Supplemental Materials

Contesting Cuba’s Past and Future

Contesting Cuba’s Past and Future focuses on the Cuban perspective and traces Cuba’s history the country’s pre-colonial past to its most recent economic, social, and political changes. Students recreate the discussions Cubans on the island are having about their future.

Online Resources from the Choices Program

Graphic organizers are available to help students understand and synthesize the readings. There are four organizers for Contesting Cuba’s Past and Future: three from the printed unit and one additional organizer only available online.

Online Lesson: Castro’s Legacy and the Future of Cuba
Is an online in which students will explore the reaction to Fidel Castro’s decision to resign as Cuba’s president, identify and categorize competing perspectives on Castro and the future of Cuba, and consider the international response to Castro’s resignation and assess possible consequences.

Additional Cuban-American memoirs
for the Day Five Alternative lesson “Cuban-American Experiences”

Maps from Contesting Cuba's Past and Future (PowerPoint)
Includes Maps of Cuba and of José Martí travels to be used with Day One lesson “José Martí and his Legacy”

Multimedia

Video
"Victory is Your Duty,”
A PBS Wide Angle documentary about Cuban boys training to be boxers

Excerpts of newsreels
Produced by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Culture between 1960 and 1980. English transcripts available on the site.

Video Clips from YouTube
Footage from Havana, January 1959.

“Castro Triumphs. Havana Crowds Hail Success of Revolt.”
January 1959. Clip from Universal’s International News.

“Havana Rally. Peasants Mass to Support Castro.”
July 1959. Clip from Universal’s International News.

“Invasion Scare. Castro Masses Troops, Claims U.S. ‘Aggression."
October 1960. Clip from Universal’s International News.

“Cuba Invaded! Foes of Castro Open Offensive.”
April 1961. Clip from Universal’s International News.

Audio
NPR’s Castro’s Health and Cuba’s Future
Radio news reports about Cuba since Castro’s resignation, as well as articles, a timeline, an overview of U.S. policy towards Cuba, and excerpts of a number of Castro’s speeches. NPR also has excellent reports on Cuba dating back to 1996, including numerous pieces on Elian Gonzalez, Cuban baseball, U.S. policy towards Cuba, the Cuban American community in Miami, the Cuban government’s tightening of restrictions in 2004, and Raul Castro’s assumption of power in 2006.

Web Links

The Granma
English version of Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.

BBC country profile for Cuba
Includes timelines, video clips, and links to articles.

The blog of a Cuban woman in Havana
Available in English, Spanish, and German.

The Cuban National Reconciliation Task Force on Memory, Truth, and Justice
Made up of scholars and activists from both Cuba and the Cuban émigré community, and the task force was held in Miami and Mexico from 2001 to 2003. The site includes numerous primary sources from activists on the island as well as the task force report and links to a variety of other Cuba-related websites

Books

Bethel, Leslie (ed.). Cuba: A Short History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 172 pages.

Blight, James G. and Brenner, Philip. Sad and Luminous Days: Cuba’s Struggle with Superpowers after the Missile Crisis (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002). 324 pages.

Brenner, Philip, Marguerite Rose Jiménez, John M. Kirk, and William M. LeoGrande (eds.). A Contemporary Cuba Reader: Reinventing the Revolution (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008). 413 pages.

Chávez, Lydia (ed.). Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar: Cuba Enters the Twenty-First Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005). 253 pages.

Gleijeses, Piero. Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002). 552 pages.

Sweig, Julia E. Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002). 254 pages.

NOTE: This is a selected list of resources focused on the topic of the curriculum unit, Contesting Cuba’s Past and Future. Additional resources will be added to this site as they become available.