Isabel Álvarez-Borland, Lynette M. F. Bosch, and Jorge J. E. Gracia - Identity, Memory, and Diaspora: Voices of Cuban-American Artists, Writers, and Philosophers.  Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2008. Presented by Raúl Rosales-Herrera (Drew University)

This book offers a detailed picture of the lives of Cuban Americans through interviews with artists, writers, and philosophers.

This fascinating volume contains interviews with nineteen prominent Cuban-American artists, writers, and philosophers who tell their stories and share what they consider important for understanding their work. Struggling with issues of Cuban-American identity in particular and social identity in general, they explore such questions as how they see themselves, how they have dealt with the diaspora and their memories, what they have done to find a proper place in their adopted country, and how their work has been influenced by the experience. Their answers reveal different perspectives on art, literature, and philosophy, and the different challenges encountered personally and professionally. The interviews are gathered into three groups: nine artists, six writers, and four philosophers. An introductory essay for each group is included, and the interviews are accompanied by brief biographical notes, along with samples of the work of those interviewed.

Ruth Behar - An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Presented by Vanessa Díaz (University of Michigan)

As a child of five, Ruth Behar left Cuba with her Jewish family. Growing up in the United States, she wondered about the Jews who stayed behind. Who were they and why had they stayed? What traces were left of the Jewish presence, of the cemeteries, synagogues, and Torahs? Who was taking care of this legacy? What Jewish memories had managed to survive the years of revolutionary atheism?

A stunning memoir, An Island Called Home is the story of Behar’s journey back to find answers to these questions. Behar uncovers a side of Cuban Jews that is poignant and personal. Her moving vignettes of the individuals she meets are coupled with the sensitive photographs of Havana-based photographer Humberto Mayol, who traveled with her.

Anke Birkenmaier - Alejo Carpentier y la cultura del surrealismo en América Latina. Frankfurt – Madrid: Iberoamericana–Vervuert, 2006. Presented by Duanel Díaz (Princeton University)

Birkenmaier muestra cómo en los años treinta el surrealismo se alió a la entonces naciente cultura de masas. A partir de la trayectoria intelectual del cubano Alejo Carpentier se traza la fascinante historia de la época de entreguerras cuando la vanguardia francesa y latinoamericana se enfrentó a la oralidad mediatizada de la radio y el gramófono. El análisis de los escritos de Carpentier y sobre música, oralidad y medios masivos, en proximidad intelectual con las teorías de la escuela de Frankfurt, luego desemboca en una lectura original de la nueva literatura latinoamericana del propio Carpentier como también de algunos textos de Mario Vargas Llosa, Guillermo Cabrera Infante y Julio Cortazar.

Nathalie Bondil, editor. - Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today.  Montreal: Prestel Publishing, 2008.  Presented by Iliana Cepero Amador, Independent Art Critic and Curator.

Edited by Natalie Bondil, Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, this 424-page catalogue is the first publication covering the whole history of Cuban art. It provides essays by Cuban and international specialists on various aspects of the subject and some 140 biographical notes. Published in separate French, English and Spanish editions, it is illustrated with more than 400 reproductions of paintings, drawings, posters, photographs, installations, videos and a collective mural produced in 1967 by about a hundred artists from many nations.  The accompanying essays were written by twenty experts of various nationalities including Gerardo Mosquera, Antonio Eligio Fernández (Tonel), Jeff Rosenheim, Rosa Lowinger, Timothy Barnard, Graziella Pogolotti and Günther Schütz, among others.

Philip Brenner, Marguerite Rose Jiménez, John M. Kirk, & Willian M. LeoGrande, eds. - A Contemporary Cuba Reader: Reinventing the Revolution. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.  Presented by Margaret E. Crahan (Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY)

A Contemporary Cuba Reader brings together some of the best recent scholarship and writing on Cuban politics, economics, foreign relations, society, and culture in the post-Soviet era, which Cubans call the "Special Period." Ideally suited for students and general readers seeking to understand contemporary Cuba, the book includes a substantive introduction setting the historical context, as well as part introductions and a chronology. Introductory essays to each section provide clear context for each article in that section.

