Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction  1

I Indigenous Society and Conquest  

Christopher Columbus "Discovers" Cuba / Christopher Columbus  9

The Devastation of the Indies / Bartolome de Las Casas  12

Spanish Officials and Indigenous Resistance / Various Spanish Officials  15

A World Destroyed / Juan Perez de la Riva  20

"Transculturation" and Cuba / Fernando Ortiz  26

Survival Stories / Jose Barreiro  28

II Sugar, Slavery, and Colonialism  

A Physician's Notes on Cuba / John G. F. Wurdemann  39

The Death of the Forest / Manuel Moreno Fraginals  44

Autobiography of a Slave / Juan Francisco Manzano  49

Biography of a Runaway Slave / Miguel Barnet  58

Fleeing Slavery / Miguel Barnet, Pedro Deschamps Chapeaux, Rafael Garcia, and Rafael Duharte  65

Santiago de Cuba's Fugitive Slaves / Rafael Duharte  69

Rumba / Yvonne Daniel  74

The Trade in Chinese Laborers / Richard Dana  79

Life on a Coffee Plantation / John G. F. Wurdemann  83

Cuba's First Railroad / David Turnbull  88

The Color Line / Jose Antonio Saco  91

Abolition! / Father Felix Varela  94

Cecilia Valdes / Cirilo Villaverde  97

Sab / Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda y Arteaga  103

An Afro-Cuban Poet / Placido  110

III The Struggle for Independence  

Freedom and Slavery / Carlos Manuel de Cespedes  115

Memories of a Cuban Girl / Renee Mendez Capote  118

Jose Marti's "Our America" / Jose Marti  122

Guantanamera / Jose Marti  128

The Explosion of the Maine / New York Journal  130

U.S. Cartoonists Portray Cuba / John J. Johnson  135

The Devastation of Counterinsurgency / Fifty-fifth Congress, Second Session  139

IV Neocolonialism  

The Platt Amendment / President Theodore Roosevelt  147

Imperialism and Sanitation / Nancy Stepan  150

A Child of the Platt Amendment / Renee Mendez Capote  154

Spain in Cuba / Manuel Moreno Fraginals  157

The Independent Party of Color / El Partido Independiente de Color  163

A Survivor / Isidoro Santos Carrera  167

Rachel's Song / Miguel Barnet  171

Honest Women / Miguel de Carrion  180

Generals and Doctors / Carlos Loveira  186

A Crucial Decade / Lolo de la Torriente  189

Afrocubanismo and Son / Robin Moore  192

Drums in My Eyes / Nicolas Guillen  201

Abakua / Rafael Lopez Valdes  212

The First Wave of Cuban Feminism / Ofelia Dominguez Navarro  219

Life at the Mill / Ursinio Rojas  226

Migrant Workers in the Sugar Industry / Levi Marrero  234

The Cuban Counterpoint / Fernando Ortiz  239

The Invasion of the Tourists / Rosalie Schwartz  244

Waiting Tables in Havana / Cipriano Chinea Palero and Lynn Geldof  253

The Brothel of the Caribbean / Tomas Fernandez Robaina  257

A Prostitute Remembers / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon  260

Sugarcane / Nicolas Guillen  264

Where is Cuba Headed? / Julio Antonio Mella  265

The Chase / Alejo Carpentier  270

The Fall of Machado / R. Hart Phillips  274

Sugar Mills and Soviets / Salvador Rionda  281

The United States Confronts the 1933 Revolution / Sumner Welles and Cordell Hull  283

The Political Gangster / Samuel Farber  287

The United Fruit Company in Cuba / Oscar Zanetti  290

Cuba's Largest Inheritance / Bohemia  296

The Last Call / Eduardo A. Chibas  298

For Us, It Is Always the 26th of July / Carlos Puebla  300

Three Comandantes Talk It Over / Carlos Franqui  302

History Will Absolve Me / Fidel Castro  306

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War / Che Guevara  315

The United States Rules Cuba, 1952-1958 / Morris Morley  321

The Cuban Story in the New York Times / Herbert L. Matthews  326

V Building a New Society  

And Then Fidel Arrived / Carlos Puebla  337

Tornado / Silvio Rodriguez  340

Castro Announces the Revolution / Fidel Castro  341

How the Poor Got More / Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott  344

