The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics (review)

This lengthy book is part of the Latin American Readers series published by Duke University Press; it is a welcome addition that complements Duke's previously published Peru, Brazil, and Mexico readers. The book contains a wide array of source material that spans more than 500 years of Cuban history. It is divided into eight sections that correspond to the island's historical turning points and which are entitled: Indigenous Society and Conquest; Sugar, Slavery, and Colonialism; The Struggle for Independence; Neocolonialism; Building a New Society; Culture and Revolution; The Cuban Revolution and the World; The 'Período Especial' and the Future of the Revolution. Guided by the belief that "there is no history without culture and politics" (p. 3), the editors divided the readings evenly between historical, cultural, and political topics. The book is not limited to the works of Cubans but includes the voices of non-Cubans as well. Despite its length, the volume is a quick and very enjoyable read.

Of the 125 selections contained herein, the editors smartly include both "high" and "low" source material. The reader contains well-known tracts from important political leaders, such as José Martí, Julio Antonio Mella, Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and John F. Kennedy, as well as material from Cuban slaves, unskilled rural and urban workers, white collar professionals, activists, writers, musicians, artists and even prostitutes. The eclectic group of primary source material includes political speeches, government reports and documents, newspaper articles, maps, photographs, paintings, cartoons, excerpts from novels, essays, short stories, poems, songs, and individual testimonies. In addition, the reader contains brief analyses by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and journalists. By mixing together elite, marginalized, and subaltern sources in each of the eight sections, and incorporating scholarly observation throughout, the authors and editors clearly demonstrate the richness, diversity, and complexity of each period of Cuban history. Moreover, not only do we gain a fascinating picture of everyday life during the different eras, but we also see how the island's politics and culture are closely intertwined.

While the first half of the reader is organized chronologically, the 1959-1989 era is broken down thematically. Throughout much of the book the editors have astutely interwoven Cuba's national and international history. Consequently, in the first and second halves of the book respectively, we learn a good deal about imperial Spain and the modern United States. This allows us to see not only the continuities between Cuba's colonial and neo-colonial status under Spanish rule and U.S. control, but it also helps to accentuate the importance of the 1959 Revolution and the socioeconomic, cultural, political, and diplomatic precedents that it set. In a similar vein, selections from pre- and post-1959 demonstrate that political freedom is something that the majority of Cubans have not experienced over the last half millennium.

Because the editors recognize the polemical nature of Castro's revolution, they rightly include voices from both its supporters and critics. However, sources from the Revolution's advocates seem to out number those of its detractors. Likewise, the editors may be overstating the case somewhat when they write that the book "is not a reader whose main focus is the Cuban Revolution" (p. 2). Nearly 400 pages of material are devoted to the island's history during the last five decades, while only 300 pages are dedicated to the preceding 450 years. These caveats aside, the 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.