Knowing Cuba through Books

Abstract

C UBA is one of our nearest neighbors and probably one whose history has been most closely interwoven with our own. This beautiful island, whose cultural life has developed so richly and in such a different fashion from ours, lies close upon our Florida, not two hours distant by air. And yet to most Americans, even to those who profess some knowledge of Latin America, real Cuba is less known than Mexico or even Argentina and Brazil. Part of this, paradoxically enough, is doubtr less due to very proximity of Cuba to United States. Thousands of Americans come yearly to Havana, stay for a few days at Hotel Nacional, visit Morro Castle, seek (usually in vain) for the native rumba, and go home faintly, confused by too many Cuba Libres, seldom wiser than they were before or very conscious of fact that they were touching a cultural pattern which is complex, important, and distinct from others in America. From them spreads legend that Cuba is just another version of Miami-perhaps slightly Latinized. To my shame I will confess that, although I had visited Cuba before being stationed there as an officer of American Embassy and had taught courses in Spanish American literature for some years, true character of Cuba was nearly as unknown to me as it is to average tourist. To my credit, I will say that I have made some effort to crumble wall of superficial misconceptions and in so doing I have tried academic-wise to collect a small shelf of fundamental books which might help a foreigner who with goodwill wants to know how Cubans explain what they are to themselves. Having been trained in what we fondly refer to as a tradition of scholarly objectivity, I prepared a questionnaire and sent it to some twenty Cuban friends and acquaintances who would be generally classified as intellectual leaders. They included such well-known figures as Jose Maria Chac6n y Calvo, Juan Marinello, Fernando Ortiz, and Herminio Portell Vila. As far as possible an attempt was made to avoid restricting my list of consultants to members of a particular intellectual or political group. That is important in Cuba, as in most Latin American countries.1