Fish a la Grande Jardiniere / Humberto Arenal  354

Women in the Swamps / Margaret Randall  363

Man and Socialism / Ernesto "Che" Guevara  370

In the Fist of the Revolution / Jose Yglesias  375

The Agrarian Revolution / Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott  378

1961: The Year of Education / Richard R. Fagen  386

The Literacy Campaign / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon  389

The "Rehabilitation" of Prostitutes / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon  395

The Family Code / Margaret Randall  399

Homosexuality, Creativity, Dissidence / Reinaldo Arenas  406

The Original Sin / Pablo Milanes  412

Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing / Nancy Morejon  414

Silence on Black Cuba / Carlos Moore  419

Black Man in Red Cuba / John Clytus  424

Post-modern Maroon in the Ultimate Palenque / Christian Parenti  427

From Utopianism to Institutionalization / Juan Antonio Blanco and Medea Benjamin  433

Carlos Puebla Sings about the Economy / Carlos Puebla  443

VI Culture and Revolution  

Caliban / Roberto Fernandez Retamar  451

For an Imperfect Cinema / Julio Garcia Espinosa  458

Dance and Social Change / Yvonne Daniel  466

Revolutionary Sport / Paula Pettavino and Geralyn Pye  475

Mea Cuba / Guillermo Cabrera Infante  481

In Hard Times / Heberto Padilla  488

The Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba's Patron Saint / Olga Portuondo Zuniga  490

A Conversation on Santeria and Palo Monte / Oscar Lewis, Ruth M. Lewis, and Susan M. Rigdon  498

The Catholic Church and the Revolution / Ernesto Cardenal  505

Havana's Jewish Community / Tom Miller  509

VII The Cuban Revolution and the World  

The Venceremos Brigades / Sandra Levinson  517

The Cuban Revolution and the New Left / Van Gosse  526

The U.S. Government Responds to Revolution / Foreign Relations of the United States  530

Castro Calls on Cubans to Resist the Counterrevolution / Fidel Castro  536

Operation Mongoose / Edward Lansdale  540

Offensive Missiles on That Imprisoned Island / President John F. Kennedy  544

Inconsolable Memories: A Cuban View of the Missile Crisis / Edmundo Desnoes  547

The Assassination Plots / Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities  552

Cuban Refugee Children / Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh  557

From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants / Felix Roberto Masud-Piloto  561

Wrong Channel / Roberto Fernandez  566

We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? / Achy Obejas  568

City on the Edge / Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick  581

Singing for Nicaragua / Silvio Rodriguez  588

Cuban Medical Diplomacy / Julie Feinsilver  590

VIII The "Periodo Especial" and the Future of the Revolution  

Silvio Rodriguez Sings of the Special Period / Silvio Rodriguez  599

From Communist Solidarity to Communist Solitary / Susan Eckstein  607

The Revolution Turns Forty / Saul Landau  623

Colonizing the Cuban Body / G. Derrick Hodge  628

Pope John Paul II Speaks in Cuba / Pope John Paul II  635

Emigration in the Special Period / Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez  637

The Old Man and the Boy / John Lee Anderson  644

Civil Society / Haroldo Dilla  650

Forty Years Later / Senel Paz  660

A Dissident Speaks Out / Elizardo Sanchez Santacruz  664

One More Assassination Plot / Juan Tamayo  666

An Errand in Havana / Miguel Barnet  671

No Turning Back for Johnny / David Mitrani  678

Suggestions for Further Reading  691

Acknowledgment of Copyrights  701

Index  713

"[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] classic. The editors of this book and their many accomplices deserve nothing but praise for producing the best introduction to Cuba one can possibly find."
—Gavin O’Toole, The Latin American Review of Books

"The Cuba Reader is a great addition to courses that focus on Cuba. . . . As the readings are translated into English, the book is accessible to undergraduates. There is no alternative book that fills the need that The Cuba Reader does, and it will find a large market in classes on Cuba."—Mariola Espinosa, The Latin Americanist

