Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Living Ideology in Cuba
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://politicalscience.sfsu.edu/people/25297/katherine-gordy * https://politicalscience.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/people/cv/KGordyCVsummer16.pdf * https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~kgordy/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2014070644
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Gordy, Katherine A.
Found in: Living ideology in Cuba, 2015: ECIP t.p. (Katherine A.
Gordy)
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Born in New York, NY.
EDUCATION:State University of New York at Albany, B.A., 1993; Cornell University, M.A., 2001, Ph.D., 2005.
ADDRESS
CAREER
City College of New York, adjunct assistant professor, 2005-06; New School, adjunct assistant professor, 2005-06; Franklin & Marshall College, visiting assistant professor, 2006-08; San Francisco State University, associate professor of political science, 2014—.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Comparative Political Theory in Time and Place, edited by Daniel Kapust and Helen Kinsala, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, and Interpretation in Political Theory, edited by Clem Fatovic and Sean Walsh, Routledge, 2016.
Contributor to journals, including Postcolonial Studies, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, and Public Culture.
SIDELIGHTS
Political theorist Katherine A. Gordy was born in New York City. She is associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University. Her research and teaching interests include comparative political theory (Latin American and Caribbean), critical theory, and theories of history and ideology. She has taught at several schools, including Franklin and Marshall College, the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School, and the Center for Worker Education, City College of New York. Gordy holds a bachelor’s degree from State University of New York at Albany and a master’s and doctorate from Cornell University.
In 2015 Gordy published Living Ideology in Cuba: Socialism in Principle. Despite official state propaganda and slogans, the people of Cuba have found ways to communicate their ideology of socialism. Gordy visited Cuba several times between 1996 and 2011 to collect ethnographic information on the country relating to political doctrine as the official state position, political theory in academic circles, and daily practice by the populace. The living ideology of Gordy’s title refers to the language and expression of essential principles used by the people in Cuba to communicate. These principles include fundamental principles of socioeconomic equality, unified leadership, and inclusive nationalism. According to R.E. Hartwig, writing in Choice, “The novelty of Gordy’s approach lies in taking everyday speech seriously as an expression of ideology.”
Rather than a threat, critical thought and critical contestation are central features of Cuban socialism, explains Gordy. Living ideology is a decentralized phenomenon that is always adapting, informing, and responding to daily life, but always with its eye on national principals. Gordy studies how the nineteenth century wars of independence and the 1959 revolution were used to challenge but also legitimize Cuban socialism. She then moves on to the socialist ideology of the 1960s, state policies of the 1970s that were more accommodating of market imperatives, and the 1990s when Cubans pushed back against further economic reforms, reasserting the value of socioeconomic equality. She also addresses Fidel Castro’s “Words to the Intellectuals” speech demanding a separation of academia and the state.
“This book represents an important contribution for studies on ideology,” according to Revista de Historia Iberoamericana Web site contributor Juan Carlos Medel of the University of California, Davis. Medel added that Gordy “develops an excellent analysis of ideology and the production of subjects and subjectivities. Her book challenges traditional negative approaches to study the concept of ideology, offering a more positive interpretation of the concept.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, April, 2016, R.E. Hartwig, review of Living Ideology in Cuba: Socialism in Principle and Practice, p. 1232.
ONLINE
Revista de Historia Iberoamericana Online, https://revistahistoria.universia.net/ (April 27, 2017), Juan Carlos Medel, review of Living Ideology in Cuba.
San Francisco State University Web site, https://politicalscience.sfsu.edu/ (April 27, 2017), author faculty profile.
