Cuba: An American History

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, and racism.

In the Prologue, author Ada Ferrer lays out her personal background and its relationship to the subject of Cuba: An American History. She also describes her methodology for writing this work. Ferrer says that she was born in Havana in June 1962. Soon after her birth, her mother brought her to the United States, leaving Ferrer’s father and brothers behind in Cuba. In 1990, as an adult, Ferrer visited Cuba for the first time. She says that she went on to write Cuba: An American History in an attempt to “translat[e] Cuba for Americans and the United States for Cubans” (2).

Ferrer cites the historian Howard Zinn as an inspiration for her own work. She notes that her “epic” history of Cuba includes stories of leaders as well as ordinary people. She describes how the work’s title refers both to Cuba as part of the American continent and to Cuba’s long relationship with the US. Ferrer says that “history […] always looks different depending on where one stands” and that Cuba’s history “mirror[s]” the history of the US (6).