A quality of engagement has traditionally characterized the literature on Cuba. The writings inspired by the Cuban independence struggle of 1895-1898, the upheavals in 1933, and the anti-Batista struggle during the 1950s share in common a polemical pitch of uncommon proportions. After 1959, the debate over Cuba raged unabated. From Chapman to Mills, American writers have often displayed a pathological inability to approach Cuba dispassionately; many subsumed into their format the responsibility of correcting deficiencies in the Cuban national character.
All by way of saying that the book under review may be an important addition to this tradition. It brings together the latest expressions of disappointments from the United States. Made up of nine essays, most published previously, the book has, in fact, remarkably little new to offer those reasonably informed of Cuban developments in the past fifteen years. The importance of the book lies, rather, in its thematic structure—essays critically sympathetic to the Revolution brought together to commiserate hopes betrayed.
Virtually all the contributors raise issues of unquestionable importance. The implications of the Padilla case, the nature of decision-making processes, and the complex matter of institutionalization, to name but a few, are important issues that loom over the Revolution. Many have been acknowledged by Cuban leaders themselves and put to rest by developments subsequent to the original publication of the essays; others linger unresolved. In either case, the authors render a service by calling attention to disquieting aspects of the Revolution.
There are undercurrents, however, that must be lifted from the shadows of nuance and stated bluntly, for they are central to the organization of this anthology. First, there has been an increasing tendency—reflected in several essays of this collection—to punish Cuba for the sins of the Soviet Union. Cuba is apparently now comprehensible only within the context of international politics and measured against a Soviet experience that evokes the spectre of Stalinization, purge trials, and militarization. Second—and related—by developing an international construct as the setting against which to evaluate the performance of the Revolution, many of the authors effectively blur the essential historicity of the Revolution. Put another way, the Revolution—if this is indeed the point of the study—in its full historical setting, must be approached as the subject of inquiry not the object of politico-ideological disputation.
In all, the book offers a collection of essays that will generate lively discussion among those interested in and sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution—the group to which this discussion properly belongs. It would be regrettable if it served any purpose other than a point of departure. The issues are weighty, the approaches are in dispute, and the objectives are unclear.