Katherine Gordy
Associate Professor, Graduate Coordinator
E-mail: kgordy@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-7528
Office: Humanities (HUM) 551
Office Hours:
Tuesdays 12:00PM-1:00PM
Thursdays 11:30AM-1:30PM
By appointment
Katherine A. Gordy teaches courses in political theory and Latin American Studies. Her specific research and teaching interests are comparative political theory (Latin American and Caribbean political thought primarily), critical theory, and theories of history and ideology. Her book Living Ideology in Cuba: Socialism in Principle and Practice (Michigan, 2015) attributes the survival of Cuban socialist ideology to the existence of principles that are shared and negotiated in the state, academic, and popular spheres of Cuban society even when tested by hardship and shortcomings. Her peer-reviewed articles on Cuba, ideology and Latin American political thought have appeared in the journals Postcolonial Studies, Public Culture, and Alternatives. She has also contributed to the edited volumes How not to be Governed: Readings and Interpretations from a Critical Anarchist Left (Lexington, 2011), Interpretation in Political Theory (Routledge, forthcoming 2016), and Comparative Political Theory in Time and Place (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2016). Gordy received her Ph.D. from Cornell University’s Department of Government in 2005. Before coming to SFSU, she taught at Franklin and Marshall College, the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School and the Center for Worker Education, City College of New York. She was born and raised in New York City.
K
ATHERINE
A.
G
ORDY
Department of Political Science
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave,
HUM 304
San Francisco, CA 94132
Office Phone: 415 338 7528
Mobile: 718 213 2811
E
-
mail: kgordy@sfsu.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D.
Cornell Univers
ity
, Department of Go
vernment, Ithaca, New York,
2005
Dissertation:
“Between Guiding Light and Blinding Dogma: Navigating the Principles of Cuban
Socialism.”
Committee:
Susan Buck
-
Morss, Isaac Kramnick, Maria Cristina Garcia
M
.
A
.
Cor
nell University
, Department of Government, 2001
B.A.
State University of New York at Albany
,
Magna Cum Laude
,
Honors in
Political Science,
1993
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Modern and
Contemporary Political Thought
Theorie
s of Ideology and Histo
ry
Critical Theory
Comparative Political Theory
Latin American a
nd Caribbean Political Thought
Theories
of Political Economy
Cuban S
tudies
Postcolonial Theory
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
San Francis
co State University
Associate Professor, D
epartment of Political Science,
2014
-
present
Graduate Coordinator,
Department of Political Science, 2016
-
present
Sabbatical, Fall 2015/Spring 2016
Presidential Leave Award (sabbatical), Spring 2011
Assistant Pr
ofessor, Department of Political Science,
2008
-
2014
Franklin & Marshall College
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Government
,
2006
-
2008
The New School
Adjunct Assistant Professor
,
Graduate Prog
ram in International Affairs,
2005
-
2006
The City
College of New York
Adjunct Assistant Professor
,
The Center for Worker Education
, 2005
-
2006
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PUBLICATIONS
Book
Living Ideology
in Cub
a: Socialism in
Principle
and Practice
. Ann Arbor:
University of
Michigan Press, 20
15
.
Reviewed by Juan Carlos Medel,
Revista
de Historia IberoAmerica
na
, Vol. 9, no. 1: 132
-
133.
Journal
Articles
“No Better Way to be Latin American?
:
European Science a
nd
Thought, Latin American Theory.
Postcolonial
Studies
16:4
(
December 2013
).
Katherine
A.
Gordy
Curriculum Vitae
2
of
6
“Ro
gue Specters: Cuba and North Korea at the Limits of U.S. Hegemony.”
Co
-
author
Jee Sun
E.
Lee.
Alternatives
: Global, Local, Political
34:3 (Fall 2009).
“’Sales + Economy +
Efficiency = Revolution’?: Dollarization, Consumer Capitalism and Popular
Responses in Special Period Cuba.”
Public Culture
18:2 (Spring 2006).
Book Chapters
and Encyclopedia Entries
“
Strategic Deployments: The Universal/Local Nexus in the Work of Jos
é Carlos Mariátegui
,” in
Daniel
Kapust and Helen Kinsala (eds.),
Comparative
Political Theory in Time and Place
. Palgrave Macmillan,
forthcoming 2016.
“Marxist Interpretations of Political Theory: Locating a Tradition,” in
Clem Fatovic and Sean Walsh
(ed
s.)
