I just finished reading “Cuba, An American History” by Ada Ferrer.

What an outstanding book that reads like a novel. It tells the history of Cuba from and it’s relationship to America. It starts from Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the “New World” and goes right up to the Biden Administration. (Fun fact, Christopher Columbus never set foot on any part of what is now, the United States of America.)

Some things have always interested me such as why are the United States and Cuba been so much at odds with each other. Also why does Cuba that seemed to love Fidel Castro so much have hundreds of thousands of people who will risk their lives to leave the island given the slightest chance.

Ferrer asserts that our founding fathers had their sights on Cuba as a natural extension of the USA. She also writes that the Monroe Doctrine was more directed at Cuba than Latin America. The US was concerned about Britain trying to take over the island nation.

This is a history book that reads like a novel. I couldn’t put it down as Ms. Ferrer discusses the huge role slavery played in building up their sugar industry and the USA Banks who provided financing for the slave ships that went to Africa to bring enslaved people to Cuba. She writes how after a ten year battle to win their independence from Spain, the USA came in at the last minute and took over Cuba for ten years after the Spanish American War.

I could go on and on but this book is one great read.