Cuba's Island of Dreams Voices from the Isle of Pines and Youth

In the only English-language book devoted to Cuba's Isle of Youth, Jane McManus writes the history of the small island just off Cuba's southern coast from the turn of the 20th century--when American settlers & speculators moved to what was then the Isle of Pines--to the turn of the 21st--as the idealistic Cuban youth for whom it was renamed are retiring. Employing oral histories to flesh out the economic, political, & cultural facts of this Caribbean frontier, McManus interviewed residents from all periods of the island's immigration & development: American settlement during the first quarter of the century; Japanese, Jamaican, & Cayman Island immigration during the second quarter; & its radical transformation, after 1960, by the presence of thousands of young Cubans from the main island who became its permanent residents & were joined, temporarily, by students from Africa, Asia, & Latin America. Her interviews describe life on the island as remembered by both immigrants & natives--from pirates, soldiers, & planters to housekeepers, fishermen, & students--and include testimony from the last American on the island. As a resident of Cuba, McManus enjoyed extraordinary access to Cuban archives & to both published & unpublished historical materials. Her documentary sources are augmented by access to government officials as well as family narratives & personal diaries. Drawing upon resources unavailable to most scholars outside Cuba, she has written an evocative history that captures the dreams of this island's history & the identity of its people.McManus, Jane is the author of 'Cuba's Island of Dreams Voices from the Isle of Pines and Youth' with ISBN 9780813017419 and ISBN 0813017416.