Interpretation in Political Theory
.
Routledge,
forthcoming 2016
.
“Counter
-
publics,”
The
Encyclopedia of Political Thought
, Michael T. Gibbons (ed.), Blackwell, 2014.
“
Beside the State: Anarchist Strains in Cuban Revolutionary Thought
,” in
James Mar
tel and Jimmy Casas
Klausen (eds
.
)
How Not to B
e Governed: Reading
s
and Interpretations from a
Critical Anarchist Left
.
New York:
Lexington Press, 2011.
Book
and Documentary
Reviews
Review of
We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Bolivarian Rev
olution
by George Cic
c
ariello
-
Maher. In
Contemporary Political Theory
14 (2015).
Review of
Maestra
,
directed by Catherine Murphy. In
The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter
-
American Cultural History
72:1 (January 2015)
Review of
The Cuban Revolution a
s Socialist Human Development
by Henry Veltmeyer and Mark Rushton. In
Contemporary Sociology
44:2 (March 2015)
.
Review of
Gender and Democracy in Cuba
by
Ilja A. Luciak
.
In
The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter
-
American
Cultural History
65:3 (Januar
y 2009)
.
Review
of
Bloqueo: Looking at the U.S.
Embargo Against Cuba
,
directed by Heather Haddon and
Rachel Dannefer. In
The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter
-
American Cultural History
64:2 (October 2007).
Works Under Review or
in
Progress
Empiric
al Imaginaries:
Situated Political Theory in Latin America
.
Book Manuscript
“
Situated Political Theory in Latin America and the Caribbean,” in
Leigh Jenco, Megan Thomas and Mudrad
Idris
(eds.),
T
he
Oxford Handbook in
Comparative Political
Theory
. Oxford,
Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
“Empirical Imaginaries
and Indigenous Socialism
,”
in progress.
“To Work for Oneself: State Employment in Contemporary Cuba,”
in progress.
“Civil Society or the Corporate State?
: Using Cuba for Analytic Clarity.
” co
-
authored with Marina Gold
,
under preparation for
American
Ethnologist
.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
CONFERENCES
2016:
“
Models, Myths and Revolutionary Movements
,” Caribbean Philosophical Ass
ociation (CPA) annual
meeting, Storrs, CT.
Katherine
A.
Gordy
Curriculum Vitae
3
of
6
“
The Empirical Imaginary and Indigenous Socialism,”
Western Political Science Association
(WPSA), San Diego, CA
Author respondent, Roundtable:
Living Ideology in Cuba: Socialism in Principle and Practice
by Ka
therine
A. Gordy, Author Meets Critics, WPSA, San Diego, CA
“To Work for Oneself: State Emp
loyment in Contemporary Cuba,”
La Perruque
: de Certeau and
Contemporary Practices of Resistance,
University of San Francisco
,
San Francisco,
CA
2015:
“
Empirical
Imaginaries
in Postcolonial Political Theory
,” CPA
annual meeting, Riviera Maya, Mexico
2014:
“Neither Local
nor Universal: José
Carlos Mariá
tegui and the Task of Theory,” Diverse Lineages of
Existentialism: Africana, Feminist and Continental Philosophy,
St. Louis, MO
“Marxist Interpretations of Political Theory: Locating a Tradition
,”
WPSA
, Seattle, WA
Participant
,
Roundtable:
We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Bolivarian Revolution
by
George
Ciccariello
-
Maher
, Author Meets Critics, WPSA,
Seattle, WA
2013:
“
Situated Political Theory: Method i
n the Political Thought of Mariá
tegui and Sarmiento
,” American
Political Science (APSA) annual meeting, Chicago
, IL
“A Method of Theorizing in the Work of Sarmiento and Mariátegui,” presented at:
•
Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress, Washington DC
•
Western Political Science Association (WPSA), Hollywood, CA
2012:
“No Better Way to be Latin American? European Science and Thought, Latin American Theory?”
