This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives

by Ben Corbett

Overview

Beyond the throngs of tourists streaming through Central Havana's broad Prado Avenue, and outside the yoke of Castro's 43-year-old Revolutionary program, there exists a parallel Cuba - a separate evolution of a people struggling to survive. With personal stories that depict a people torn between following the directives of their government and finding a way to better their lot, journalist Ben Corbett gives us the daily life of many considered outlaws by Castro's regime. But are they outlaws or rather ingenious survivors of what many Cubans consider to be a forty-year mistake, a tangle of contradictions that has resulted in a strange hybrid of American-style capitalism and a homegrown black market economy. At a time when Cuba walks precariously on the ledge between socialism and capitalism, This Is Cuba gets to the heart of this so-called outlaw culture, taking readers into the living rooms, rooftops, parks, and city streets to hear stories of frustration, hope, and survival. Updated with a new preface.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465009961
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/15/2007
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Ben Corbett is a freelance journalist who has spent several years researching and writing almost exlusively on Cuban culture, politics, and economics. Some of his features on Cuba have appeared in Salon, Tattoo Magazine, Easyriders, Fringe Golf, and Relix. He lives in Colorado.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xxi
1	Patria O Muerte! An Introduction	1
2	La Cola Cubana: Waiting As a Way of Life	13
3	Turismo O Muerte!	20
4	Cuba's Stable Instability	30
5	Viva Buena Vista	42
6	Jineterismo: A Dollar Commodity	56
7	Season of the Night	65
8	The Cuban Survival Kit	80
9	The Cuban Diet: Hotels Over Rice and a Pinch of Control	86
10	La Bolsa Negra: Stepping Into Cuba's Black Market	96
11	Paradise Crumbling	109
12	The Revolution Is the Culture	117
13	The Search for Cubanidad	130
14	Still Isolated Behind the Palm Curtain	142
15	Marches for Justice	153
16	A Day At School	162
17	Christmas with the Castros	173
18	Reflections of the Parallel Culture	189
19	Cuba on the Fringe: A Revolution of Ink	204
20	Cuba, Drugs, and the Curse of Tio Sam	217
21	Sea Lane to Paradise	231
22	A Legal Escape	245
23	Epilogue: A Post-Castro Cuba?	253
	Notes	269
	Bibliography	273
	Index	277