Pamela Maria Smorkaloff – författare

Tracking Cuban history from 1492 to the present, The Cuba Reader includes more than one hundred selections that present myriad perspectives on Cuba's history, culture, and politics. The volume foregrounds the experience of Cubans from all walks of life, including slaves, prostitutes, doctors, activists, and historians. Combining songs, poetry, fiction, journalism, political speeches, and many other types of documents, this revised and updated second edition of The Cuba Reader contains over twenty new selections that explore the changes and continuities in Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped down from power in 2006. For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.

Cuba is often perceived in starkly black and white terms—either as the site of one of Latin America’s most successful revolutions or as the bastion of the world’s last communist regime. The Cuba Reader multiplies perspectives on the nation many times over, presenting more than one hundred selections about Cuba’s history, culture, and politics. Beginning with the first written account of the island, penned by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the selections assembled here track Cuban history from the colonial period through the ascendancy of Fidel Castro to the present.

The Cuba Reader combines songs, paintings, photographs, poems, short stories, speeches, cartoons, government reports and proclamations, and pieces by historians, journalists, and others. Most of these are by Cubans, and many appear for the first time in English. The writings and speeches of José Martí, Fernando Ortiz, Fidel Castro, Alejo Carpentier, Che Guevera, and Reinaldo Arenas appear alongside the testimonies of slaves, prostitutes, doctors, travelers, and activists. Some selections examine health, education, Catholicism, and santería; others celebrate Cuba’s vibrant dance, music, film, and literary cultures. The pieces are grouped into chronological sections. Each section and individual selection is preceded by a brief introduction by the editors.

The volume presents a number of pieces about twentieth-century Cuba, including the events leading up to and following Castro’s January 1959 announcement of revolution. It provides a look at Cuba in relation to the rest of the world: the effect of its revolution on Latin America and the Caribbean, its alliance with the Soviet Union from the 1960s until the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989, and its tumultuous relationship with the United States. The Cuba Reader also describes life in the periodo especial following the cutoff of Soviet aid and the tightening of the U.S. embargo.

For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.

This study examines the evolution of Cuban literature and culture from its origins in the 19th century to the present. The early sections analyze the relationship between literary production and universities, the printing press, the abolitionist movement and the exile community from 1810 through the post-war years. Subsequent sections trace literary life from the 1920s to 1958, focusing on the links between writers, readers, and the institutions that supported literary endeavors in the Cuban Republic. The remaining chapters address Cuban literary culture from 1959 through the 1990s. This first thorough study of Cuban print culture after the 1959 revolution fills a large gap in Latin American studies with original research in archives and journals. Analysis of the relationship between literature and contemporary Cuban society is grounded in the earliest Cuban vernacular literature born in the Spanish colony and redefined in the process of nation-building in the first half of the 20th century. The book also surveys Cuban literary production in the current period of transition, confronting issues of globalization, fragmentation, and Cuba''s adjustment to a post-Cold War world.

This study examines the evolution of Cuban literature and culture from its origins in the 19th century to the present. The early sections analyze the relationship between literary production and universities, the printing press, the abolitionist movement and the exile community from 1810 through the post-war years. Subsequent sections trace literary life from the 1920s to 1958, focusing on the links between writers, readers, and the institutions that supported literary endeavors in the Cuban Republic. The remaining chapters address Cuban literary culture from 1959 through the 1990s. This first thorough study of Cuban print culture after the 1959 revolution fills a large gap in Latin American studies with original research in archives and journals. Analysis of the relationship between literature and contemporary Cuban society is grounded in the earliest Cuban vernacular literature born in the Spanish colony and redefined in the process of nation-building in the first half of the 20th century. The book also surveys Cuban literary production in the current period of transition, confronting issues of globalization, fragmentation, and Cuba''s adjustment to a post-Cold War world.

Tracking Cuban history from 1492 to the present, The Cuba Reader includes more than one hundred selections that present myriad perspectives on Cuba's history, culture, and politics. The volume foregrounds the experience of Cubans from all walks of life, including slaves, prostitutes, doctors, activists, and historians. Combining songs, poetry, fiction, journalism, political speeches, and many other types of documents, this revised and updated second edition of The Cuba Reader contains over twenty new selections that explore the changes and continuities in Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped down from power in 2006. For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.

Tracking Cuban history from 1492 to the present, The Cuba Reader includes more than one hundred selections that present myriad perspectives on Cuba''s history, culture, and politics. The volume foregrounds the experience of Cubans from all walks of life, including slaves, prostitutes, doctors, activists, and historians. Combining songs, poetry, fiction, journalism, political speeches, and many other types of documents, this revised and updated second edition of The Cuba Reader contains over twenty new selections that explore the changes and continuities in Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped down from power in 2006. For students, travelers, and all those who want to know more about the island nation just ninety miles south of Florida, The Cuba Reader is an invaluable introduction.

In this unprecedented collection, Pamela Maria Smorkaloff brings together fiction from the French-, Spanish-, and English-speaking Caribbean, much of it translated here for the first time. The book's wide-ranging and diverse selections address the central themes of the region's literature: the plantation, maroon society, colonial education, rural and urban life, women's changing roles in the modern Caribbean, exile, and the diaspora. Works include Jamaican author James Carnegie's powerful novella Wages Paid about a day in the life of a slave plantation, a selection by noted Guadeloupan novelist Simone Schwarz-Brat, Puerto Rican short stories from Ana Lydia Vega, and fiction from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, St. Kitts, and Barbados. Together they offer the first picture of a Caribbean voice and aesthetic, and an extensive bibliography of further reading invites students, scholars, and others to explore beyond this initial collection.From Columbus' diaries on, the Caribbean has been the scene onto which a steady stream of myths has been imposed If I Could Write This in Fire offers the first collection of authentic Caribbean voices—a small set of gems that will introduce readers to a rich and lyric tradition.