Anthony DePalma - El Hombre que Inventó a Fidel. Castro, Cuba y Herbert Matthews del New York Times. New York: Jorge Pinto, 2007. Presented by Rafael Ocasio (Agnes Scott College)

In 1957, Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times tracked down Fidel Castro in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains and returned with what was considered the scoop of the century. His heroic portrayal of Castro, who was believed dead, had a powerful effect on American perceptions of Cuba and profoundly influenced the fall of the Batista Regime. When Castro emerged as a Soviet-backed dictator, Matthews became a scapegoat; his paper turned on him, his career foundered, and he was accused of betraying his country.

New York Times reporter Anthony DePalma investigates the Matthews case and recreates the atmosphere of Cold War America.

Sergio Díaz-Briquets and Jorge Pérez-López - Corruption in Cuba: Castro and Beyond. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006. Presented by Alfonso Quiroz (Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY)

While Fidel Castro maintains his longtime grip on Cuba, revolutionary scholars and policy analysts have turned their attention from how Castro succeeded (and failed), to how Castro himself will be succeeded—by a new government. Among the many questions to be answered is how
the new government will deal with the corruption that has become endemic in Cuba. Even though combating corruption cannot be the central aim of post-Castro policy, Sergio Díaz-Briquets and Jorge Pérez-López suggest that, without a strong plan to thwart it, corruption will undermine the new economy, erode support for the new government, and encourage organized crime. In short, unless measures are taken to stem corruption, the new Cuba could be as messy as the old Cuba.

Fidel Castro did not bring corruption to Cuba; he merely institutionalized it. Official corruption has crippled Cuba since the colonial period, but Castro's state-run monopolies, cronyism, and lack of accountability have made Cuba one of the world's most corrupt states. The former communist countries in Eastern Europe were also extremely corrupt, and analyses of their transitional periods suggest that those who have taken measures to control corruption have had more successful transitions, regardless of whether the leadership tilted toward socialism or democracy. To that end, Díaz-Briquets and Pérez-López, both Cuban Americans, do not advocate any particular system for Cuba's next government, but instead prescribe uniquely Cuban policies to minimize corruption whatever direction the country takes after Castro. As their work makes clear, averting corruption may be the most critical obstacle in creating a healthy new Cuba.

Sujatha Fernandes - Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. Presented by Odette Casamayor (University of Connecticut)  

In Cuba Represent!, Sujatha Fernandes details the new forms of engagement with official institutions that have opened up as a result of changing relationships between state and society in the post-Soviet period. She demonstrates that in a moment of extreme hardship and uncertainty, the Cuban state has moved to a more permeable model of power. Artists and other members of the public collaborate with government actors to partially incorporate critical cultural expressions into official discourse. 

Alexander Gray and Antoni Kapcia - The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society. Gainsville, FL:  University Press of Florida, 2008. Presented by Peter Roman ( Hostos Community College and The Graduate Center, CUNY)

Does a civil society actually exist in Cuba today and if so what is its nature and role? In seeking answers to this hotly contested and highly politicized question, Alexander Gray and Antoni Kapcia have assembled an impressive and diverse group of contributors.

The essays in The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society range from general discussion of the private sector to case studies about volunteer work, religious entities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis in 1990, the Cuban state has experienced severe challenges, and individuals have been forced to respond in unexpected ways to ensure their economic survival. Avoiding polemics and preconceptions, this volume brings a fresh and welcome perspective to one of the most vexing issues in Cuban society today.

