Yvon Grenier is professor of political science at St. Francis Xavier University.

Yvon Grenier, a sharp-eyed observer of culture and politics in Latin America, provides an illuminating analysis of the complex relations between Cuba’s intellectuals and the Castro regime. Exceeding the revolutionary rhetoric which has impressed much of the research on Cuba in the past, Grenier looks seriously and rigorously into the state’s cultural policy over time, showing how changes in that policy from repression to liberalization and back have not altered the fundamental position of Cuba’s artists, writers and political scientists, a position marked by fear, censorship, self-censorship, and the need to perform intellectual acrobatics. A must-read for anyone concerned with the fate of creative imagination and critical thinking in authoritarian states.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments List of AcronymsChapter 1: Revolution and Cultural WillChapter 2: Don't Cross This LineChapter 3: Jesus Diaz, the Unintentional DeviationistChapter 4: The Curator StateChapter 5: How to Write From Mantilla, Of the Small Heresies of Leonardo PaduraChapter 6: Faking CriticismConclusionBibliography

Yvon Grenier is professor of political science at St. Francis Xavier University.

Yvon Grenier, a sharp-eyed observer of culture and politics in Latin America, provides an illuminating analysis of the complex relations between Cuba’s intellectuals and the Castro regime. Exceeding the revolutionary rhetoric which has impressed much of the research on Cuba in the past, Grenier looks seriously and rigorously into the state’s cultural policy over time, showing how changes in that policy from repression to liberalization and back have not altered the fundamental position of Cuba’s artists, writers and political scientists, a position marked by fear, censorship, self-censorship, and the need to perform intellectual acrobatics. A must-read for anyone concerned with the fate of creative imagination and critical thinking in authoritarian states.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments List of AcronymsChapter 1: Revolution and Cultural WillChapter 2: Don't Cross This LineChapter 3: Jesus Diaz, the Unintentional DeviationistChapter 4: The Curator StateChapter 5: How to Write From Mantilla, Of the Small Heresies of Leonardo PaduraChapter 6: Faking CriticismConclusionBibliography

Yvon Grenier is professor of political science at St. Francis Xavier University.

Yvon Grenier, a sharp-eyed observer of culture and politics in Latin America, provides an illuminating analysis of the complex relations between Cuba’s intellectuals and the Castro regime. Exceeding the revolutionary rhetoric which has impressed much of the research on Cuba in the past, Grenier looks seriously and rigorously into the state’s cultural policy over time, showing how changes in that policy from repression to liberalization and back have not altered the fundamental position of Cuba’s artists, writers and political scientists, a position marked by fear, censorship, self-censorship, and the need to perform intellectual acrobatics. A must-read for anyone concerned with the fate of creative imagination and critical thinking in authoritarian states.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments List of AcronymsChapter 1: Revolution and Cultural WillChapter 2: Don't Cross This LineChapter 3: Jesus Diaz, the Unintentional DeviationistChapter 4: The Curator StateChapter 5: How to Write From Mantilla, Of the Small Heresies of Leonardo PaduraChapter 6: Faking CriticismConclusionBibliography