Required texts for the SST experience, some of which parents may want to read as well, include the following:
• A bound journal (spiral or otherwise). Students will write at least three journal entries per week, with one or two of these being assigned reflections on their experience. Lined paper is fine or – for those inclined to draw in their journals – unlined paper. Journals should have at least 100 pages.
• María López Vigil, Cuba: Neither Heaven Nor Hell (EPICA, 2000). The author left Cuba at 6 for Spain because of her parents’ strong Catholic faith. She eventually made her home in Nicaragua, where she wrote extensively about revolution in Central America. She began returning to Cuba in 1984. She collects several essays written in a journalistic style, and includes feedback from Cuban friends after showing them the finished essays.
• Ben Corbett, This is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives (Westview Press, 2002). Corbett writes with attitude, as does about anyone who has spent time in Cuba. That means this text and others always should be read with a critical eye. Corbett writes about the daily lives of many considered “outlaws” in Cuba. He provides a provocative, on-the-ground perspective, though he sometimes overstates his case.
• John Beverley, editor, From Cuba: A Special Issue of Boundary 2: An International Journal of Literature and Culture (Volume 29:3, Fall 2002). This collection of essays, poetry, and other literature, all written by Cubans, gives a glimpse into the artistic Cuban soul, and functions as a helpful supplement to the other two texts.
• A favorite Spanish/English dictionary. Students will find themselves using this frequently.
For the primary textbooks, students may do some sharing of texts, so not every student will take every book (except for the journal and dictionary).
• Novels. A number of novels or factual accounts about life in Cuba have been published in recent years. Students also may want to bring other general novels and reading material, since obtaining English-language books in Cuba will be difficult, and the SST library in Cuba is slim.
• Cuba Guidebooks. An increasing number of guidebooks are available, and students may want to have one to aid in their own explorations. Among the more helpful ones are those by Rough Guide, Moon, and Lonely Planet. A short gem is Mark Cramer’s Culture Shock – Havana at Your Door. Cramer writes from the point of view of enjoying the daily pleasures of life – the informal interaction with neighbors and others in Havana – rather than the for-tourists-only pleasures.
• Paul’s Blog on Cuba. Paul Meyer Reimer, co-leader of the 2003 SST unit, has complied a blog of relatively recent media articles on Cuba, which you can access by clicking on the link.
• Frank Staub, Children of Cuba (1996, Goshen Public Library, J972.91 STA). Collection of color photographs from across Cuba, depicting many uniquely Cuban sides of growing up. (Pages 12-24, Chapter 2 (38-74), 149-163).
• Osvaldo Salas and Robert Salas, Fidel's Cuba, A Revolution in Pictures (Goshen Public Library, 972.91 SAL) -- This is a photographic memoir in black and white of the time just before and after the revolution. The Salas, a father and son, were photographers and personal friends of Castro when he was living in New York. Robert got on the first plane he could after the revolutionaries entered Havana, and started snapping pictures. Includes unique photos of Castro fundraising in New York, of the Statue of Liberty adorned with the flag of the Movimiento Revolucionario del 26 de Julio, of captured would-be-invaders in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs, as well as many other personal photos of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
• Peter Menzel, Material World (1994), and Faith d’Aluisio and Peter Menzel, Women in the Material World (Goshen Public Library). The premise behind Peter Menzel's UN-sponsored photography project was to locate a more or less statistically average family in each of many different countries, and then take a grand picture of each family with all their worldly possessions arrayed around them. Fascinating comparisons from country to country! Included is a family from Cuba (Havana). Their portrait, taken probably in 1992 or 1993, dates from the depths of the "Special Period". Three families share a house originally intended for one.
• Ann Louise Bardach, Cuba: A Traveler’s Literary Companion (2002). A recent compilation of 22 short stories. Again, a good mix of writers living on the island and emigres.
• Mona Rosendahl, Inside the Revolution, Everyday Life in Socialist Cuba. (Cornell University Press, 1997. GC Library HX 160 .P35 R67 1997). This is an ethnographic study of small town (in Oriente) by a Swedish author. She has a particular interest in looking out how ideology is used officially, in contrast to how it functions informally. She has an intriguing chapter on “reciprocity,” the intertwining of economic and social functions associated with exchanges of goods and, for that matter, exchanges about information about where you can get goods. (Chapter 2).
• Ray Brennan, Castro, Cuba, and Justice (Goshen Public Library, 972.91 BRE). A journalistic narrative of the unfolding events of the revolution. Ray Brennan was a sympathetic US journalist who visited Castro in the Sierra Maestra in the late 1950s.
• James Michener, Caribbean (1989). Michener-esque epic sweep of all of Caribbean history. Very long but also very engaging. Hits those big themes of gold, slaves, sugar.
• Thomas Wright, Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution (2001). The title is a good description, and this book has very recently been updated. Though Fidel and Che felt the Cuban model could be exported, and though the US certainly feared it, it is striking that no other Latin American country has experienced a similar revolution. Most Latin American countries spent years to decades since 1959 under military dictatorships. Intriguing factlet: Only Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico made it through the era of Cuban revolution without succumbing to military dictatorship. And two of those are in deep trouble. But surprisingly, the decade of the 1990's saw all countries (except Cuba and Haiti) in civilian hands--the author theorizes that this was due in no small part to the universal revulsion at the repression that the military dictatorships (supported by the US in the 60's and 70's) visited on their people. Of particular interest to Cuban SSTers would be the first two chapters -- background to and making of the revolution, and the fourth one -- U.S. reaction to the revolution ... in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America.
• Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro, The History of the Caribbean, 1492-1969 (1971 - GC library -- or cheap in paperback on Amazon). The author was a prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, and it is valuable to have some history from the perspective of folks in the Caribbean. This is a long and thorough book. The author is passionate about the subject matter, and manages to draw quite a bit of history together through the lens of labor and slavery, so that it is on the whole surprisingly engaging. Still, this is long, and many of the themes go much beyond just Cuba. For Cuba SSTers, the main chapters of interest would be those that deal with the early colonial period (though he doesn't seem to bring up the role of disease, along with the abuse that certainly existed in wiping out the Tainos), the sudden rise of Cuban sugar in the 19th century, and the abolition of slavery.
• There also has been a truckload of writing about Cuba by non-Cubans
who become inspired to write accounts based on their travels of weeks to months
-- Andrei Codrescu, Jacobo Timmerman, Tom Miller ... Michener joins this throng
at the short end with his book Six Days in Havana. This book and photographic
memoir is literally based on six days in Havana, a trip that Michener made with
his assistant and avid photographer John Kings while they were researching Caribbean.
Not just anyone can get a book published based on such a short stay, but one
must say that Michener had been doing his share of reading ahead of time. At
one point, Michener observes: “Repeatedly in the literature dealing with
the years 1650 through 1950 I came upon statements like this: ‘At the
height of this rebellion the wealthier and better-educated Spanish families,
those who could escape, crowded into their boats and fled to Cuba.’ Understandably,
those who escaped rebellion ... did not want to experience another in Cuba,
so the Spaniards there became increasingly conservative. This meant that Cuba
was the last territory in North America to abolish slavery, in 1886, and the
last by a large margin to overthrow Spanish dictatorship, in 1898.”