Ted Henken - Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook. Santa Barbara/Denver/Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Presented by Silvia Pedraza (University of Michigan)

Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook provides an overview of Cuban historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural development from the pre-Columbian period to the present day with an emphasis on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book contains four narrative chapters on (1) geography and history, (2) economics and development, (3) institutions, and (4) culture and society – each with its own bibliography. This is followed by a reference section that provides fresh, detailed information on key historical events, important people, Cuban Spanish, etiquette (national habits and traditions, cuisine, and holidays), and leading institutions and organizations both in Cuba and abroad. The book ends with an annotated bibliography that lists some of the most helpful resources used in preparing this volume (including books, newspapers, periodicals, films and documentaries, and websites). Interspersed throughout the text are more than forty of the author’s own photographs taken in Cuba since 1997, a timeline of Cuban history, a chart tracing the development of Cuban popular music, and a “discography” or listeners guide to some of Cuba's best music. In sum, the book tells a critical yet sympathetic tale of Cuba’s history and development, aimed at appealing especially to curious observers who want to add some historical weight and socio-cultural depth to what they already know about the island. While the book is titled, Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook, it could well be subtitled, “Cuba: The Country that Dreamed It Was a Continent.” That is, the island of Cuba has long had a political, strategic, and cultural importance that belied its relatively small size, meager natural resource base, and scant population.  Why is Cuba so BIG?  Read this book to find out.

Jacqueline Loss and Esther Whitfield - New Short Fiction from Cuba. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2007. Presented by Isabel Álvarez-Borland (College of the Holy Cross)

With the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Cuba’s political future, the onslaught of tourists, and the economic upheavals in their society, Cubans face an important, perhaps epochal, moment of cultural change. It is a moment amply and complexly reflected in the fiction collected in New Short Fiction From Cuba (Northwestern University Press), twelve short stories written in Cuba during the past ten years and published in English for the first time with the collaboration of some of today’s finest translators.

William Luis Juan Francisco Manzano - Autobiografía del esclavo poeta y otros escritos. Frankfurt – Madrid: Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2007. Presented by Evelyn Hu-DeHart (Brown University)

La autobiografía de Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1853) es un testimonio único sobre la esclavitud, escrito en español por un esclavo. Su composición en 1835 fue posible gracias a los esfuerzos de Domingo del Monte, que alentó al poeta a escribir un relato autobiográfico. Manzano tuvo que aprender a leer y escribir antes de aventurarse a narrar los episodios de su vida en un manuscrito legible, aunque con multitud de errores. Para hacerla más accesible a los lectores Del Monte encomendó el manuscrito a Anselmo Suárez y Romero para que le diera forma e hiciera las correcciones necesarias. Suárez y Romero cumplió cabalmente con la petición, pero también modificó la vida del esclavo con la intención de que el testimonio cobrara mayor fuerza en favor de la abolición de la trata de esclavos y la esclavitud. Tanto la autobiografía original como la versión corregida por Suárez y Romero desaparecieron. El original, encontrado un siglo más tarde en la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, fue publicado en 1937 por José Luciano Franco. La versión de Suárez y Romero, hallada a mediados de la década de los ochenta en la Biblioteca de Sterling de la Universidad de Yale e inédita hasta el momento, es la que se da a conocer a los lectores en este libro.

Rafael Ocasio - A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile: Reinaldo Arenas. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007. Presented by Carlos Riobó (The City College of New York)

Between Reinaldo Arenas's arrival in the United States in 1980 and his suicide a decade later, the Cuban exile produced his most mature writiting. In A Gay Cuban Activist in Exile, Ocasio explores Arenas's bold criticism of the Castro regime, including his fierce advocacy of homosexuality and his willingness to alienate Latino and Latin American audiences in order to remain true to his self-proclaimed identity. Examining Arenas's fiction, critical articles and hundreds of letters to friends and critics, Ocasio focuses on the writer's political activism and his bitter conflict with notable pro-Castro supporters such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Natania Remba - Surrounded by Water: Expressions of Freedom and Isolation in Contemporary Cuban Art. Boston University Art Gallery, 2008. Presented by Ana María Hernández

Surrounded by Water: Expressions of Freedom and Isolation in Contemporary Cuban Art is an innovative exhibition and illustrated catalogue that springs from Virgilio Piñera’s notable line, “the accursed circumstance of water all around.” Curated by Natania Remba, the featured artworks (1990-present) focus on “water” as a theme, which has been a constant presence in Cuban visual culture and is at the essence of cubanidad. Using an array of media, including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, video and mixed-media installations, the internationally recognized Cuban artists incorporate water in their images, by means of autobiography, maps, emigration, archeology, religion and politics. The exhibition offers aesthetic narratives, with historical, literary, political and cultural references, to illustrate the intricacies of living in a geographically, politically, and economically isolated country with an open and liberating artistic community.

