Overview

This book is based on the film Cuba: Living Between Hurricanes (2019, dir. Michael Chanan), and tells the stories through the voices of those who were interviewed. It is a book about the elements - hurricanes and rain, the sea and the earth. About a fishing port on the north coast of Cuba which has seen better days: Caibarién, where Hurricane Irma - one of the most powerful ever to sweep the Caribbean - made landfall on 9th September 2017. About the effects of climate across the centuries in a Caribbean island sucked into global markets for its commodity crops - tobacco, coffee and above all, sugar. How sugar changed the landscape, through deforestation and soil exhaustion. About the collapse of sugar and the encroachment of a new commodity market - tourism. About the growing threat from climate change, and the move towards reforestation, ecotourism and sustainable farming.

Full Product Details

9781914278013

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Enjoyable and flowing... I like the tone achieved from the speakers: conscientious, critical and with threads of nostalgia... open to the possibilities for the future.... Cuba has always lived between hurricanes, of different kinds. One can have quite varied debates after watching the film."" (Concha Mateos, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid) ""A small enclave in the Caribbean can become a multifaceted crystal in which to observe the globalised past and present, the complex dynamics that interconnect human actions and nature."" (María Luisa Ortega, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) ""Tells the urgent story of the effects of climate change on the island by examining the inks between the ecology, economic development, and social and political history."" (Trish Meehan, Cuba Sí)

Enjoyable and flowing... I like the tone achieved from the speakers: conscientious, critical and with threads of nostalgia... open to the possibilities for the future.... Cuba has always lived between hurricanes, of different kinds. One can have quite varied debates after watching the film. (Concha Mateos, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid) A small enclave in the Caribbean can become a multifaceted crystal in which to observe the globalised past and present, the complex dynamics that interconnect human actions and nature. (Maria Luisa Ortega, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) Tells the urgent story of the effects of climate change on the island by examining the inks between the ecology, economic development, and social and political history. (Trish Meehan, Cuba Si)

"""Enjoyable and flowing... I like the tone achieved from the speakers: conscientious, critical and with threads of nostalgia... open to the possibilities for the future.... Cuba has always lived between hurricanes, of different kinds. One can have quite varied debates after watching the film."" (Concha Mateos, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid) ""A small enclave in the Caribbean can become a multifaceted crystal in which to observe the globalised past and present, the complex dynamics that interconnect human actions and nature."" (María Luisa Ortega, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) ""Tells the urgent story of the effects of climate change on the island by examining the inks between the ecology, economic development, and social and political history."" (Trish Meehan, Cuba Sí)"

Author Information

Jonathan Curry-Machado is founding editor and coordinator, and audio-visual director, of the Commodities of Empire British Academy Research Project; founder member of the Commodity Frontiers Initiative; and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (School of Advanced Study, University of London). He lived for several years in Cuba, where he was involved in historical research, art curation, and community culture.

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