Book review
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.6.1.0098 |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Pages | 98335-99 |
| Author | Stephen Wilkinson |
98 BOOK REVIEWS
I J C S 6.1 S 2014
Catherine Krull ed., Cuba in a Global Context: International Relations,
Internationalism and Transnationalism
(Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2014) hb 335pp.
ISBN: 978081304910
Reviewed by Stephen Wilkinson
Catherine Krull, for those who do not know her, is an exemplary academic and
a generous individual. This collection of papers, 18 in all, is a testimony to
her and her tireless work in pursuit of understanding Cuba. With its origins in
the very well-attended conference ‘Measure of a Revolution: Cuba, 1959-2009’
held at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, in 2009, this volume provides a
range of international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the position of Cuba
economically, politically and culturally in the globalising world of the early
twentieth century.
The list of contributors reads like a roll call of the giants of Cuba scholarship
over the past 30 years. Louis Pérez Jr. contributes with a Foreword to the
book, which is divided into three parts. In the first part, Bill LeoGrande and
Maraguerite Rose Jiménez of American University, Washington, propose that
meteorological and environmental concerns could serve as a bridge for increased
understanding. This is a prescient position that has borne fruit in the Obama
era. Their contribution is followed by an expert analysis of the role of the Cuban
armed forces from Hal Klepak. The section contains an update (now dated
to some extent) by Cuban specialist Carlos Alzugaray Treto on Sino-Cuban
relations, and a very interesting essay on the origins of Canadian policy towards
Cuba by Asa McKercher. However, the brightest star in this section is Karen
Dubinsky, whose research on the case of the so-called Operation Peter Pan,
offers a humane and corrective insight into this tragic episode the narrative of
which has been manipulated as much as the children involved themselves.
Part 2 on Cuba’s internationalism, starts with a paper by the late Max Azicri
on the impact of the Cuba-Venezuela alliance. That this should be published
posthumously of both its originator and its subject is a poignant reminder of
our ephemerality. Cuba’s active role in shaping the world and of saving lives in
the present is very clearly explained in the essays that make up this section, as
well as the effect of the spread of ideas and people that it implies. A somewhat
incongruous inclusion is the final case study on the Cuban–Spanish dialogue by
Ana Serra in which she examines the impact of post-Cold War Cuba on two
Spanish writers. Serra’s conclusion is that for the Spaniards Havana is taken
to represent the whole country and remains ‘a colonised space ... on which
IJCS6_1 98 06/06/2014 11:35
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