The catalogue features an introduction by Antonio Eligio Fernández (Tonel) and an essay by curator Natania Remba.

Rafael Rojas - Motivos de Anteo. Patria y nación en la historia intelectual de Cuba. Madrid: Colibrí, 2008. Presented by César Salgado (University of Texas)

Este libro reconstruye la historia de los conceptos de patria y nación y sus persistentes metáforas (tierra, sangre, espíritu, alma, ser, esencia, identidad…) en la cultura cubana. El punto de partida es el discurso criollo ilustrado de fines del siglo XVIII y el de llegada son las poéticas de la historia de Orígenes. Por el camino, Rafael Rojas glosa a los pensadores fundamentales de la isla (Arango, Saco, Varela, Luz, Martí, Varona, Guerra, Ortiz, Mañach, Lezama) y enfatiza la diversidad ideológica del pasado. La nación no es, aquí, obra exclusiva de separatistas, revolucionarios y socialistas, sino también el ideal de autonomistas y anexionistas, liberales y demócratas. La cultura insular es pensada como una tensión incluyente entre sujetos y discursos y no como la exclusión o el aniquilamiento de unas ideologías por otras.

Araceli Tinajero - El lector de tabaquería.  Madrid: Verbum, 2007.

Presented by Stephen Wilkinson (London Metropolitan University)

El lector (the reader) de tabaquería is someone whose profession is that of reading newspapers, magazines and literature to cigar makers while they are working. An accessible study of the history of the readers from 1865 to the present.

 “Este libro  es una de las contribuciones más importantes y oportunas al conocimiento de la cultura cubana que se han hecho en mucho tiempo, y quedará como un hito en el conocimiento de su historia.” 

                               - Roberto González Echevarría -  Yale University.

Esther Whitfield - Cuban Currency: The Dollar and “Special Period” in Fiction. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Presented by Jacqueline Loss (University of Connecticut)

Cuban Currency: The Dollar and Special Period Fiction takes an integrated approach to the cultural, economic and social changes of Cuba's "special period in times of peace."   Locating literary production at the epicenter of the Cuban cultural boom of the 1990s,  it argues that writers both challenged and profited from new transnational markets for their work, in a move whose literary and ideological implications are far-reaching.

Stephen Wilkinson - Detective Fiction in Cuban Society and Culture. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006

Presented by Ted Henken (Baruch College)

This book examines Cuban society through a study of its detective
fiction and more particularly contemporary Cuban society through the
novels of the author and critic, Leonardo Padura Fuentes. The author
traces the development of Cuban detective writing in the light of the
work of twentieth century Western European literary critics and
philosophers and includes a discussion of how the genre provides an
angle of incidence that helps understand the broader philosophical,
political and historical issues raised by the Cuban revolution.

Lisa Yun - The Coolie Speaks: Chinese and Africans of Cuba. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007. Presented by Jack Tchen (New York University)

Introducing radical counter-visions of race and slavery, and probing the legal and philosophical questions raised by indenture, The Coolie Speaks offers the first critical reading of a massive testimony case from Cuba in 1874. From this case, Yun traces the emergence of a "coolie narrative" that forms a counterpart to the "slave narrative." The written and oral testimonies of nearly 3,000 Chinese laborers in Cuba, who toiled alongside African slaves, offer a rare glimpse into the nature of bondage and the tortuous transition to freedom. Trapped in one of the last standing systems of slavery in the Americas, the Chinese described their hopes and struggles, and their unrelenting quest for freedom.

Yun argues that the testimonies from this case suggest radical critiques of the "contract" institution, the basis for free modern society. The example of Cuba, she suggests, constitutes the early experiment and forerunner of new contract slavery, in which the contract itself, taken to its extreme, was wielded as a most potent form of enslavement and complicity. Yun further considers the communal biography of a next-generation Afro-Chinese Cuban author and raises timely theoretical questions regarding race, diaspora, transnationalism, and globalization.