Preface

In this volume we continue a venerable tradition in Cuban Studies: articles organized around a theme, with a guest editor, or, in this case, two guest editors. The historians Sherry Johnson and K. Lynn Stoner have brought to the readers of CS a collection of essays they have fashioned and edited around the theme, "Trespassing Gender Boundaries." Thematic issues with guest editors play an important role in multidisciplinary journals such as CS, for they borrow the talents of colleagues in different fields in order to bring readers articles that might otherwise not have appeared in the journal through the efforts of the general editors.

In her introduction to the essays in this issue, Johnson explains the unifying themes of the assembled pieces. We would add here only one additional explanation of what made these essays attractive to us as editors: the six authors presented here have done some trespassing of their own-across the boundaries of traditional scholarly research on Cuba. All six pieces represent innovative approaches to "fresh" topics. Even the most seasoned scholars of Cuba are likely to learn something new from each of the essays in this volume.

Rounding out the issue is a guide to the research collections found in various libraries in Miami, and, as a reminder that CS is read and can spark controversy, the issue also contains a comment on a research note that appeared in CS 32, along with a reply from the original author of that note.

In this, the fifth issue under our editorship, we admit to a temporary failure. In the previous four issues (30-34), we have kept our pledge to include articles written by colleagues in Cuba and also to publish some contributions in Spanish. But each issue is a reflection of the flow of manuscripts across our desks, and, alas, despite our best efforts, we received no publishable manuscripts either from Cuban authors or in Spanish in our editorial inbox this year. Readers should know that this is merely an accident of circumstances and not an intentional change from our original commitment.

As we have with all issues since CS 30, we gratefully acknowledge the administrative work of Susie Penley in attending to the many details that make it possible for us to produce this journal.