Association for Political Theor
y (APT) annual conference, Columbia, South Carolina
2011:
“
Between Hegemony and Ideology: Anarchism with a Small
“
A
”
in Cuba
,” WPSA
, San Antonio
“
Beside the State: Anarchist Strains in Cuban Revolutionary Thought
,” Cuba Futures: Past and
Present,
Bildne
r Center,
the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
Discussant, “Critical Practices After Marx,” WPSA, San Antonio
2010:
“
Gramsci and Mariátegui: Breaking Down the Theory and Experience Organizational Divide
,”
WPSA,
San Francisco
Chair,
“
Neoliberalism and Biopolitics
,
”
WPSA, San Francisco
2009:
“
Bring it on Home: Cuban Doctors and Being Abroad
,”
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“Justifying Economic Policy: Cuban Press Accounts of the
SDPE,” “Measure of a Revolution”
Conference, Queens University, Kingston, ON.
“
Latin American Political Thought and the Dilemmas of a Comparative Approach
,”
presented at:
•
WPSA, Vancouver (Panel Organizer)
•
Cultures of Democracy in the Americas Conference
, UC Irvine
(invited)
Discussant, “
Concepts and Contexts: Putting Political Ideas Back in Political Contexts
,” WPSA,
Vancouver
2008:
“The Problem of Ideology in U.S. Political Discourse and its Reflection in Political Science,”
WPSA
,
San Diego
Katherine
A.
Gordy
Curriculum Vitae
6
of
6
Co
nference Organizer,
Guantanamo Bay
Naval Base
Symposium, SFSU, Fall ‘09
Community
Conference Panel Organizer/Chair:
Organizer, ”
Theorizing Founding, Freedom and New Orders From Liberatory Praxis
,” CPA, Spring
‘16
Chair, “
Theme Panel: Political Transfor
mation and Reason
-
giving in Non
-
Western Discourses
,” APSA,
Chicago, Fall ‘13
Organizer, “The Theoretical in Latin American and Caribbean Political Thought,” LASA, Washington
DC, Spring ‘13
Chair, “
Neoliberalism and Biopolitics
,” WPSA, San Francisco, Spring
‘10
Organizer and Chair, “The Practice of Comparison in Political Theory,” WPSA, Vancouver, Spring ‘09
Chair and
Discussant, “Concepts and Contexts: Putting Ideas Back in Political Contexts,” WPSA, Vancouver,
Spring ‘09
Organizer, “Movement of the People:
Labor Mobility, Neo
-
liberalism and Counter
-
Logics,” LASA, Rio
de Janeiro, Spring ‘09
Peer Reviewing
:
Journals:
Cultural Anthropology
Social Justice
Politics, Groups and Identities
A Contracorriente
New Political Science
Presses
:
Palgrave Macmillan Pr
ess
Professional Membership:
American Politi
cal Science Association (APSA)
Western Political Science Association (WPSA)
Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA)
Association for Political Theory (APT)
Latin American Studies
Association (LASA)
____________
_________________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES
Dr. Susan
Buck
-
Morss
Department of Government
Cornell University
sbm5@cornell.edu
Dr.
Raúl Fernández
School of Social Science
University of California,
Irvine
raferna
n@uci.edu
Dr. Maria Cristina García
,
Department of History
Cornell University
mcg20@cornell.edu
Dr. James Martel
Department of Political Science
San Francisco State University
jmartel@sfsu.edu
Dr. Keally McBride
Politics
Depa
rtment
Univer
sity of
San Francisco
kdmcbride@usfca.edu
Katherine A. Gordy is Associate Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University.
Living Ideology in Cuba
Socialism in Principle and Practice
Katherine A. Gordy
A revealing look at the complicated and continual negotiation between the Cuban state and society over the meaning of socialism
Description
Look Inside
Description
In Living Ideology in Cuba, Katherine Gordy demonstrates how the Cuban state and its people engage in an ongoing negotiation that produces a “living ideology.” In contrast to official slogans and fiats, Cuba’s living ideology is a decentralized phenomenon, continually adapting, informing, and responding to daily life, without losing sight of the fundamental national principles of socioeconomic equality, unified leadership, and inclusive nationalism.
Tracing Cuba’s ideological history, Gordy first looks at the ways in which the 19th century wars of independence and the 1959 revolution were used as the basis for both challenging and legitimizing Cuban socialism. Following the embrace of a pure socialist ideology in the 1960s, state policies of the 1970s became more accommodating of market imperatives, while still holding on to the principles articulated by Che Guevara and Karl Marx. In the 1990s, the Cuban people themselves pushed back against further economic reforms, reasserting the value of socioeconomic equality. Gordy also examines ideological debates among intellectuals, from the controversy sparked by Fidel Castro’s “Words to the Intellectuals” speech to the demand in the 1990s for a separation between academia and the state—not to safeguard academia from politics, but to ensure that academics as such could contribute to the political dialogue.
Gordy, Katherine A.: Living ideology in Cuba: socialism in principle and practice
R.E. Hartwig
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1232.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Gordy, Katherine A. Living ideology in Cuba: socialism in principle and practice. Michigan, 2015. 284p bibl index afp ISBN 9780472072613 cloth, $80.00; ISBN 9780472052615 pbk, $40.00
53-3695
HX158
2014-44830 CIP
Gordy (San Francisco State Univ.), a political theorist, began this extensively documented book as a dissertation in the Department of Government of Cornell University. In extended visits to Cuba between 1996 and 2011, Gordy collected ethnographic information on three spheres of political thought: political doctrine (the official sphere), political theory (the academic sphere), and daily practice (the popular sphere). What she calls living ideology is essentially the language people in Cuba used to communicate and negotiate within the boundaries of the revolution. Gordy traces the origins of this language and ways the expression of component principles, such as socioeconomic equality, inclusive nationalism, and political unity, has changed over time. The novelty of Gordy's approach lies in taking everyday speech seriously as an expression of ideology. The methodology involves a "dialectical approach whereby initial theories and frameworks are constantly modified in the light of the ways that Cuban socialism is articulated and practiced." This is not an easy book, but serious students of Cuba and of comparative ideology will find it rewarding. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--R. E. Hartwig, Texas A&M University--Kingsville
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hartwig, R.E. "Gordy, Katherine A.: Living ideology in Cuba: socialism in principle and practice." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1232. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661826&it=r&asid=e7f4cc8c001b3ee3cdedd83d6abaadd6. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661826
http://revistahistoria.universia.net
132
132
RESEÑA
Juan Carlos Medel
University of
California, Davis, CA,
United States
jmedeltoro@ucdavis.
edu
Living Ideology in Cuba. Socialism in Principle and
Practice.
Katherine A. Gordy
This book represents an important contribution for studies on ideology.
Katherine Gordy, professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University,
develops an excellent analysis of ideology and the production of subjects and
subjectivities. Her book challenges traditional negative approaches to study
the concept of ideology, offering a more positive interpretation of the concept.
Her main argument is that critical thought and critical contestation are central
features of Cuban socialism, rather than a threat to it. In this way, against the
official anti-Cuban idea of “lack of debate” in the Revolution, Gordy shows how
open and intense have been the political debates in Cuba in the last decades.
In the first chapter, the author studies the ideological links between
the independence at the end of nineteenth century and the Revolution that
started in 1959 in Cuba. In this way, she analyzes the links between nationalism
and socialism within the narrative of the Cuban Revolution. In the second
chapter, Gordy addresses the relationship between culture and Revolution in
Cuba, analyzing the nature of political thought and its different contexts during
the Revolution. Specifically, she addresses the famous speech “Words to
Intellectuals” by Fidel Castro in the first years of the Revolution. Against the
traditional narrative that stresses that this speech marked the end of political
debate in the young Cuban Revolution, she convincingly argues that this speech
actually opened the debate about culture and the role of intellectuals in the
Revolution. According to her, this speech invigorated the political debate about
the meanings of Cuban socialism in the island.
