Lisandro Pérez. Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution

Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York, by Lisandro Pérez, is a beautifully written and engaging book. Deeply personal and rigorously researched, this work presents us with a fresh perspective on a city we thought we knew. This is New York City otherwise. A veritable page turner, Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution will appeal to academic and nonspecialist audiences interested in the history of New York City, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and of Latinx populations in the United States. Over the course of eight chapters, Pérez presents his readers with a long and detailed history of Cubans in New York City, reminding us of the degree to which the city shaped its Latin American inhabitants and was simultaneously shaped by them. By tracing the geography of Cuban settlement in the city, Pérez enables us to visualize where Cubans lived and how they moved through the city between 1820 and 1900. Having read Pérez’s book, it is impossible to imagine writing a history of New York City without reference to its long-standing Cuban community, and yet it has been done time and again. Luckily, Pérez is not alone. He joins several other scholars who in recent years have dedicated themselves to elucidating the Cuban imprint on this very important city, including Nancy Raquel Mirabal and Jesse Hoffnung-Garskoff.

Appeal · Art history · Latin Americans · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · History · Law