Margarita, an exile in the United States, is struggling to come to terms with her divided identity, a past she has suppressed, and her failure to share her heritage with her children.

"In the aftermath of January's horrific earthquake, the world's attention is focused on Haiti. In this full narrative history of the Caribbean nation, historian Philippe Girard offers insight into Haiti's complex and layered past, showing that its current state as the poorest country in the western hemisphere was not inevitable. This highly readable and accessible history takes the reader back two hundred years to a time when Haiti was so prosperous it was known as the Pearl of the Antilles. Haiti was the only country in the Americas to pull off a successful slave revolution, yet today its survival is completely dependent on foreign aid. As all eyes turn to watch what happens to Haiti, author Girard provides the necessary context for envisioning its future--including a detailed account of the quake's consequences, an assessment of the benefit and cost of an American intervention, and commentary on what Haiti must do to rebuild for a brighter future"--

This is the first comprehensive history of the culturally diverse city, and the first to be co-authored by a Cuban and an American. Beginning with the founding of Havana in 1519, Cluster and Hernández explore the making of the city and its people through revolutions, art, economic development and the interplay of diverse societies. The authors bring together conflicting images of a city that melds cultures and influences to create an identity that is distinctly Cuban.

Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for General Nonfiction International Latino Book Awards, First Place, Best History Book (English) Scholarly and popular attention tends to focus heavily on Cuba’s recent history. Key to the New World is the first comprehensive history of early colonial Cuba written in English, and fills the gap in our knowledge of the island before 1700.

Old Cuba presents an insider’s view of the splendid colonial-era sites of the storied island nation, from the grand apartments and magnificent cathedral of Old Havana to the plantation homes of Pinar del Río. Cuba dominates the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, fixed between the great continents to the north and to the south, and has long served as a bridge between the Old World and the New. First visited by Christopher Columbus in 1492, its history of interaction with the Old World of Europe is among the longest in the Americas, and its architecture bears testament to this: Cuba is home to some of the most ancient cities and towns in the western hemisphere. As a result, the country once known as the “pearl of the Antilles,” stands now as a treasure chest of alluring historic architecture—seasoned by European precedents mixed with colonial and Caribbean spice—and boasts an extraordinary number of UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites, from the historic center of Old Havana with its original city walls and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza—the oldest extant colonial fortress in the Americas—to the sixteenth-century city of Trinidad, within the central Cuban province of Sancti Spíritus, recognized by historians and scholars as a triumph of historic preservation and whose maze of pastel mansions and churches forms one of the best collections of colonial architecture to be found anywhere. From Old Havana to Santiago de Cuba, Old Cuba offers an intimate look at the historic architecture— the houses, apartments, monuments, charming public spaces, and centuries-old churches—of this storied country.