Matanzas : The Cuba Nobody Knows

by Miguel A. Bretos

• ISBN13: 9780813038100
• ISBN10: 0813038103
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-09
• Publisher: University of Florida Press

Summary

Matanzas--the name means literally "slaughters"--is the Cuban city nearest the United States. Known at the heyday of the nineteenth-century sugar boom as the "Athens of Cuba," it is renowned for its art, its music, and its rich African heritage. It is also the place where Latin American baseball began. Yet most Americans have never heard of it. Miguel Bretos's fascinating history of his hometown remedies this oversight. Though he came to the United States as a Pedro Pan child and has lived all over the world, his family is still closely tied to the city where they lived for generations. After forty years he returned to his homeland "with the longing of an exile, the anticipation of a child, the curiosity of a visitor, the resentment of a victim, and--hopefully--the objectivity of a scholar." Bretos unfolds the Matanzas story from the aboriginal Tainos to the coming of revolution with solid research, wit, clarity, and the kind of vivid detail that can come only from an insider. But he also deftly inserts Matanzas into a larger picture. More than local history, this original work is Cuban history from a local perspective.

Author Biography

Mrguel A. Bretos is retired as senior scholar from the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery and is the author of four books, including Cuba and Honda. An Exploration of a Historical Connection, 1593-1991.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
One Last Vuelta	p. 1
The Bay of Slaughters	p. 11
Governor Manzaneda's Castle	p. 26
Green Tobacco and a Clever Marquis	p. 37
Coffee Cup and Sugar Bowl	p. 49
The Year of the Lash	p. 70
Tyre of the Western Seas	p. 87
Athens of Cuba	p. 101
Disguises and Holy Spaces	p. 120
The Tyranny of Nearness	p. 135
Las Alturas de Simpson	p. 152
Forget the Maine!	p. 168
The City Sleeps	p. 189
Nightmares and Cold Sweats	p. 204
Kilowatts and Revolution	p. 218
Deus ex Machine Gun	p. 232
Nero's Cheer	p. 146
Return to the City of Rivers	p. 259
Notes	p. 269
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 305
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