Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar

Cuba Enters the Twenty-first Century

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Edited by Lydia Chavez,

Photographs by Mimi Chakarova

Duke University Press

Due/Published June 2005, 248 pages, paper

ISBN 0822334941

When the Soviet Union dissolved, so did the easy credit, cheap oil, and subsidies it had provided to Cuba. The bottom fell out of the Cuban economy, and many expected that Castro's revolution--the one that had inspired the left throughout Latin America and elsewhere--would soon be gone as well. More than a decade later, the revolution lives on, albeit in a modified form. Following the collapse of Soviet communism, Castro legalized the dollar, opened the island to tourism, and allowed foreign investment, small-scale private enterprise, and remittances from exiles in Miami. Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar describes what the changes implemented since the early 1990s have meant for ordinary Cubans: for hotel workers, teachers, priests, factory workers, rap artists, writers, homemakers, and others.

Based on reporting by journalists, writers, and documentary filmmakers since 2001, the thirteen essays collected here each cover a particular dimension of contemporary Cuban society, revealing what it is like to have lived, for more than a decade, suspended between communism and capitalism. There are pieces on hip hop musicians, fiction writing and censorship, the state of ballet and the performing arts, and the role of computers and the Internet. Other essays address the shrinking yet still sizeable numbers of true believers in the promise of socialist revolution, the legendary cigar industry, the changing state of religion, the significance of the recent influx of money and people from Spain, and the tensions between recent Cuban emigrants and previous generations of exiles. Including more than seventy striking documentary photographs of Cuba's people, countryside, and city streets, this richly illustrated collection offers keen, even-handed insights into the abundant ironies of life in Cuba today.

Contributors. Juliana Barbassa, Ana Campoy, Mimi Chakarova, Lydia Chavez, John Coté, Julian Foley, Angel Gonzalez, Megan Lardner, Ezequiel Minaya, Daniela Mohor, Archana Pyati, Alicia Roca, Olga R. Rodriguez, Bret Sigler, Annelise Wunderlich

"Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar addresses in an original and insightfull way the questions so many have asked themselves for so long: how is it that Fidel Castro and his regime are approaching half a century in power under extremely adverse conditions many of them of their own making? This book may not provide the answer but it offers many anwers, all of them intelligent and imaginative."--Jorge Castañeda, Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University and former Foreign Minister of Mexico

"Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar is engagingly written, nuanced, and sensitive in political perspective, and innovative and broad-ranging in its choice of subject matter. This free-wheeling and intimate account of life in Cuba today gives a close-up view of the rapid-fire changes overtaking the island, from the new economy to Internet access to issues of freedom of speech to Cuban ballet. It provides a welcome, fresh perspective that goes far beyond what American audiences tend to hear about Cuba."--Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History and Coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State College and coeditor of The Cuba Reader