The National Economy / Economia Nacional

For nearly three centuries, Cuba’s economy was based on a single crop—sugar cane. After Fidel Castro’s Revolution of 1959, despite serious attempts at diversification, the country continued to depend on the monocrop. Men and women cut cane by hand. City people who had never swung a machete spent long volunteer hours aiding the national effort. But the US embargo and diminishing international markets destroyed Cuba’s economy. Gaudencio Rodríguez Santana’s The National Economy explores that collapse and its physical, emotional and psychic consequences. It is a powerful, insightful collection of eye-witness poems by one of Cuba’s most celebrated contemporary poets.

Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, photographer and social activist. She is the author of over 100 books. Rodríguez Santana is a poet from Matanzas, Cuba. Today he writes art criticism and is the Assistant Director of Culture in the municipality of Perico, province of Matanzas.