Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

Books

Carr on Cuba

The Director of La Trobe University's Institute of Latin American Studies, historian Dr Barry Carr, is one of three editors of an ambitious anthology examining many aspects of pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary Cuba.

With two prominent American academics in this field, Professor Aviva Chomsky, Salem State College, Massachusetts, and Dr Pamela Maris Smorkaloff of Montclair State University, New Jersey, Dr Carr, has complied a selection of songs, paintings, photographs, poems, fiction, speeches, cartoons, government reports, newspaper articles and many other writings.

Entitled The Cuba Reader, the 724 page volume carries much material by Cubans not seen before in English. Also included are speeches and writings from such diverse characters as Christopher Columbus who 'discovered' Cuba in 1492, historians, journalists, slaves, prostitutes, travellers and assorted revolutionaries like Fidel Castro and Che Geuvera.

The book contains around 100 separate items which cover many aspects of things that have influenced Cuban thought, life and politics.

Published by Duke University Press, North Carolina, the book features a number of contributions on events leading up to the Castro's revolution and Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union until the collapse of the Soviet block in 1989. It also covers Cuba's difficult relationship with the USA since the revolution.

The book is part of a 'Reader' series on Latin American countries by Duke University Press. Dr Carr is one of the consultants used to assess manuscripts in the series which include volumes on Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and now Cuba. The series is directed at both an academic audience as well as a broader public interested in adding cultural depth to their travel experiences.

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