Cuba: From Conquistador to Castro

Examines the history, social and racial schisms, and U.S. policies towards the island nation

In 1898, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Cuba, the author argues, laid the basis for America's exploitive control of the Cuban economy, which lasted until 1959, when Fidel Castro overthrew the CIA-backed military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In a provocative chronicle, Simons (Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam) calls attention to a 1995 U.N.-sponsored conference in Copenhagen that highlighted Cuba as a positive example of a developing society because of its egalitarian redistribution of income and land, investment in social services and elimination of malnutrition and illiteracy. While most readers will find Simons's defense of Castro's "progressive democratization" utterly unconvincing, the author counters that critics of Cuba's human rights abuses are hypocritical in the face of a crippling 35-year U.S.-led economic blockade plus U.S.
sponsored terrorism, military invasion and repeated CIA assassination attempts on Castro.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author of several books on international affairs (Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam, LJ 3/15/94), Simons traces the history of Cuba from Columbus to the present, including a detailed account of the rocky relationship with its neighbor to the north. He makes a strong, convincing case against the continuing futility of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and points out that those elements of the Cuban population most directly affected, and hurt the most, by the trade restrictions are not the politicians but the large numbers of innocent civilians deprived of food and medicine. The author concludes that the U.S. government would do well to accept the Castro "revolution," in whatever form it manifests itself, and deal with it directly, rather than constantly trying to overthrow an institution that has survived for over 35 years. For Latin American studies collections.
Phillip Young Blue, Briarcliffe Coll. Lib., Woodbury, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Wading through this ideological screed is like taking a time trip back to the 1960s. In its policies toward Castro's Cuba, the U.S. is guilty of "crimes against humanity." Simons virtually engulfs the reader with constant references to "capitalist greed," but nearly every action of Castro's government is viewed in a positive or "progressive" light. In short, Simon's chapters on U.S.-Cuba relations are tainted by a rigidly leftist perspective. Yet, this work does have both interest and value for general readers and historians; the sections on the pre-Colombian era and the Spanish conquest are both informative and disturbing; the near genocide carried out against the indigenous population is eloquently documented; and Simons provides valuable insights into the social and racial schisms in Cuba (which he insists the revolution has eliminated). Despite his distortions and rantings, Simons has a worthwhile story and he sometimes tells it well. Unfortunately, he could have told it better if he didn't feel so compelled to stack the deck. Jay Freeman