Looks at portrayals of Havana in literature, music, and the visual arts in the post-Soviet era, as the city is reinvented as a destination for international tourists and business ventures.

Archival Dissonance in the U.S. Cuban Post-Exile Novel documents a body of emergent US Cuban literature published in Spanish and English beyond the scope and historicity of exile. Focusing on the work of Roberto G. Fernández, Ana Menéndez, and Antonio Benítez Rojo, the book proposes that, rather than reinforce US Cuban exile ethnic identity developed between 1960 and the 1980s, or demonstrate a tendency toward cultural assimilation (“Americanization”) over three generations of writers, the discussed historical novels incorporate Caribbean and Latin American archival sources and interpretive frameworks in order to develop a critical and investigative approach to the politics of Cuban exile historiography. Published before the recent apertura between the US and Cuban governments, these post-exile novels anticipate themes of displacement, migration, and social marginalization as common, rather than exceptional, features of modern (and historical) life, as well as such other current (and historical) topics as gender construction and performance, figurations of race, the commoditization of culture, and urban poverty. The post-exile historical novel points to a future for US Cuban narrative and historiography, in part by investigating and featuring dissonances hidden or unacknowledged in previous Cuban exile historical fiction. The literature studied in this book further reinforces a view of two-way migration between Cuba and the United States as a normal phenomenon predating 1959, and, at the same time, as a likely shape of things to come.

Raúl Rodríguez Dago, sacerdote estudioso de los llamados Cultos sincréticos o religiosos populares, pone a consideración del Lector sincretismo cubano: santeros, ñáñigos, paleros y espiritistas. El padre desde su mirada de fe, con respeto y prudencia, aborda Aristas peculiares y poco conocidas de las mismas.

Cuban Studies has been published annually by the University of Pittsburgh Press since 1985. Founded in 1970, it is the preeminent journal for scholarly work on Cuba. Each volume includes articles in both English and Spanish, a large book review section, and an exhaustive compilation of recent works in the field. This volume contains articles on economics, politics, racial and gender issues, and the exodus of Cuban Jewry in the early 1960s, among others.

Picturing Cuba explores the evolution of Cuban visual art and its links to cubanía, or Cuban cultural identity. Featuring artwork from the Spanish colonial, republican, and postrevolutionary periods of Cuban history, as well as the contemporary diaspora, these richly illustrated essays trace the creation of Cuban art through shifting political, social, and cultural circumstances. Contributors examine colonial-era lithographs of Cuba’s landscape, architecture, people, and customs that portrayed the island as an exotic, tropical location. They show how the avant-garde painters of the vanguardia, or Havana School, wrestled with the significance of the island’s African and indigenous roots, and they also highlight subversive photography that depicts the harsh realities of life after the Cuban Revolution. They explore art created by the first generation of postrevolutionary exiles, which reflects a new identity—lo cubanoamericano, Cuban-Americanness—and expresses the sense of displacement experienced by Cubans who resettled in another country. A concluding chapter evaluates contemporary attitudes toward collecting and exhibiting post-revolutionary Cuban art in the United States. Encompassing works by Cubans on the island, in exile, and born in America, this volume delves into defining moments in Cuban art across three centuries, offering a kaleidoscopic view of the island’s people, culture, and history. Contributors: Anelys Alvarez | Lynnette M. F. Bosch | María A. Cabrera Arús | Iliana Cepero | Ramón Cernuda | Emilio Cueto | Carol Damian | Victor Deupi | Jorge Duany | Alison Fraunhar | Andrea O’Reilly Herrera | Jean-François Lejeune | Abigail McEwen | Ricardo Pau-Llosa | E. Carmen Ramos