Cuba is a little Island in the Caribbean that has managed to have a huge impact on American policy. A combination of the a near Apocalypse caused by the Cuban Missile crisis and a decades long embargo made Cuba one of the most contentious foreign policy topics of the previous century, dragging into the present. This Is Cuba, is a glimpse of the country that Americans rarely see. It is not the Cuba of our domestic politics, nor is it the Cuba of the Miami immigrants. Rather it is the Cuba that real Cubans live and struggle in everyday.
Ben Corbett describes a society where everyone is dependent on the black market to live. He depicts a nation whose revolution has decomposed into a sad desperate attempt of an old man to find political and historical significance. This is Cuba shows the frustration of a people who honestly believed in change after the fall of the Batista government and who live in a society whose standard of living increasingly decreases while rich tourists enjoy the finest things of the island.
The book is excellently written and, instead of trying to push a certain ideology, embraces the people of Cuba's beliefs and ideas of their government. Everyone from prostitutes to dairy farmers share their beliefs and lives with Corbett as he explains life on this island nation. If one is looking for a quick and informative read about the Black Sheep of the Caribbean, this is it. I rank this a read.
