"In Gringo , Chesa Boudin takes us on a delightfully engaging trip through Latin America, in an ingenious combination of memoir and commentary" (Howard Zinn). Gringo charts two journeys, both of which began a decade ago. The first is the sweeping transformation of Latin American politics that started with Hugo Chávez's inauguration as president of Venezuela in 1999. In that same year, an eighteen-year-old Chesa Boudin leaves his middle-class Chicago life -- which is punctuated by prison visits to his parents, who were incarcerated when he was fourteen months old for their role in a politically motivated bank truck robbery -- and arrives in Guatemala. He finds a world where disparities of wealth are even more pronounced and where social change is not confined to classroom or dinner-table conversations, but instead takes place in the streets. While a new generation of progress-ive Latin American leaders rises to power, Boudin crisscrosses twenty-seven countries throughout the Americas. He witnesses the economic crisis in Buenos Aires; works inside Chávez's Miraflores palace in Caracas; watches protestors battling police on September 11, 2001, in Santiago; descends into ancient silver mines in Potosí; and travels steerage on a riverboat along the length of the Amazon. He rarely takes a plane when a fifteen-hour bus ride in the company of unfettered chickens is available. Including incisive analysis, brilliant reportage, and deep humanity, Boudin's account of this historic period is revelatory. It weaves together the voices of Latin Americans, some rich, most poor, and the endeavors of a young traveler to understand the world around him while coming to terms with his own complicated past. The result is a marvelous mixture of coming-of-age memoir and travelogue.

This book begins with the conquest of Cuba by the Spanish Conquistadores, and the annihilation of the Indian population despite its heroic struggles. It then analyzes the economic social and cultural development of Cuba from 1520 to 1808. This is followed by an analysis of the role of Cuba in the Latin American wars for independence of 1808-1820 and the first independence movement in Cuba, 1820-1830. Dr. Foner then discusses the emergence of United States policy towards Cuba and shows, through the most careful documentation, the role played by the government of the United States in blocking the achievement of Cuban independence from Spain. The rest of the book deals with the reform movement in Cuba, Cuban slave society, and the anti-slavery struggles in the island, ending with La Escalera, the brutal suppression of the Negro people in the 1840's. For the preparation of this volume, Dr. Foner examined original sources in English and Spanish, in Cuba and the United States, and a wide range of monographic material produced by scholars in both countries. The result is this exciting and timely book.