Howard Blue's

Caribbean

In my weaker moments I wonder if there should be some official penalties against relying on just one source or one type of source for information about complex issues. Neil Macaulay's A Rebel in Cuba (a 1999 book which is still in print) which was favorably reviewed by Publishers Weekly is on my list of books to read. The reviews seem to indicate that it gives a fairly balanced portrait of the Cuban revolution. I'll decide afterwards which follow up to it I might want to pursue.

To read reviews about a book or order it, click on its title. To quickly reach one of the subtopics immediately below, click on it.

Cuba

Acosta, Carlos. No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World. Scribner, 2008. Arenas, Reinaldo. Before Night Falls: A Memoir. Penguin, 1994. Dissident writer who is homosexual writes of Castro's Cuba.

Calcines, Eduardo F.Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle Under Castro. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Growing up in communist Cuba.

Carballo, Viviana. Havana Salsa: Stories and Recipes. Atria, 2007. Food columnist grows up in prerevolutionary Cuba in the 1950s.

Castro, Fidel and Deutschmann, David.Che: A Memoir.Ocean Press, 1994. Historic political partnership between Castro and Guevara.

Coltman, Leycester. The Real Fidel Castro. Yale University Press, 2005. Former British Ambassador to Cuba writes about Cuban dictator.

Edwards, Jorge. Persona Non Grata: A Memoir of Disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution. Nation Books, 2004. Chilean becomes first envoy to break the diplomatic blockade.

Eire, Carlos. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy . Free Press, 2004. Yale Professor of history and religion was one of 14,000 airlifted Cuban children, left parentless in Miami.

English, T.J.Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba … and Then Lost It to the Revolution. Harper Paperbacks, 2009.

Fernandez, Alina and Koch, Dolores M. Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba. St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.

Franqui, Carlos. Family Portrait with Fidel: A Memoir Castro. Vintage, 1985. By a journalist on Castro entrusted with responsible public information positions.

Frías, Carlos. Take Me with You: A Memoir. Atria, 2008. Journalist visits Cuba, his family's homeland.

Gadea, Hilda. Ernesto: Memoir of Che Guevara. Doubleday, 1973. By the revolutionary's first wife

Guevara, Ernesto “Che.”Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America. Grove Press, 2002.

Guevara, Ernesto Che. Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War: Authorized Edition. Ocean Press, 2005. The mythic revolutionary's account of the guerrilla war that led to the Cuban revolution.

Guillermoprietro, Alma. Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution. Vintage, 2005. Journalist revisits six-month period in 1970 when she taught modern dance in Cuba.

Machado, Eduardo and Domitrovich, Michael.Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile's Hunger for Home. Gotham, 2008. Family of playwright/professor escapes from Cuba and assimilates into U.S. culture.

Macaulay, Neill. A Rebel in Cuba. Wacahoota Press, 1999. American's account of months with Castro's rebel supporters in 1958, leading up to overthrow of dictator, Batista.Martinez,

Mel. A Sense of Belonging: From Castro's Cuba to the U.S. Senate, One Man's Pursuit of the American Dream. Three Rivers Press, 2008. By the junior US Senator from Florida

Masetti, Jorge.In the Pirate's Den: My Life as a Secret Agent for Castro. Encounter Books, 2004.

Miller, Tom. Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro's Cuba. Basic Books, 2008. Journalist spends 8 months traveling in Cuba.

Moore, Carlos and Angelous, Maya. Pichon: Race and Revolution in Castro's Cuba: A Memoir . Lawrence Hill Books, 2008. Author's Jamaican parents immigrate to Cuba; racism inspires him to leave.

Morell-Romero, Jose.Revolution in Cuba: Memoirs of a Combatant. Aras Publishers, 1993.

Ojito, Mirta. Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus. Penguin, 2006. Journalist describes the Mariel boatlift by which Castro let large groups of Cubans, including freed criminals, flee to the US..

Randall, Margaret.To Change the World: My Years in Cuba. Rutgers University Press, 2009. By a feminist writer and social activist who spent a decade in Cuba.

Rodriguez, Andrew J. Adios, Havana: A Memoir. Outskirts Press, 2005. Young couple decides whether to stay in impoverished country or flee to new life in a strange land.

Symmes, Patrick. Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend. Vintage, 2000.

Tattlin, Isadora. Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana. Broadway, 2003. American woman, her European businessman husband and family spend four years in Cuba.

Valladares, Armando.Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag. Encounter Books, 2001.

Vidal, Guillermo Vincente. Boxing For Cuba: An Immigrant's Story of Despair, Endurance & Redemption. Ghost Road Press, 2007.

Jamaica

Brown, Yvonne Shorter. Dead Woman Pickney . Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2010. Author's account of coming of age in Jamaica from 1943-1965.

Puerto Rico

Rodriguez Juliá, Edgardo. San Juan: Memoir of a City. University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. A tour of Puerto Rico's capital looking at its historical, intellectual and architectural vistas.

Santiago, Esmeralda, When I Was Puerto Rican . Da Capo Press, 2006. From Puerto Rico to Brooklyn.

Torregrosa, Luisita Lopez. The Noise of Infinite Longing: A Memoir of a Family--and an Island. Rayo, 2004. Portrait of a family and their island home, Puerto Rico.