In 1893, the Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez de Tió published “A Cuba” (To Cuba). Its penultimate stanza begins, “Cuba y Puerto Rico son / de un pájaro las dos alas / reciben flores o balas / sobre el mismo corazón” (“Cuba and Puerto Rico are / two wings of a bird / they receive flowers or bullets / in the same heart”) (quoted in p. 5). Ever since its publication, the poem has been recited—and miscited—countless times. It's one of those rare instances of a poem becoming part of Cuban and Puerto Rican vernacular. Given its relevance and importance in conceptualizing the relationship and shared histories between these two Caribbean islands, the poem provides a fitting metaphor for the book Cuba and Puerto Rico, edited by Carmen Haydée Rivera and Jorge Duany.
The book is divided into three parts, respectively covering history, literature, and culture. The editors’ introduction...
