The Cuba lobby has long had a strong influence on Capitol Hill. From its base in Florida, mainly among the expatriates and their families around Miami, the lobby uses its voice to keep Cuba at the forefront of national interest. The lobby traditionally takes an anti-Castro stance, unsurprisingly as most are refugees from his regime, and uses all means necessary to get the message heard. From radio to newspaper and across the Internet, the Cuba lobby is very successful in getting its viewpoint aired.
There are many books on the Cuba lobby and its effect on government thinking.
“Listen Yankee! Why Cuba Matters”
In his book “Listen Yankee! Why Cuba Matters,” author Tom Hayden explores the influence of U.S. foreign policy and gives a view from within the country when trying to get at what lies behind the narrative of the Cuba lobby.
In a positive review on Truthout, columnist Patrick Glennon said: “The end result is a useful primer on the fraught history of US-Cuba relations from a rare and welcome perspective.”
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“Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know”
Julia E. Sweig attempts to explain Cuba to the ordinary American reader in her book “Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know.” By giving a background to the history and the current state of affairs on the island, Sweig tries to shed light on the thinking that influences the Cuba lobby. A review by
Majorie Miller in the Los Angeles Times said about the book “...where even chapters on domestic issues are as much about Cuba's relationship with the United States as they are about Cuba itself.”
“Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana”
Author Anne Louise Bardach wrote the book “Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana” to illustrate the relationships between the U.S. and Castro’s regime and how the influence of Miami’s Cuban Americans is a powerful lobby in Washington.
The magazine Foreign Affairs carried a review by Kenneth Maxwell praising the content of Bardach’s work. “A marvelous and evocative deconstruction of the incestuous relationships and hardball tactics that have kept Cuba firmly under Fidel Castro and U.S. policy toward Cuba paralyzed under the influence of Miami’s Cuban Americans.”
“Cuba Libre: Rum Revolution and a Family Tale”
The Bacardi family is one of the best known in Cuba and exile by the Castro regime established them as a vehement opponent of the regime. The family is associated with the Cuba lobby and in his book “Cuba Libre: Rum Revolution and a Family Tale” the author, Tom Gjelten tells the family's history to the current day as anti-Castro activists. Barry Gewen in a
review for The New York Times largely praises the book saying: “For almost a century and a half, Mr. Gjelten shows, the Bacardi Company and the Bacardi family strenuously associated themselves with what they saw as ‘the Cuban cause.’ In recent years they identified that cause almost entirely with the overthrow of Fidel Castro.”
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