Introduction

Abstract

There are certain places on earth that inflame great passions in the hearts of women and men: regions of myth, peopled by dreamers. The archipelago of Cuba is just such a land—its national apostle, José Martí, a conjuror of metaphors, a poet. The Revolution’s slogan “Patria o muerte, venceremos” (Fatherland or death, we shall overcome), while expressing the same self-sacrificing sentiment as Revolutionary America’s rallying cry “Give me liberty or give me death,” differs most saliently in its implicit connection with a specific landscape. Numerous studies have focused attention on the contested aspects of that landscape, above all in reference to the intricate and problematic relationship between Cuba and the United States. However, in November 1975, Cuba’s epic military intervention in the Angolan civil war brought Africa to the foreground as a territory with its own unique claims upon the Cuban imaginary.