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To change the world: my years in Cuba
Author
Publisher
Rutgers University Press
Publication Date
c2009
Language
English
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Table of Contents
From the Book
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Some Reflections before I Begin
1. Scarsdale to Havana
A Politically Liberal, Somewhat Adventurous Family
Writing Was Everything to Me
A Cold War Mentality Characterized the National Psyche
With Gregory's Birth We Were Two
Death of One Era, Birth of Another
Mexico Seemed a Welcoming Venue
How to Express an Experience As Subjective As It Was Objective
We Aren't Writing about the Revolution; We Are the Revolution
Visiting Cuba Was a Statement
Justice Was a Logical Choice
I Decided to Stay On for Another Couple of Weeks
2. Transition
Doors Opened and Tens of Thousands of Cuban Children Burst Forth
I Sensed an Authentic and Growing Democracy
Fidel's Speeches Were Never Formulaic or Dull
Arnaldo Orfila Grabbed My Hand and Pulled
That Morning I Dressed Ana in a Tiny Pink One-Piece Cotton Suit
An Emptiness That Numbed Me to the Core
I Would Spend Nineteen Days in Prague
3. Settling In
The Door to Room 506 Stood Open
Our Bodies Remembered One Another, Ana's and Mine
A Socialist Process Was Flourishing in the U.S. Sphere of Influence
Patriotism Is Always Double-Edged
It Was Important That All Children Have Access to Education
Now It Was Time to Enjoy What Was Left of Our Family
Old Values Sometimes Clashed with Those the Revolution Was Working to Instill
Ximena Stood Her Ground
4. Food, Food, Food
Our First Taste of Revolutionary Bureaucracy
An Amazing Collection of Creative Recipes
Production and Consumption Ran an Unbroken Line from Field to Dinner Table
5. Ten Million Tons of Sugar and Eleven Fishermen
I Wanted a Second Opinion
Cuba Wanted Her Fisherman Back
The Ten-Million-Ton Goal Would Not Be Met
6. A Poetry Contest and a Beauty Pageant
A Phone Call from Casa
Another Phone Call from Casa
I Chose You Because I Knew You Would Hate It
Casa Was an Extraordinary Institution
Deeper and More Complex Layers of Deception
7. Women and Difference
I Asked to Remember
I'd Start My Workday Eager to Be of Service
A Project I Wanted to Pursue
I Wanted to Find Out What Life for Cuban Women Was Like
I Was an Incipient Feminist
Cuban Women Now
Piropos
Magin
The Important Thing Is That We Rectify Our Mistakes
8. Information and Consciousness
Lines Outside Bookstores Were Longer Than Lines to Buy Bread
Bad Press
Politics Is Never Separate from Culture
He Asked Me to Go to the Local Precinct
9. Changing Hearts, Minds, and Law
What Is Humanism?
I Am Excited about This Meeting
Big Changes
Referendum on the New Socialist Constitution
The Meat Problem
Up Against the Hard Wall of Convention
A Few of the Lenin Girls
10. "Poetry, Like Bread, Is for Everyone"
Potato Dirt under My Fingernails
That's Where the Poets Came In
Varadero Celebrated Its Ninetieth Anniversary
Promoting the Arts Has Been a Priority
Who's Going to Tell Me I Didn't Understand That Poem!
An Aspirin Big As the Sun
I Had a Lot of Poetry in Me As a Child
Their Male Co-Workers Served Them Lunch
We Are Brothers and Sisters of Africans, and for the Africans We Are Ready to Fight!
Luz Began to Speak about Life in the Concentration Camps
I Did Find and Develop a New Language
And Now for the Cultural Part
One of the Prisoners Would Pick Me Up at the House
11. El Quinquenio Gris
So Familiar, Yet So Eternally Other
Unnecessary and Sad
El Quinquenio Gris
Telephone Calls and Emails Began to Fly Back and Forth
Cuban Intellectuals and Artists Should Not Fear a Change in Cultural Policy
A Language Inhabited by All
Only Friendship and Poetry Can Erase Hatred and Resentments
Loss to the Whole When Some Voices Are Silenced
I Think of Martin Niemoller
12. The Sandinistas
Two, Three, Many Vietnams
I Remember a Childhood Indignation
The Dead Do Not Die Completely
A Catholic Priest Saying Mass for a Communist Poet
"Que Se Rinda Tu Madre!"
Poet in a Nation of Poets
A Poet's Voice
Can Someone Come Over to Use the Ditto?
To the Mother I Loved So Much
I Wanted to Retrace Jose Benito's Last Moments
Today We Feel More Like Equals
The Seeds of Decadence and Power Abuse
A Painful Period in My Life
13. A Question of Power
I Remember
This May Feel Like the Worst of Times
Visual Messages Now Circle the Globe in Seconds
Power in the Hands of People
It Was a Landscape That Inspired
Power Kept Its Own Vigil
The Ability to Manipulate through Coercion and Shame
Feminism Has Taught Us about Power
From Each According to Their Ability, to Each According to Their Need
Which of Socialism's Original Projects Have Survived?
A Tragic Waste
The Human Spirit Requires Freedom
Power As a Political Category
I Long to See Diverse Visions and Unique Talents
14. Epilogue
There Were Some Challenges
The United States Wasn't About to Permit Another Cuba in Latin America
The Shift in Temperature Paralleled My Emotional State
I Believe They Come Up with a Positive Tally
Still Alive, Still Moving and Changing
I Am a Hybrid
Imagination, Curiosity, and Revelation
Notes
Index
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ISBN
9780813544328
9780813546452
9780813544311
9780813546452
9780813544311
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