Marc Frank - Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana

My clients and editors at Thomson Reuters, the Financial Times, and ABC News all deserve special acknowledgment for their support and improvement of my reporting over the years. Some of the quotations and phrasing in the text first appeared in articles published by all three clients, and I appreciate their authorization to include them. This book would not have been possible without the knowledge and guidance of my wife Marlene and her vast extended family and network of friends inside and outside of Cuba. Nor would I understand much about the always mysterious island if it were not for my dear friend and guide to all things Cuban, Eduardo Machin, my daughter Dhara, my stepdaughter Ivet, and all their acquaintances. I owe special thanks to Havana University's Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy for all the fine work they have produced over the years, on which I have always relied for guidance. Temas magazine, and its brilliant editor Rafael Hernndez, deserve credit for being way out in front of the curve and keeping their readers and the author thinking. Finally, I must mention the myriad Cuban friends and foreign experts, and my sources among Cubans, diplomats, and foreign businessmen, for their insights and encouragement over the years.

Journalist Marc Frank is currently based in Cuba, where he writes and consults for the Thomson Reuters News Agency, the Financial Times, and ABC News. Mr. Frank, who has covered the Caribbean island since 1984, is considered by many Cuba watchers around the worldin government, business, and academiato be the most informed English-language foreign correspondent working in Cuba today. Mr. Frank has won various Thomson Reuters awards, including Latin American and global best for general and political news and best scoop for Latin America in 2008 for his coverage as the island moved toward a more market-oriented economy. He has lived in and reported on Cuba during the best days of the Revolution, the fall of the Soviet bloc, the great depression of the 1990s, the stepping aside of Fidel Castro, and the reforms orchestrated by Ral Castro. Mr. Frank was born in Chicago in 1951, grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Rutgers University. His first book, Cuba Looks to the Year 2000, was published in 1993. Mr. Frank has written and consulted for numerous media and publications over the years, and his articles have appeared around the world in both English and Spanish.

Contemporary Cuba

EDITED BY JOHN M. KIRK

Afro-Cuban Voices: On Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba, by Pedro Prez-Sarduy and Jean Stubbs (2000)

Cuba, the United States, and the Helms-Burton Doctrine: International Reactions, by Joaqun Roy (2000)

Cuba Today and Tomorrow: Reinventing Socialism, by Max Azicri (2000)

Cuba's Foreign Relations in a Post-Soviet World, by H. Michael Erisman (2000)

Cuba's Sugar Industry, by Jos Alvarez and Lzaro Pea Castellanos (2001)

Culture and the Cuban Revolution: Conversations in Havana, by John M. Kirk and Leonardo Padura Fuentes (2001)

Looking at Cuba: Essays on Culture and Civil Society, by Rafael Hernndez, translated by Dick Cluster (2003)

Santera Healing: A Journey into the Afro-Cuban World of Divinities, Spirits, and Sorcery, by Johan Wedel (2004)

Cuba's Agricultural Sector, by Jos Alvarez (2004)

Cuban Socialism in a New Century: Adversity, Survival, and Renewal, edited by Max Azicri and Elsie Deal (2004)

Cuba, the United States, and the Post-Cold War World: The International Dimensions of the Washington-Havana Relationship, edited by Morris Morley and Chris McGillion (2005)

Redefining Cuban Foreign Policy: The Impact of the Special Period, edited by H. Michael Erisman and John M. Kirk (2006)

Gender and Democracy in Cuba, by Ilja A. Luciak (2007)

Ritual, Discourse, and Community in Cuban Santera: Speaking a Sacred World, by Kristina Wirtz (2007)

The New Man in Cuba: Culture and Identity in the Revolution, by Ana Serra (2007)

U.S.-Cuban Cooperation Past, Present, and Future, by Melanie M. Ziegler (2007)

Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, by Theron Corse (2007)

The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society, edited by Alexander I. Gray and Antoni Kapcia (2008)

Cuba in the Shadow of Change: Daily Life in the Twilight of the Revolution, by Amelia Rosenberg Weinreb (2009)

Failed Sanctions: Why the U.S. Embargo against Cuba Could Never Work, by Paolo Spadoni (2010)

Sustainable Urban Agriculture in Cuba, by Sinan Koont (2011)

Fifty Years of Revolution: Perspectives on Cuba, the United States, and the World, edited by Soraya M. Castro Mario and Ronald W. Pruessen (2012)

Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy, edited by Al Campbell (2013)

Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana, by Marc Frank (2013)

Cuba in a Global Context: International Relations, Internationalism, and Transnationalism, edited by Catherine Krull (2014)