CUBANS IN AMERICA

Filmmaker Antón (Forever Present: Brothers to the Rescue, etc.) and journalist Hernández offer highlights of the Cuban-American experience in this companion volume to their PBS documentary. Troubled by Elián González’s return to Cuba with his father in 1999, and feeling that the Cuban-American community subsequently took some undeserved bad press, the authors set out to describe “what it means to be an American of Cuban origin.” While the focus here is one of exile, the affecting narrative is continually interrupted by text blocks celebrating gifted musicians, poets, baseball players, and business executives. The authors are at their best when describing the dynamic Cuban communities of South Florida and New York, havens where exiles can live their lives in a Cuban subculture. But there’s little examination of the Cuban-American population—one is left with the impression that the majority of Cubans in America exist in a kind of stasis, a culture of exiles who can’t move on until Fidel Castro either dies or is overthrown.

Well-meaning, if myopic. (Over 200 b&w photographs; documentary to air in May to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Cuban Independence.)