Patriots and Traitors in Revolutionary Cuba: 1961-1981 [Hardcover]

Authorities in postrevolutionary Cuba worked to establish a binary society in which citizens were either patriots or traitors. This all-or-nothing approach reflected in the familiar slogan “patria o muerte” (fatherland or death) has recently been challenged in protests that have adopted the theme song “patria y vida” (fatherland and life), a collaboration by exiles that, predictably, has been banned in Cuba itself. Lillian Guerra excavates the rise of a Soviet-advised Communist culture controlled by state institutions and the creation of a multidimensional system of state security whose functions embedded themselves into daily activities and individual consciousness and reinforced these binaries. But despite public performance of patriotism, the life experience of many Cubans was somewhere in between. Guerra explores these in-between spaces and looks at Cuban citizens’ complicity with authoritarianism, leaders’ exploitation of an earnest anti-imperialist nationalism, and the duality of an existence that contains elements of both support and betrayal of a nation and of an ideology. "This study shows a wealth of detail, an eloquent style, and a willingness to question more established orthodoxies, highlighting aspects of post-1959 Cuba that deserve historiographical interrogation and providing a rich base for further research."
—Hispanic American Historical Review"Guerra’s latest book,Patriots and Traitors in Revolutionary Cuba, 1961-1981, is a tour de force. Like her four previous books, it is powered by a full command of Cuba’s official history and the copious scholarship it has spurred; extensive research in public archives spread far and wide; and intimacy with the private archives of Cubans who have carried deep pain for decades, shared through what must have been a careful process of building trust. Guerra expertly weaves a vast array of materials into a coherent,l+