The Assassination Plots

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments xiii
4. Introduction 1
5. I Indigenous Society and Conquest
6. Christopher Columbus “Discovers” Cuba 7
7. The Devastation of the Indies 12
8. Spanish Officials and Indigenous Resistance 15
9. A World Destroyed 19
10. “Transculturation” and Cuba 25
11. Survival Stories 27
12. II Sugar, Slavery, and Colonialism
13. A Physician’s Notes on Cuba 37
14. The Death of the Forest 44
15. Autobiography of a Slave 48
16. Biography of a Runaway Slave 57
17. Fleeing Slavery 64
18. Santiago de Cuba’s Fugitive Slaves 68
19. Rumba 73
20. The Trade in Chinese Laborers 78
21. Life on a Coffee Plantation 81
22. Cuba’s First Railroad 86
23. The Color Line 89
24. Abolition! 92
25. Cecilia Valdés 95
26. Sab 101
27. An Afro-Cuban Poet 108
28. III The Struggle for Independence
29. Freedom and Slavery 111
30. Memories of a Cuban Girl 115
31. José Martí’s “Our America” 119
32. Guantanamera 125
33. The Explosion of the Maine 127
34. U.S. Cartoonists Portray Cuba 132
35. The Devastation of Counterinsurgency 136
36. IV Neocolonialism
37. Introduction 141
38. President Roosevelt Proclaims the Platt Amendment 145
39. Imperialism and Sanitation 147
40. A Child of the Platt Amendment 151
41. Spain in Cuba 154
42. The Independent Party of Color 160
43. A Survivor 163
44. Rachel’s Song 166
45. Honest Women 174
46. A Crucial Decade 180
47. Afrocubanismo and Son 183
48. Drums in My Eyes 191
49. Abakuá 201
50. The First Wave of Cuban Feminism 203
51. Life at the Mill 210
52. Migrant Workers in the Sugar Industry 217
53. The Cuban Counterpoint 222
54. The Invasion of the Tourists 227
55. Waiting Tables in Havana 236
56. The Brothel of the Caribbean 239
57. Sugarcane 242
58. Where Is Cuba Headed? 243
59. The Chase 248
60. The Fall of Machado 252
61. Sugar Mills and Soviets 259
62. The United States Confronts the 1933 Revolution 261
63. The Political Gangster 265
64. The United Fruit Company in Cuba 268
65. Cuba’s Largest Inheritance 273
66. The Last Call 276
67. Three Comandantes Talk It Over 279
68. History Will Absolve Me 283
69. Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War 292
70. The United States Rules Cuba, 1952–1958 298
71. The Cuban Story in the New York Times 303
72. V Building a New Society
73. Troubadours of the Revolution 309
74. Castro Announces the Revolution 315
75. How the Poor Got More 318
76. Fish à la Grande Jardinière 327
77. Women in the Swamps 336
78. Socialism and Man 343
79. In the Fist of the Revolution 348
80. The Agrarian Revolution 352
81. 1961: The Year of Education 360
82. The Literacy Campaign 363
83. The Family Code 368
84. The Original Sin 374
85. Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing 376
86. Silence on Black Cuba 380
87. Black Man in Red Cuba 385
88. Postmodern Maroon in the Ultimate Palenque 388
89. From Utopianism to Institutionalization 394
90. VI Culture and Revolution
91. Caliban 405
92. For an Imperfect Cinema 414
93. Dance and Social Change 422
94. Revolutionary Sport 430
95. In Hard Times 435
96. The Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba’s Patron Saint 437
97. A Conversation on Santería and Palo Monte 444
98. The Catholic Church and the Revolution 450
99. VII The Cuban Revolution and the World
100. The Venceremos Brigades 453
101. The Cuban Revolution and the New Left 463
102. The U.S. Government Responds to Revolution 467
103. Castro Calls on Cubans to Resist the Counterrevolution 472
104. Operation Mongoose 476
105. Offensive Missiles on That Imprisoned Island 480
106. Inconsolable Memories: A Cuban View of the Missile Crisis 483
107. The Assassination Plots 487
108. Cuban Refugee Children 492
109. From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants 496
110. Wrong Channel 501
111. City on the Edge 503
112. Singing for Nicaragua 510
113. Cuban Medical Diplomacy 512
114. VIII The Período Especial
115. Introduction 517
116. Silvio Rodríguez Sings of the Special Period 521
117. Zippy Goes to Cuba 525
118. “Special Period in Peacetime”: Economic and Labor Reforms 528
119. The Revolution Turns Forty 542
120. Colonizing the Cuban Body 547
121. Pope John Paul II Speaks in Cuba 553
122. Elián González and the “Real Cuba” of Miami 555
123. Civil Society 563
124. Forty Years Later 572
125. IX Cuba after Fidel: Continuities and Transitions
126. Introduction 577
127. Economy and Society
128. Raúl’s Reforms 581
129. Emigration in the Twenty-First Century 591
130. Tourism and the Many Faces of Havana’s Chinatown 597
131. The Antiracist Debate in Today’s Cuba 604
132. Afro-Cuban Activists Fight Racism between Two Fires 607
133. Race and Cuban Hip-Hop 615
134. The “Pavonato” 622
135. Short Stories 627
136. His Cigar 630
137. Gender, Sexuality, and AIDS 632
138. A Theory of Reguetón 639
139. 12/17 and U.S.-Cuban Relations
140. Spies, Counterspies, and Dissidents 643
141. Francis, Obama, and Raúl 651
142. Obama and Us 652
143. “Visit Cuba before It Changes!” 657
144. Perspectives on Cuba ’s New Realities
145. New Cuban Voices 661
146. “El Paquete”: Internet in Cuba 667
147. A New Film Law 672
148. So as Not to Throw Out the Sofa (Editorial Song) 674
149. Spyglass 677
150. Commentaries on Fidel Castro’s Death 678
151. Suggestions for Further Reading 683
152. Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources 697
153. Index 709