“A Little Piece of Cuba” by Barbara Caver

At a time when U.S.-Cuban relations have probably never been worse, there’s Barbara Caver’s “A Little Piece of Cuba,” a book that explores her own journey “to become Cubana-Americana.”

Caver’s mother was born in Cuba before leaving for the United States with her family at the age of seven in 1959. While the author, who lives in New York, doesn’t speak Spanish and only visited Cuba for five days in 2017, Caver’s story is a family memoir, her effort to forge a relationship with Cuba.

“I’ve traveled to many far-flung places, and Cuba is the only one that I can remember with all five senses,” she wrote. 

“For my grandparents, Cuba was in the tiles on the kitchen floor and hanging on the walls of their home, but the walls and floor are taken for granted and not often noticed. My grandmother’s story, my mother’s story, my family’s story belong to them. I have my own version of the Cuban American story to tell, and in that story, I embark on a brave adventure to a forbidden place, curious to know more, and discover that Senora Cuba wanted to know me too,” she noted.

On the U.S. political scene, Cuba has become the proverbial football. Depending on which political party is in power, so goes U.S. treatment of Cuba. President Barack Obama visited Cuba in 2016, the same year that Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. Obama loosened restrictions with Cuba, but  President Donald Trump reinstated them when he took office in 2017.

In 2022, President Joe Biden eased restrictions on the country once again, only for Trump to restore a hard-line policy upon his return to the White House in 2025.

Now Raúl Castro, who stepped down as Cuba's leader in 2018, is back in the news. At age 94, he’s just been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department. That indictment of Castro “comes at a tense time for US-Cuban relations, with the Trump administration declaring the Cuban government is a threat to US national security. Cuba is also dealing with a collapse of its energy sector due to an oil blockade following the U.S. attack on Cuba’s oil-rich ally Venezuela,” stated CNN.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that widespread blackouts are common on the fuel-starved island. The country of some 10 million people (2 million in Havana) is “trapped in the vise of a repressive regime and punishing American sanctions,” the paper reported.

“I worry over the political tensions and embargo. The present policy is not fair to the American people, Cuban Americans, or the Cuban people,” said Caver.

To better understand the situation, “I think people need to hear more personal stories about Cuba,” she said. 

She provides her own personal story in this book. “If one day you decide to visit Cuba, you find yourself on TripAdvisor or some other website, and you stumble across Casa de Maria Mendoza, well, I hope you know what you’re in for. If you’re looking for mojitos on white sand beaches and rides at sunset in Franken cars, you should move on. Casa Maria offers an unparalleled immersion and exploration into Cuban culture for people who always questioned what it meant to be Cuban…Casa de Maria might just change your life.”