Unit 2: Cuba: The Reality Tour
Focus: Cuba during the 1990’s Special Period of economic crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Perspective: American cartoonist, Bill Griffith
Teacher Instructions
Student Activities
Cuba Lesson 2 Student Activities (English)
Activity 1 Cuba: The Reality Tour
Activity 2 The Special Period of Cuban History
Cuba Lesson 2 Student Activities (Spanish)
Supplements to Activities
Cuba: The Reality Tour (cartoon for Activity 1 (English) and and Actividad 4 (Spanish))
Reading on the Special Period (reading for Activity 2)
Cuba Uncovered: Zippy Goes to Cuba (cartoon for Activity 3)
Silvío Rodriguez sings of the Special Period
Silvío Rodríguez, Singer and Author: The History, Culture, and Legacy of the People of Cuba
Extra Resources
“Life in the Special Period” from NACLA
Cuba’s Special Period
An excerpt from “Cuba: Between Reform & Revolution” by Louis A. Pérez, Jr.
Chapter 12 – Socialist Cuba
Section XII – Pages 381-387
Find it at Oxford University Press
Cuban Women in the Special Period **dead link**
Cuba’s “Special Period” Remembered by Irina Pino from Havanna Times
Videos
The Godfather – Godfather Partners in Cuba
Use with page 5 of Cuba: The Reality Tour cartoon
Cuba during the “Special Period” – El Periodo Especial
Filmed by camcorder in Cuba by Lutz Mommartz – Presented here for educational purposes. Views of Cuba and television broadcast of Castro Speech. Spanish (53 min)
Cuba past and present: The Special Period (3:36) from CGTN America
The Cuban economy went into free fall, and there was widespread hunger. Despite a tightening of the trade embargo by the United States, Cuba pulled through
Cuba’s ‘Special Period’ from BBC: Witness History
In the 1990s the Cuban economy came close to collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union. The end of the millions of dollars in Soviet aid meant power cuts and severe food shortages on the Caribbean island. Some of the first private businesses started up under communism. We hear from Juan Carlos Montes, who opened a small restaurant at home to make ends meet, but was arrested by the communist authorities. Spanish/English subtitles (4:00)
This filmmaker followed 45 years of change in Cuban life from PBS News Hour
In 1972, intrigued by the promises of communism, then-24-year-old Jon Alpert sailed illegally to Cuba. For the next 45 years, the New York City filmmaker made regular trips to the island, documenting post-revolution Cuba through the daily lives of three families. The NewsHour Weekend’s Christopher Booker spoke to Alpert, whose work will appear in the Netflix documentary, “Cuba and the Cameraman.”
Official trailer from NBC News Latino