"The Cuba Reader is . . . an impressive and worthy addition to the series of similar readers on Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, published by Duke University Press. . . . [A]n engaging assortment of readings. . . . [A] rich variety of voices, most of them Cuban, which, when read together reveal a nation and people of complexity and charm, pathos and poignancy, quite unlike the stark categories in which the warring ideologies usually place them. . . . [T]his is a volume that can be read with benefit and enjoyment by student and faculty scholars alike."
—Richard R. Super, International Third World Studies Journal and Review

"[T]he 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."—John J. Dwyer, The Americas

"[A]n ambitious undertaking, and the book succeeds admirably. . . . The Cuba Reader is a great addition to courses that focus on Cuba. . . . There is no alternative book that fills the need that The Cuba Reader does, and tit will find a large market in classes on Cuba."—Mariola Espinosa, The Latin Americanist

"[T]he whole volume probably achieves its ambitious objectives. While, even in such an impressive range of sources, there are inevitable omissions, these generally do not detract from the overall effect, and the authors' predilections (evident in the order, length and juxtaposition of the selections) are generally to be welcomed rather than criticised."--—Antoni Kapcia, Bulletin of Latin American Research

"This Reader provides a wonderfully eclectic selection of writings from and about Cuba. . . . [A] very useful resource for the teaching of courses relating to Cuba, providing a taster of many aspects of the island's history that should encourage those who dip into it to come away with a more nuanced understanding of an island that has been plagued by caricature."—Jonathan Curry-Machado, Journal of Latin American Studies

"[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] classic. The editors of this book and their many accomplices deserve nothing but praise for producing the best introduction to Cuba one can possibly find."
—Gavin O’Toole, The Latin American Review of Books

"The Cuba Reader is a great addition to courses that focus on Cuba. . . . As the readings are translated into English, the book is accessible to undergraduates. There is no alternative book that fills the need that The Cuba Reader does, and it will find a large market in classes on Cuba."—Mariola Espinosa, The Latin Americanist

"The Cuba Reader is . . . an impressive and worthy addition to the series of similar readers on Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, published by Duke University Press. . . . [A]n engaging assortment of readings. . . . [A] rich variety of voices, most of them Cuban, which, when read together reveal a nation and people of complexity and charm, pathos and poignancy, quite unlike the stark categories in which the warring ideologies usually place them. . . . [T]his is a volume that can be read with benefit and enjoyment by student and faculty scholars alike."
—Richard R. Super, International Third World Studies Journal and Review

"[T]he 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."—John J. Dwyer, The Americas

"[A]n ambitious undertaking, and the book succeeds admirably. . . . The Cuba Reader is a great addition to courses that focus on Cuba. . . . There is no alternative book that fills the need that The Cuba Reader does, and tit will find a large market in classes on Cuba."—Mariola Espinosa, The Latin Americanist

"[T]he whole volume probably achieves its ambitious objectives. While, even in such an impressive range of sources, there are inevitable omissions, these generally do not detract from the overall effect, and the authors' predilections (evident in the order, length and juxtaposition of the selections) are generally to be welcomed rather than criticised."--—Antoni Kapcia, Bulletin of Latin American Research

"This Reader provides a wonderfully eclectic selection of writings from and about Cuba. . . . [A] very useful resource for the teaching of courses relating to Cuba, providing a taster of many aspects of the island's history that should encourage those who dip into it to come away with a more nuanced understanding of an island that has been plagued by caricature."—Jonathan Curry-Machado, Journal of Latin American Studies

“What a beautiful journey through five hundred years of Cuban history, culture, and politics! The Cuba Reader is a sumptuous medley of poetry, song, speeches, interviews, and vignettes from novels new and old. You’ll hear the voices of santeros and sugar workers, prostitutes and politicos, revolutionaries and reporters, dissidents and dancers. It’s the next best thing to being in Cuba, so sit back with a mojito and enjoy the masterfully guided tour.”—Medea Benjamin, activist and cofounder of Global Exchange

"The Cuba Reader offers a splendid overview of the Cuban experience, past and present, through a dazzling array of points of view. The voices of participants and observers and perspectives on the extraordinary and the commonplace—with imagery conveyed by way of photography and poetry, through the lyric of music and the nuance of the novel—make for a compelling collection of material. The very fullness of its vision makes The Cuba Reader an indispensable book for courses—of every academic discipline—on Cuba.”—Louis A. Pérez, Jr., author of On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture

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