Iris M. Diaz's Books

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Memoirs of a Cuban Childhood

By: Iris M. Diaz

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Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Memoirs of a Cuban Childhood

By: Iris M. Diaz

Cuba: Another Side of the Story is a memoir of how life changed for many children growing up in a country slowly dying under constant political conflict. The story is told in three parts: Part I “Before Castro,” Part II “Life under Castro,” Part III “Life in Exile.” This book creates a vivid sense of time and place through childhood memories of pre- and post-Castro Cuba, from 1945 to 1967. The forty two stories, told through the voice of a child, highlight moments of injustice in the eyes of a young girl who does not understand why the world around her is so strange. Her nanny, a poor black woman, shaped her soul and showed her the other side of the story, the story of the poor who are voiceless in a world where only those who can afford to pay for elite private schools can get ahead in life. This nanny becomes the spiritual guide who enables a very sensitive young child to navigate in a confusing world. Every one of the 42 stories focuses on a moment where the child relives memories of what she witnessed growing up. The first story is dedicated to Nana, the person whose memory guides her to write her life story. The title of the stories clearly describe how Nana influenced the author and helped her see the other side of the story. “El Barrio” describes a neighborhood where the rich, middle class and the poor lived in close proximity, a reflection of what Cuban society was in the 1950’s-“Everyone lived under the same sun, moon and stars but our worlds were very different.” The chapter about “Sunday Mass” describes the well-dressed parishioners who every Sunday walked through the park next to the Church and ignored the beggars who held their arms out, palms up, hoping to get a nickel or dime. “I don’t think the beggars got any of the money the priests collected every Sunday because they came back every Sunday. I never understood why God didn’t take care of everybody the same way.” Religious conflict plus the rich versus poor struggles are present throughout the book. Castro started his revolution claiming he wanted to help the poor. In the end, everyone, including the poor, were deceived by a charismatic man who understood what the poor wanted to hear, a promise of equality for all. His communist doctrine doomed the possibility of ever achieving equality for all. During Sunday Mass the priests would often remind poor parishioners how much God loved the needy by quoting verses like, “Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God,” or “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Religion and poverty seem to be two themes that prevail throughout this book, expressed clearly by the voice of the author who puts into words her thoughts by writing, “I never understood why God didn’t take care of everybody the same way.” The stories “The Day the Old Cuba Died“ and “The Bay of Pigs Invasion” describe the days leading to the failed attempt by Cuban exiles to get rid of the Castro regime. All hope and dreams died. The only dream left was to find a way to leave the island. The chapter “Adios Cuba” is a vivid memory of what it means to become a political exile. “Exile is more than a change of address, it is a spiritual displacement.” This book is not a research study about Cuban maids, family, religion or politics; it is a story about a young child and the life of her nanny and maids who allowed her to enter their world, a world that many don’t dare to acknowledge.

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Page Count

260

Publisher

Xlibris Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

1450099912

ISBN 13

9781450099912

Colonialism and Culture

Hispanic Modernisms and the Social Imaginary

By: Iris M. Zavala

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Colonialism and Culture

Hispanic Modernisms and the Social Imaginary

By: Iris M. Zavala

Iris Zavala argues that Hispanic modernism is an emancipatory narrative of self-representation. Out of Cuba's struggles against Spanish and U.S. colonialism, modernism emerged among the Hispanic intelligentsia as an attempt to create a collective narrative rejecting colonial cultural patterns. Hispanic modernism crusaded for a cosmopolitanism opposed to colonialism. The work of JosÃ© MartÃ, RubÃ©n DarÃo, Valle-InclÃ¡n, Unamuno and JuliÃ¡n del Casal rejects a hegemonic idea of progress and the imposition of alien political and cultural practices. Through a poetics of negation, they generated a revolutionary social and artistic awakening that resulted in the unprecedented cultural achievments of Hispanic modernism.

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Page Count

264

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0253116481

ISBN 13

9780253116482

The Intellectual Roots of Independence

An Anthology of Puerto Rican Political Essays

By: Iris M. Zavala

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The Intellectual Roots of Independence

An Anthology of Puerto Rican Political Essays

By: Iris M. Zavala

In the late nineteenth century, American teachers descended on the Philippines, which had been newly purchased by the U.S. at the end of the Spanish-American War. Motivated by President McKinley’s project of “benevolent assimilation,” they established a school system that centered on English language and American literature to advance the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which was held up as justification for the U.S.’s civilizing mission and offered as a promise of moral uplift and political advancement. Meanwhile, on American soil, the field of American literature was just being developed and fundamentally, though invisibly, defined by this new, extraterritorial expansion. Drawing on a wealth of material, including historical records, governmental documents from the War Department and the Bureau of Insular Affairs, curriculum guides, memoirs of American teachers in the Philippines, and 19th century literature, Meg Wesling not only links empire with education, but also demonstrates that the rearticulation of American literary studies through the imperial occupation in the Philippines served to actually define and strengthen the field. Empire’s Proxy boldly argues that the practical and ideological work of colonial dominance figured into the emergence of the field of American literature, and that the consolidation of a canon of American literature was intertwined with the administrative and intellectual tasks of colonial management.

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Page Count

387

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

085345521X

ISBN 13

9780853455219

Stalemate

By: Iris Johansen

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Stalemate

By: Iris Johansen

The suspense begins with a phone call and leads forensic sculptor Eve Duncan onto the harrowing trail of a killer that even the most cold-blooded killers fear to face. No one leaves this game alive Her skill in identifying murder victims was worldrenowned, but Eve Duncan worked only for law enforcement and the families of innocent victims. The man on the other end of the phone was anything but law-abiding or innocent. She’d already turned down his offer twice, but the third time it comes with a grisly warning. Forced to accept, Eve will leave everything and everyone she loves to travel alone to the luxurious armed compound of one of the world’s most wanted criminals to identify a skull he’s recovered. She’s agreed to this devil’s bargain to save an innocent family, but also for a reason she can’t admit to the police, to the CIA, to anyone. For the man in the Colombian jungle promises Eve what she wants most of all—the key to solving the most painful mystery of her past.

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Page Count

354

Publisher

Bantam

Published Date

ISBN 10

0553903330

ISBN 13

9780553903331

Towards Supply Chain Risk Analytics

Fundamentals, Simulation, Optimization

By: Iris Heckmann

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Towards Supply Chain Risk Analytics

Fundamentals, Simulation, Optimization

By: Iris Heckmann

In this thesis, Iris Heckmann develops a profound conceptual basis of supply chain risk analytics. She transfers the newly defined concepts for the modelling and operationalization of supply chain risk within simulation and optimization approaches, in order to ease unexpected deviations and disruptions, which are subsumed under the notion of supply chain risk, increasingly aggravating the planning and optimization of supply chains.

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Page Count

419

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

3658148705

ISBN 13

9783658148706

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Memoirs of a Cuban Childhood

By: Iris M. Diaz

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Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Memoirs of a Cuban Childhood

By: Iris M. Diaz

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

260

Publisher

Xlibris Corporation

Published Date

ISBN 10

1450099912

ISBN 13

9781450099912

Book's by Iris M. Diaz

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Colonialism and Culture

Colonialism and Culture

The Intellectual Roots of Independence

The Intellectual Roots of Independence

Stalemate

Stalemate

Towards Supply Chain Risk Analytics

Towards Supply Chain Risk Analytics

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

Cuba: Another Side of the Story

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