The Family Code399
Homosexuality, Creativity, Dissidence406
The Original Sin412
Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing414
Silence on Black Cuba419
Black Man in Red Cuba424
Post-modern Maroon in the Ultimate Palenque427
From Utopianism to Institutionalization433
Carlos Puebla Sings about the Economy443
VICulture and Revolution
Caliban451
For an Imperfect Cinema458
Dance and Social Change466
Revolutionary Sport475
Mea Cuba481
In Hard Times488
The Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba's Patron Saint490
A Conversation on Santeria and Palo Monte498
The Catholic Church and the Revolution505
Havana's Jewish Community509
VIIThe Cuban Revolution and the World
The Venceremos Brigades517
The Cuban Revolution and the New Left526
The U.S. Government Responds to Revolution530
Castro Calls on Cubans to Resist the Counterrevolution536
Operation Mongoose540
Offensive Missiles on That Imprisoned Island544
Inconsolable Memories: A Cuban View of the Missile Crisis547
The Assassination Plots552
Cuban Refugee Children557
From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants561
Wrong Channel566
We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?568
City on the Edge581
Singing for Nicaragua588
Cuban Medical Diplomacy590
VIIIThe "Periodo Especial" and the Future of the Revolution
Silvio Rodriguez Sings of the Special Period599
From Communist Solidarity to Communist Solitary611
The Revolution Turns Forty623
Colonizing the Cuban Body628
Pope John Paul II Speaks in Cuba635
Emigration in the Special Period640
The Old Man and the Boy644
Civil Society650
Forty Years Later660
A Dissident Speaks Out664
One More Assassination Plot666
An Errand in Havana671
No Turning Back for Johnny678
Suggestions for Further Reading691
Acknowledgment of Copyrights701
Index713

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