Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution

Lisandro Perez is Professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is the author, with Guillermo Grenier, of The Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States (Allyn & Bacon, 2003).

"A thoroughly researched study on the early history of Cubans in New York... Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution makes an important contribution to Cuban diasporic history in New York and Perez's attention to detail and crafting of narrative is impressive." * New West Indian Guide * "A fascinating excursion into nineteenth-century New York . . . serves as a comprehensive guide to the social, cultural, and political lives of the transnational community of wealthy Cuban plantation owners and their immigrant compatriots . . .Great spiritedness animates the prose . . . a lively and multifaceted record of Cuban communities in New York City." * Foreword Reviews * "Few people are aware that during the nineteenth century, Cubans constituted the major immigrant Hispanic community in New York. Lisandro Perez, through exhaustive and well documented research, brings into focus the outstanding political, economic and cultural significance of this presence in the history of the city as well as in Cuban history." -- Oscar Zanetti, Universidad de La Habana "A riveting history of exile and migration. More than a century before the rise of Miami, New York City was home to a vibrant transnational Cuban community. Its members lived in the city, using it to feed their business ventures, their intellectual and artistic pursuits, and their political visions, which were wide-ranging enough to include plots to annex the island to the United States and dreams of nationalist revolution. Lisandro Perez provides a vivid glimpse into a relatively little-known Cuban and Latino New York in the nineteenth century." -- Ada Ferrer, author of Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution "In the 18th century a sugar trade sprang up between New York and Cuba, and with it a Cuban community grew in Gotham. Its evolution down to the 1898 war with Spain has heretofore been only lightly sketched. Now Lisandro Perezs splendid study offers a full blown portrait. His research drills down to bedrock, and his absorbing narrative, which focuses on individual actors as well as sweeping historical forces, is engagingly written." -- Mike Wallace, Pulitzer prize winning historian of New York City "With a wealth of new data and illustrations, Perez provides a fascinating narrative of Cuban migration to New York... Recommended for Latin Americanists and students of New York history." -- Choice "Perez vividly describes how the tightly knit Cuban emigre community reproduced the political cleavages and social mores of its homeland." * Foreign Affairs * "In this colorful and scrupulously researched history, Perez . . . traces the 19th-century origins of Cuban New York. [His] engrossing work showcases a little-discussed facet of New York City's rich history." * Publishers Weekly * "En prosa clara y precisa, Lisandro Perez cuenta la historia de los cubanos del siglo XIX en Nueva York con rigor y una dosis exacta de empatia hacia los protagonistas. Este libro academico, sin duda un aporte incalculable a la historiografia cubana, se lee, sin embargo, como si fuera una novela." * Uva de Aragon, El Nuevo Herald *