Afro-Cuban Voices: On Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba (Contemporary Cuba Series)

Rating:
Summary: Truly Afro-Cuban Voices
Review: In this slim volume, editors Pérez Sarduy and Stubbs shine light on the complex question of Afro-Cuban identity. The editors present numerous short vignettes where the reader hears, in first person, a variety of Cubans describe their lives. As with all matters Cuban, things are seldom as simple as pro- and anti- opponents claim. The conceptual tension between the gains people of color made as a result during the revolution, the silence the revolution imposed on race matters, and the looming threat of a "racial rollback" with the dolarization of the Cuban ecomony are all here, spoken from the perspective of Cubans caught in the complex social millieu that is contemporary Cuba. After an excellent review of the literature as introduction, it's all Afro-Cuban voices, a badly needed English language work that is mandatory reading for anyone interested in Cuba or in the struggle for social equality.

Rating:
Summary: Cuba from all angles
Review: This is an important book, not only for its content, but also for the fact that it exists in a political climate of ongoing hostility toward Cuba from the US. For many years, liberal scholars have idealized the socialist regime. Conservatives and expatriates, on the other side, have proclaimed their disdain and rage toward the policies of Castro's "worker's paradise." As someone who has been there three times in the past two years, Cuba is neither the heaven nor the hell illustrated by these extremes. This book sheds some realistic light on why Afro-Cubans have been thankful for real improvements in their daily lives made since the revolution, and yet still resent the pervasive racism and poverty that exists behind the veneer of socialist equality. There are some inaccuracies (I think due to translation errors) about the religion of Santeria. In any book about Afro-Cuban life, more needs to be said about the role of religion (Santeria, Abakua, and Palo) and it needs to be consistently correct, so from this perspective, the authors did not do their research. However, this book is very important for opening a dialogue about race in Cuba. I hope this dialogue will continue and break through some barriers.