The essays in this collection reflect two of Marti's key observations during his time in the United States: first, how did he, an exile living in New York, view and read his North American neighbors from a sociocultural, political and literary perspective? Second, how did his perception of the modern nation impact his own concepts of race, capital punishment, poetics, and nation building for Cuba? The overarching endeavor of this project is to view and read Marti with the same critical or modern eye with which he viewed and read Spain, Cuba, Latin America and the United States. This volume, combining many of the most relevant experts in the field of Marti studies, attempts to answer those questions. It hopes to broaden the understanding and extend the influence of one of Americas' (speaking of the collective Americas) most prolific and important writers, particularly within the very nation where his chronicles, poetry, and journalism were written. In spite of the political differences still separating Cuba and the United States, understanding Marti's relevancy is crucial to bridging the gap between these nations.

New York in the 1960s was a hotbed for progressive causes of every stripe, including women's liberation, civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War--and the Cuban Revolution. Fighting over Fidel brings this turbulent cultural moment to life by telling the story of the New York intellectuals who championed and opposed Castro's revolution. Setting his narrative against the backdrop of the ideological confrontation of the Cold War and the breakdown of relations between Washington and Havana, Rafael Rojas examines the lives and writings of such figures as Waldo Frank, Carleton Beals, C. Wright Mills, Allen Ginsberg, Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer, Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, and Jose Yglesias. He describes how Castro's Cuba was hotly debated in publications such as the New York Times, Village Voice, Monthly Review, and Dissent, and how Cuban socialism became a rallying cry for groups such as the Beats, the Black Panthers, and the Hispanic Left. Fighting over Fidel shows how intellectuals in New York interpreted and wrote about the Cuban experience, and how the Left's enthusiastic embrace of Castro's revolution ended in bitter disappointment by the close of the explosive decade of the 1960s.

Many people consider their reputations to be something worth valuing above life itself. Throughout history, there has been no shortage of individuals who have fought duels to the death over matters of honor. Quite a few nations have gone to war with others or annihilated entire segments of their population purportedly in defense of their national honor or that of their race.

Character assassination is an attempt to discredit a person's reputation. The intention is to have the individuals targeted by such campaigns isolated and rejected by his community. Every personal merit or contribution of the individual would be erased under a constant flow of slander. With the pass of time such acts are often difficult to reverse. The process is equivalent to the literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for historical figures, for many years and even centuries after their death.

What are the implications of deliberately assassinating a person's character, or of ruining a social group's or institution's reputation? What might be the implications of such actions if they are occurring as a response to the initiatives of a government with sufficient resources to exercise this kind of state-sponsored terrorism? Ready, Aim, Fire Character Assassination in Cuba analyzes this topic through the lens of the Cuban experience over the last fifty years.

Essay writing award, Anagrama 2006, the collection of essays includes several biographies of key players in Cuba's literary life, past and present from dissident poets Heberto Padilla and Ra?l Rivero, to long-exiled novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante.