A Journey into the Heart of Cuban Sports
In an artful pastiche of observation, personal narrative, interviews and investigation of Olympic and world champion boxers, track stars and volleyball and baseball players, this book examines sports and athletes in today's Cuba. It also reveals that, with Fidel Castro's revolution staggering beneath the weight of a great depression, Cuba's famed sports machine is imploding.
Athletes are defecting by plane and raft. Superstars bike to their games. And some Cuban sports legends are losing themselves in a bottle of rum. More than just an examination of sports in the hothouse of a revolution, this book presents a vibrant and realistic portrait of Cuba today, complete with tourists, blackouts, Castro's famous former lover, and Charles Hill, a Black Power fugitive wanted for more than 30 years in the United States for murder and hijacking.
At once a biting travelogue and a meditation on sports in both America and Cuba, this insightful portrait is a valuable document about a time and place that is close to fading away.
