First implemented in 1962, the American embargo against Cuba is one of the most enduring anti-trade measures in human history, having outlived most of the original government and military leaders responsible for its creation. But has it benefited the United States as intended, by weakening Fidel Castro's grip on his country? Or has it, instead, strengthened his position? This unique work draws upon interviews with Cuban exiles to provide broad-ranging insights on the embargo's effects on the Cuban people, and an evaluation of its diminishing role as an effective political tool.

The United States and Cuba share a complex, fractious, interconnected history. Before 1959, the United States was the island nation's largest trading partner. But in swift reaction to Cuba's communist revolution, the United States severed all economic ties between the two nations, initiating the longest trade embargo in modern history, one that continues to the presentday. The Cuban Embargo examines the changing politics of U.S. policy toward Cuba over the more than four decades since the revolution.While the U.S. embargo policy itself has remained relatively stable since its origins during the heart of the Cold War, the dynamics that produce and govern that policy have changed dramatically. Although originally dominated by the executive branch, the president's tight grip over policy has gradually ceded to the influence of interest groups, members of Congress, and specific electoral campaigns and goals. Haney and Vanderbush track the emergence of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation as an ally of the Reagan administration, and they explore the more recent development of an anti-embargo coalition within both civil society and Congress, even as the Helms-Burton Act and the George W. Bush administration have further tightened the embargo. Ultimately they demonstrate how the battles over Cuba policy, as with much U.S. foreign policy, have as much to do with who controls the policy as with the shape of that policy itself.

In the Land of Mirrors is a journey through the politics of Cuban exiles since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. It explores the development of Cuban exile politics and identity within a context of U.S. and Cuban realities, as well as within the broader inquiry of the changing nature of nation-states and its impact on the politics and identity of diaspora communities. Topics covered include: the origins of the post-revolution exile enclave of the 1960s; the evolution of the Cuban community over the 1960s; the pluralization of exile politics in the 1970s, particularly regarding the relationship with the island; the emergence of Cuban-American political action committees in the 1980s; post-Cold War developments; and the transition of Miami by the coming of age of a second generation of Cuban-Americans and the arrival of a new wave of exiles. Interspersed with vignettes from the author's own experiences and political activism, In the Land of Mirrors explores the meanings and ramifications of exile, of belonging, and of seeing the self in the other. It will appeal to political scientists, Latin Americanists, and those studying the politics of exile. María de los Angeles Torres was born in Cuba and came to the United States as a young child. She is Associate Professor of Political Science, DePaul University.

This book is a collection of more than thirty essays by renowned scholars, historians, journalists, and media professionals that portray the experience of Cubans exiled in the United States and other countries in the last sixty years.