It is written: “In the Beginning was the Word.”
Here I am balked: who, now, can help afford?
If by the Spirit I am truly taught.
Then thus: “In the Beginning was the Thought.”
Is it the Thought which works, creates, indeed?
“In the Beginning was the Power,” I read.
The Spirit aids me: now I see the light!
“In the Beginning was the Act,” I write.
Goethe

Cuba seems to have the same effect on
American administrations that the full moon
used to have on werewolves.

Wayne S. Smith

Required books
The following books are for sale at the bookstore and also on reserve at the library. Other assigned readings will be on reserve and/or handed out in class. (See me if you want to do some of this reading in the original Spanish.)
Fidel Castro, Marta Harnecker, Fidel Castro's Political Strategy: From Moncada to Victory
Ernesto Che Guevara, Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58
Ernesto Che Guevara , Che Guevara Speaks: Selected Speeches and Writings
Tomas Diez Acosta, October 1962, The Missile Crisis as seen from Cuba
Lois M. Smith and Alfred Padula, Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba
Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976

Recommended: If you have never had a course on Latin American history, I strongly recommend reading one of the following new, short, readable, thematic histories for background. Both are on reserve.
John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America
David J. McCreery, The Sweat of Their Brow: A History of Work in Latin America

Web board
A web board has been set up for this course. Each week you will be required to post a short commentary (2-3 paragraphs or the equivalent of 1-2 double-spaced pages) on the assigned readings and/or films. The web commentaries must be posted by 6 pm Wednesday and you need to read everyone’s contribution by the time the class meets the following afternoon. Of the 12 weeks with web board assignments, you can “pass” on 2 postings (but not on the reading) If you have never used a web board at Sarah Lawrence before, please look at the instructions on the College web site or come to the orientation session (for my other class) at 9:30 am, Wednesday, Jan. 29, Library electronic classroom.

Short papers

Mini-biographies. These are short (2-3 page) biographies of important men and women in Cuban revolutionary history, to be presented to the class (via the web board and briefly in class discussion) at different times through the semester. Each student will choose one political figure (A list) and one cultural (B list). You can propose another biography subject, but it must be approved by me, via email, before the names are divided up at the second class meeting. You are not expected to do substantial research on these individuals, but you have to do more than Google them.

Opposing voices. Each team of 2-3 students (at least one of whom reads Spanish) will collaborate on a short (5-6 page) paper analyzing the Cuban and US press accounts of controversial episodes of the early 1960s:
Agrarian reform law, 1959 [due Feb. 27]
Trials and executions, 1959 [due Feb. 27]
Popular militias, 1959-60 [due Mar 6]
Nationalization US properties, 1960 [due Mar 6]
Relations with Catholic Church, 1960-61 [due Mar 13]

Class Schedule

Week 1. Jan. 23 - Introduction

Week 2. Jan. 30 (A week). 1898: The war Cuba won and then lost
Reading: Ernesto Che Guevara, “Socialism and Man in Cuba,” in Che Guevara Speaks (handout)
Jose Marti, Letters of May 2, 1895 and May 18, 1895; essay “Our America” (reserve)
Alice Wexler, “Pain and Prejudice in the Santiago campaign of 1898,” in JISWA, 18, 1 (Feb. 1976), 59-73 (handout)
Web board: Choose 2 posters from www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/cubintro.html and show how they relate to themes of Che’s “Socialism and Man” (to be posted by 6 pm Wednesday, Jan. 29)

Feb. 6 (B week). Race and Politics under the Platt Amendment
Reading: Alejandro de la Fuente, Nation for all: race, inequality, and politics in twentieth-century Cuba, pp. 23-59, 175-209 (reserve)
Recommended: Aviva Chomsky, "Barbados or Canada?" Race, Immigration, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Cuba,” HAHR, Vol. 80, No. 3. (Aug., 2000), pp. 415-462; full text available on JSTOR
Film: La Ultima Cena

Feb. 13 (A week). Moncada: The revolution’s opening guns
Reading: Castro, “History will absolve me,” in Harneker and Castro, Fidel Castro’s Political Strategy.
Thomas Patterson, Contesting Castro: The U.S. and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution, pp. 34-57 required; 58-65 recommended (reserve)
Lois M. Smith and Alfred Padula, Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba,7-32
Conference project: A one-paragraph conference proposal is to be posted to the web board by Friday, Feb. 14

Feb. 20 (B week). Revolutionary War
Reading: Guevara, Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, all

Feb. 27 (A week). 1959: “This revolution is real”
Reading: Medea Benjamin et al, No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today, pp. 2-24, 150-164 (reserve)
Guevara, Che Guevara Speaks, pp. 15-43, 75-81, 109-114

March 6 (B week). 1960: “Nationalize them down to the nails in their shoes”
Reading: Smith and Padula, 33-68, 69-94
Film: Un Hombre de Exito or Portrait of Teresa
Conference project: Preliminary bibliography due in class March 6

March 13 (A week). 1961: Socialist Cuba and Playa Girón
Reading: Castro, “The Second Declaration of Havana”
Che Guevara Speaks, 44-74, 82-88
Smith and Padula, 95-108
Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976, 32-76

Have a nice spring break!

April 3 (B week).1962: International Showdown
Reading: Tomas Diez Acosta, October 1962, Missile Crisis as seen from Cuba, all
Fernández, Playa Girón, 80-129, 208-229
Film: Memorias de subdesarrollo

April 10 (A week). Che and Africa
Reading: Gleijeses, 77-395
Che Guevara Speaks, 120-141, 161-182

April 17 (B week). Women, the Family, Sexuality
Reading: Smith and Padula, pp. 109-180
Video: Gay Cuba

April 24 (A week). Cuban culture and the embargo
Reading: Yvonne Daniel, Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba, pp.
Julio García Espinosa, “For an Imperfect Cinema” (handout)
Silvio Rodriguez, “Disillusionment,” “The Fool,” “The Fifties Club,” and “Flowers.” (handout)

May 1 (B week). Cuba and the World in the 80s and 90s: From “Three Giants” to a “Special Period” – No conferences this week. No web board posting. Guest lecture by Mary Alice Waters
Reading: Néctor López Cuba, excerpts from 1997 interview, in Waters (ed.), Making History, pp. 30-51 (handout)
recommended: Two 1986 speeches by Fidel Castro on rectification, with introduction by Mary Alice Waters, New International, 10 (1987), 205-253 (handout)

Conference project: Final date for submitting rough draft to Matilde’s office is 5 pm Monday, May 5; it will be returned with comments in class May 8. If you want more time to revise/expand your rough draft, you can submit it on Wednesday, April 23. Keep a copy, and I will send you comments by Friday, April 25 by email.

May 8 (A week). Conference presentations: Mary, Anita, Meredith

May 15 (B week). Conference presentations: Tori, Suzanne, Sara P, Sarah G, Jenny, Fran

Conference papers of graduating seniors (Mary, Anita, Merdith) due in my office by 5pm Tuesday, May 13.
All other conference papers due in class May 15. (Note: I will be out of the country for three weeks starting May 20. If your conference paper is late, it will be nearly impossible for me to turn in your grades and evaluations on time.)