Michael Bustamante & Jennifer Lambe: “In Fidel’s Shadow: Cuban History (and Futures), One Year On”

“The conflation of leader and national epic (or tragedy) dates to the very moment when the Cuban rebels first erupted onto the island’s political stage. …  the Revolution’s chief was the main architect and beneficiary of a rendering of Cuba’s past as deferred deliverance. And plenty of Cubans, at least at the start, were eager to believe.  Cuba’s official history thus yoked a cyclical saga of political failure to a vision of final triumph in the present.”