The aftermath of the 1959 Cuban Revolution produced not only a transformation of the political landscape, but also a painful and problematic bifurcation of Cuban identity and nationhood. It is against this backdrop that I review Bridges to Cuba/Puentes a Cuba, a literary anthology whose unifying axis is found in the 'Cuban' experience of its contributors. Rather than investing one experience of 'Cubanness' with authenticity at the expense of the rest, the richness of this collection lies in the complexities and hybridities of Cuban identity and nationhood which the contributors to this volume explore. Edited by Ruth Behar, their diverse voices and literary genres are testimony to the existence of 'border subjects' that inhabit various worlds, cultures and languages simultaneously, albeit unequally. While pointing to the inadequacy of essentialist notions of identity, the objective of this anthology is far from academic. As its title suggests, it hopes to bridge the ideological chasm (and heal the wounds) by forging a more inclusive, complex and heterogeneous vision of what it means to be and to belong to the Cuban nation.
