How These Ideas Took Shape

In this chapter, the author describes her relationship to Cuban poetry, explains how she came to understand that Cuban poets have exerted a disproportionate influence on poetry in other countries, and questions why this is so. She traces Cuban history in this respect from long before the 1959 Revolution and shows how the Revolution capitalized on this reality, making values of excellence, professionalism, sacrifice, and generosity hallmarks of a small nation under siege.