In chapter three, the author addresses the economic ideas of Ernesto
Che Guevara. Using the debate about the choice between (Soviet) economic
calculus and (Guevara) budgetary system to build a socialist economy that the
Cuban state confronted during the 60s, Gordy analyzes the
socialist principles
of the Cuban Revolution. Gordy points out that, according to Guevara, the
differences between the Soviet alternative and his budgetary system were
not in the means but in the ends. Thus, Gordy shows how the traditional and
apparent dichotomy between idealism (Guevara) and pragmatism (Soviet) is
DOI
10.3232/RHI.2016.
V9.N1.08
Viviendo la ideología en Cuba. Socialismo en principios y práctica
Vivendo a ideologia em Cuba. Socialismo em princípios e prática
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2015, 284 páginas,
ISBN: 978-0472072613
133
HIb. REVISTA DE HISTORIA IBEROAMERICANA | ISSN: 1989-2616 | Semestral | Año 2016 | Vol. 9 | Núm. 1
a good example, and a fundamental part, of the negative narrative about socialist ideology in
Cuba. Gordy demonstrates how there was not a dichotomy at all. As a matter of fact, Guevara’s
budgetary system was sometimes even more pragmatic than economic calculus. Therefore,
Gordy highlights the socialist principles, like Guevara’s moral incentives for example, that explain
the resilience of the Cuban Revolution. In addition, analyzing the economic ideas of Che Guevara
and their role in socialist ideology, Gordy examines the dynamic of ideological production and
ideological negotiations between the Cuban state and different intellectual institutions in Cuba.
According to her, ideological negotiations make political actors, like the press or the academic
world for instance, no less accountable for the way they choose to navigate a particular ideology.
Following this dynamic, Gordy addresses the tensions between academic neutrality and
the calls for national unity in the island. In chapter four, the author studies some events during the
90s when intellectuals of the Centro de Estudios sobre América (CEA) in Cuba confronted the
censorship of the Cuban state. During the Special Period a group of sociologists and economists,
defending the principles of the Cuban Revolution, criticized the Communist Party and the
government. After describing these events, she examines the tensions and the differences
between
intellectuals
and
functionaries
in the island. In this way, the author analyzes the dynamic
between academic work and political discourse, highlighting that academic production in Cuba
goes beyond any kind of political discourse and cannot be reduced to propaganda.
Thereby, using different events as examples in chapter five, Gordy offers an interpretation
of socialism as a “living ideology, where different subjects challenged the state’s monopoly on
socialist ideology”. In other words, socialist ideology produced new subjects and new subjectivities
that, at the same time, developed their own idea of socialism beyond, and sometimes against, the
Cuban state. As happened with these new subjects, Gordy’s own concept of ideology represents
a different and more powerful understanding of ideology’s meaning. She examines how the state
tended to
fetishize
ideology in Cuba and elsewhere. According to her, the leadership treated
ideology as distinct from practice. Popular articulations of ideology, however, saw socialism as
something contingent and sometimes even contradictory to the state’s interpretation; as something
lived and living.
In this way, contradictions in daily life in Cuba, contradictions between principles and
practice, are the core of Gordy’s investigation. She exposes the contradictions between official
rhetoric coming from the state and the daily life of Cuban people. Using Walter Benjamin to read
dialectical images
(photographies, slogans, songs) Gordy offers another view of ideology. In her
book, Cuban socialist ideology no longer appears monolithic. Therefore, Gordy’s important work
gives us “an alternative way to criticize the Cuban state”. She points out that the greater threat
to socialism is not dissidence, but the absence of discussion. Also, she offers a more positive
meaning of ideology. According to her, “it is ideology that enables us to make political judgments.
Moreover, it facilitates not just judgment but action.” Finally, her book is an excellent and necessary
example of the urgency of “understanding Cuban society as diverse and multifaceted, both in
spite of and because of, its socialist legacy.